The impact of media literacy on children's learning from films and hypermedia

•We examined the role of media literacy in preschool children's learning from media.•Children acquired knowledge while watching an educational film.•Children acquired knowledge while exploring a hypermedia environment.•Children's media literacy was a significant predictor for knowledge acquisition.•Media literacy explained more variance in knowledge acquisition than intelligence.

Within the extensive literature on the role of educational media in children's learning and the factors influencing that learning, the possible impact of media literacy remains unexamined. The present study examines the influence of media literacy on learning from television and hypermedia environments. In a sample of 150 children with a mean age of 5.33, a computer-based test was used to assess media literacy, and recognition and inference questions were used to measure learning. The influence of intelligence, media usage, and socioeconomic status as independent variables was also assessed. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that media literacy was a significant predictor of learning from media, even when controlling for other relevant factors such as intelligence.