Media Literacy Level of Geography Teachers Regarding Geography Teaching

With the rapid development of technology, the ways of accessing information have become easier. One of the most important ways for individuals to access information is media. Due to the virtual and non-virtual media, the diversity of information that is shared with the public has increased and access to valid information has become easier. To eliminate the limitations that text books and supplementary source books create significantly when it comes to up-to-dated information, geography teachers should always follow the media elements such as news, magazines and etc. Briefly, a geography teacher who follows the media consciously is more equipped. In this study, in the light of the importance of media in geography teaching, media literacy level of geography teachers regarding geography teaching has been evaluated. In this study, to evaluate media literacy level of geography teachers, interview, which is a data collection method in qualitative research, has been used. 19 geography teachers working in the province of Samsun in spring term of 2016-2017 academic year were interviewed. Attention has paid to the variety of demographic features such as gender and seniority of interviewed teachers. To identify media literacy of geography teachers regarding geography teaching, the answers to the questions have been evaluated by the method of content analysis and frequencies regarding the situation have tried to be presented. According to the result of the study, 13 of the geography teachers buy at least one magazine related to geography teaching. The number of geography teachers who do not buy any magazines is also not minor and it is 6. The most popular magazines bought by geography teachers are; Atlas and National Geographic. The result for the number of teachers benefiting from various websites regarding geography teaching is similar to the number of magazine readers. 4 of the teachers interviewed stated that they do not benefit from websites related to their field. Documentaries are the media elements mostly followed both on TV and online by geography teachers. In addition, 13 of the 19 teachers interviewed benefit from newspapers regarding geography teaching due to various reasons. As a result, most of our geography teachers significantly benefit from media. However, the number of geography teachers using media and media types that are benefited should increase