The development of a conceptual framework of social media literacy

Social media have become increasingly popular because of the combination of both technological developments and social change. However, there are manifest differences in the ways people use social media as well as in the level of their competence. Differences in the skills to master technology and in the use of social media may result in new types of digital inequality. In order to overcome these inequalities, an extensive body of initiatives must deal with enhancing people’s level of social media literacy. Unfortunately, due to difficulties in adequately measuring media literacy, the effectiveness of these efforts has not yet been fully determined. Hence, the main objective of our research is measuring social media literacy. In order to do so we first need to be able to accurately define social media literacy and understand how it can be conceptualized. Based on an extensive literature review, this paper presents a conceptual framework for social media literacy and discusses its main building blocks. The proposed conceptual model posits that an accurate understanding of social media literacy requires more insight into people’s access to social media applications, knowledge, skills, self-efficacy, attitudes and actual media use.