Correlation Between Film Criticism, Social Issues and Student Audience Reception

The aim and purpose of this paper, focused on media and information literacy, is to define today’s role and need for criticism, establish the correlation between film criticism, social issues in films, and student audience reception, and define how books and university lectures affect this process. We consulted the works of renowned researchers in these fields. We established a research model using Croatia as a case study, with three in-depth interviews with university professors, and a questionnaire answered by 338 students of social sciences and humanities in six universities, in order to understand how students’ media literacy is influenced by film reviews, books and lectures. We found out how often they read film reviews and where, and the way the reviews, social issues and film courses affect their decision to watch a film and their opinions about it. We also determined which books influenced their film choices and reception.