Resumen

ZEBALLOS CLAVIJO, René J.. The media capacities and competencies in Bolivia: A look at the young people from the La Paz city. J. Com. Soc. [online]. 2017, vol.5, n.5, pp. 6-82. ISSN 2412-5733.

This is probably the first research from the media competence approach in Bolivia. Its purpose is to evaluate the degree of media competence of young people from the city of La Paz, regarding the traditional and digital mass audiovisual media. To this effect, first-year undergraduate students from the universities of the city are investigated through a survey. The central theoretical framework included corresponds to Pérez-Tornero and Varis (2012), who propose three dimensions for media competence: "access and use", "critical comprehension", and "communication and creativity". At the initiative of the author of the research, others were added: wisdoms around the local media context, knowledge of technological progresses, the appreciation of education and media competence, and the human sense of media. The main results reveal that only 25.1% have an adequate capacity for access and use of these media; 37.1% critically comprehend them; and 26.3% use them for open communication. Concerning the other dimensions, only 21.8% know the features of the media context and 74.4% point out that work must be done on education and media competence. Globally, the level of media competence of young people is 31.73%, "unfavorable" within the categories incorporated in the study.

Palabras llave : Media competence; media education; audiovisual media; assessment of students; mass media; information technology; information literacy; information society.