Transmedia literacy competences of Journalism students: production and editing of informative multimedia content

Abstract

The paper analyses the use of multimedia tools that young people use in order to communicate a journalistic product. The study focuses on the new digital platforms of journalistic content and examines the results of a research that explores the competences of "transmedia literacy" in Journalism students of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) over several courses. The text examines 28 multimedia reports presented by students through a quantitative and qualitative content analysis, and introduces the opinions of three focus groups with the authors of the projects. The study shows that the students confer a prominent role to the visual elements inside of their own reports. The analyzed works demonstrate, however, that the emotive components of the stories ignore aspects of transmedia journalism, and that among the students there is a terminological confusion about what a transmedia product is. The article identifies the prevalence of instrumental or technical literacy, linked to the inclusion of pictures and audio-visual content in their products, but not critical, both in the discourse and in the contents created by the students.