University students’ awareness of media education concepts and its relationship to the level of self-censorship on the content presented in traditional and new media: A field study

Social Cognitive Theory gives attention to some of the major cognitive factors, such as beliefs, self-perceptions, and expectations in determining the behavior of individuals, and also media education and the level of self-censorship on the content presented by traditional and new media. Using the survey and comparative methodologies, questionnaire tools, a scale for media education concepts and a scale for self-censorship, on a sample of (398) students from Minya University, the most important results were as follows: The media is the most followed up in the sample, followed by electronic newspapers, and that about two-thirds of the sample members have heard about the concept of media education, and more than half of the sample members know the concept of media education. In addition, the media do not adhere to a large percentage of the concepts of media education, and the largest proportion of the sample believes that the level of knowledge of media education concepts affects the level of censorship when exposed to the media. While it was found that the largest number of the sample had a low level of control, followed by the high level of control, then the medium level of control. The results also indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between the sample's level of knowledge of media education concepts and the level of self-censorship on the content presented in the media at the level of significance.