Abstract:

Introduction:
Currently, the sharing of knowledge and skills are a factor for successful career development in the so-called “sharing economy”, based on renting, sharing, communication, cooperation, solidarity. And technology has been the biggest driver behind the sharing economy’s growth in facilitating this exchange. The culture of sharing is linked to successful communication in a learning or work environment, as well as to media literacy and working with media content distributed online. Digitization is generally seen as a positive force but there are also worries, and as a result critical thinking is becoming a key skill to identify untrusted sources and how to avoid reading them.
This paper discusses the relationship between the culture of media content sharing, the improvement of critical thinking about the value of media texts, and media content prosumation.

The goal:
For the purposes of the paper, an analysis has been prepared based on the results of a survey part of a project on the topic: “Model for research and increase copyright literacy at the media in the university environment”, conducted in May 2021 among students from eight Bulgarian universities in specialties related to journalism, media, communications. The questionnaire aims to establish the current level of indicating problems in the modern information society, namely higher education and media policies related to copyright and related rights, as well as media literacy as part of information literacy in the university environment, the attitude to fake news, propaganda, and protection from online dangers. The results of this study are used to improve copyright media literacy in a university environment.

The methodology for achieving the main objective of the study and solving the set research tasks include the following specific methods: content analysis, comparative analysis, and synthesis of the obtained information, relevant to the topic of the paper.

Conclusion:
Improving copyright literacy and critical thinking, as well as promoting a culture of sharing, remain priority activities both in the field of higher education and for the modern society. Acquiring new skills significantly improves the screening of fake and manipulative media content distributed online, from the real one.

Keywords:

Critical thinking, culture of sharing, media content, media literacy, copyright literacy, research.