Media literacy and consumption of media and advertising in university students of pedagogy in chile

The main aim of this work, based on the results of studies on the mediating role of the media, particularly television, and advertising in different age groups, together with the need to discuss the processes of audiovisual or media literacy, was to analyse the patterns of media consumption among students of Pedagogy in Language and Communication, Mathematics, and History and Geography at Chilean universities. The objective was also to determine whether there are differential profiles in the use and consumption of media related to the future role of these profiles in the audiovisual literacy of the students. To do this, a non-random sample was used comprising 881 Pedagogy students of both genders studying at seven universities in southern and central Chile. The «media consumption questionnaire» was used for data collection. In general, the distribution of preferences by gender and degree course falls short of representing idiosyncrasy in terms of the media, and reflects outside realities that do not permit participation in citizenry processes to be strengthened in media consumers. In short, the biggest problem is that future teachers do not seem to have the tools that allow them to manage the work of audiovisual literacy since they themselves have difficulties in differentiating between information and persuasion in advertising messages.