Abstract:

The media expanded its reach with the advent of information and communication technologies. Digitalization has increased the amount of information circulating in society and its ability to reach audiences. In Mexico, the heaviest consumers are young people between the ages of 18 and 24, who prefer social media; on average, they spend 5.7 hours a day on these platforms, consuming all kinds of content, including journalistic information, which is often treated superficially, unverified, or false.
Journalism is a key discipline in contemporary communication that collects, verifies, synthesizes, and publishes information relevant to human life. In addition to the dissemination of news, it is an ethical process that serves as society’s nervous system.
For this study, educommunication is considered the conceptual framework for media and information literacy (MIL), an educational process of reading and interpreting what circulates in the media from a critical perspective that analyzes, contrasts, and evaluates information.
Students, as they progress through higher education, need to stay informed about daily news and possess cognitive tools that allow them to identify global information trends in their fields of study and their social impact.

Objective:
To explore the pedagogical strategies that faculty members at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Cuajimalpa Campus (UAMC) in Mexico, use to incorporate journalism as an educommunicative tool into their courses, and to make recommendations regarding its implementation in academic discussions.

Methodology:
A qualitative and quantitative methodology was implemented to gather the opinions of UAMC faculty. Twenty-four interviews conducted across three academic divisions of the university were analyzed. These interviews focused on the media outlets faculty use to encourage students to discuss scientific advancements, the detection of biases, economic interests, and power structures behind the information relevant to their areas of expertise.

Results:
Among the main findings, it is noteworthy that 95.8% of the teachers interviewed consider journalism to be important in academic education. However, there are differences in how they incorporate it. 36% use it frequently, ranging from references to news stories to group activities; 6.1% consider it relevant to teaching their subject areas and refer to news stories; and 57.9% of teachers use it only as a reference to highlight specific information.
Teachers who view journalism as an educommunicative tool show an interest in the world of news and are creative in using it to design classroom activities.

Conclusions:
The faculty members interviewed from the three academic divisions of the UAMC served as the starting point for developing recommendations that incorporate AMI as an educommunicative approach that helps students:
(1) evaluate information related to their field of study as presented in the media;
(2) distinguish ideological biases associated with certain news sources; identify the context from which the information arises; and
(3) assess the presence or absence of ethics in the flow of information.

Keywords:

Teaching tool, journalism, academic training.