Educational audiences: Impact of the media environment on virtual education

Abstract

This work examines the direct impact on study habits and consequently on the academic results of students who have forcibly switched to virtual education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Changes that have been encouraged by the growing consumption of audiovisual content as a result of the permanent and exponential development of the media and social networks.

From educommunication, it analyzes six behavioral changes in students that are directly related to consumption mediated by digital interaction.

It is an interdisciplinary work, between the sciences of education and communication, which is carried out from the qualitative approach of documentary review of the concepts of audience, initially developed for the management of the media and social networks.

The work proposes the development of a new term that is defined as educational audience, which allows us to understand the characteristics of students in virtual education and consequently develop the pedagogical approach in this environment.

It proposes developing media literacy skills in teachers as a way to effectively connect with educational audiences, and highlights the relevance of training students and teachers in skills for their interaction with the media, and for the media.