Media Literacy and its Impact on COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance: A Study among College Students

Media literacy has gained recognition as one of the essential skills in today's digital age, with the World Health Organization and UNESCO acknowledging its significance. This interdisciplinary field encompasses the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, think critically, and create messages across various media forms. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the proliferation of vaccine-related disinformation on social media highlights the urgent need for media literacy skills. Individuals with limited media literacy are more susceptible to serious health risks. In this study, we aimed to assess the level of media literacy among 250 college students at Universitas Diponegoro from various faculties and explore its relationship with their willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Our findings suggest that media literacy plays a crucial role in enabling individuals to discern accurate information and make informed decisions regarding timely vaccination. The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design, and data analysis involved Pearson correlation, t-tests, and oneway analysis of variance. The results emphasize the importance of media literacy in combating disinformation and promoting public health, particularly among college students facing increased exposure to social media and its associated challenges.