Traditional media and social media, which could be defined as “media consumption worlds” (MCWs) influence everyday life and make up the symbolic infrastructure on which the values and relations of groups such as that of adolescents aged 10 to 15 years are built. These MCWs take the form of video games, audiovisual contents and derived products that exploit young people’s projection towards fictional universes and characters. Furthermore, as adolescents grow up, media consumption tends to become more individualised and transferred to the private domain of their own room, with their own devices. 

MCWs are ambivalent in nature: although they enable exploration of own identity, integration into a community, and forming part of a shared culture, often they are not designed for a child or teenage audience, which can encourage violence, hatred, disinformation, isolation, or self-harming behaviours. Due to the influence of MCWs on members of this group, it is necessary to reinforce their media literacy, i.e., their capacity to interpret media contents and detect any hidden intentions, with the aim of encouraging responsible consumption, including paying attention to reception and appropriation habits, in order to promote individual, collective and environmental well-being. Families, classmates, and teachers are key agents in this process.

This article examines teacher-student communication between teaching staff and their students; specifically, the way in which this communication influences the consumption of media contents among adolescents aged 10 to 15 years residing in Spain. To carry out this project, researchers contacted 309 schools distributed across ten of Spain’s autonomous communities: Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Extremadura, Galicia, and the Community of Madrid. In coordination with the Management and the Parents’ Association of each school, informed consent was obtained from the corresponding parents or legal guardians as well as from the adolescents participating. The aim was to conduct a nationwide survey (NoSUID). A total of 804 adolescents aged between 10 and 15 years were surveyed: 58.5% (n = 470) were at the early adolescence stage (10-12 years) and 41.5% (n = 334), at the intermediate adolescence stage (13-15 years).
 

When asked about their interaction with their teachers, 77% of those surveyed declared it to be satisfactory or quite satisfactory, and that they particularly value teachers talking to them about the importance of studying or learning, something that 70% of the adolescents affirmed occurs frequently or very frequently.

On examining the audiovisual consumption of the students in the light of the positive interaction they have with their teachers, two tendencies were observed. Firstly, many adolescents lean towards contents with a positive message, a tendency that can be observed by adding up frequent and very frequent consumption: nearly half (48.8%) watch programmes that promote support for others, while 35.3% prefer series or films with cultural or educational themes, and 33.5% choose contents that discuss the meaning of life. However, consumption of violent contents is also high: 41.5% frequently play video games with explicit scenes of violence; 35.2% watch violent action series or films, and 19.6% affirm that they watch news about violent deaths. 



On analysing the relationship between media consumption and the quality of communication with teachers, two clear patterns are identified. Firstly, students who consider that they have better communication with their teachers tend to consume more responsible media contents. Specifically, 10% watch, frequently or very frequently, programmes that promote social support; 7.3% consume contents that deal with the meaning of life, and another 7.3% prefer series with a cultural or educational focus. These figures are higher than those recorded among students who consider that they have worse communication with their teachers: 8.5%, 5.6%, and 5.6%, respectively. Secondly, the latter present a higher consumption of high-risk content. Specifically, 11.9% play video games with violent content more frequently, against 6.2% of those who affirm that they enjoy more positive communication. Similarly, 9.7% watch action films or series containing violence, and 6.2% acknowledge that they frequently watch scenes of violent deaths, in comparison with 4.6% and 3%, respectively, of those who affirm that they have better communication with their teachers. 

The study participants use social media mainly in a passive way: 64.2% limit themselves to consuming content and 51.8 % to clicking on “Like”. In contrast, active use is much less frequent: only 17% post photos of their lives and only 14.2% interact online with people that they do not know in person.

From the initial findings of the study, a clear tendency was identified: students who consider that they enjoy more positive communication with their teachers tend to consume prosocial media content more frequently. In contrast, those who experience less positive communication tend to consume violent contents to a greater extent. When their uses of social media are analysed specifically, a different picture is obtained. Statistically significant, frequent or very frequent consumption is concentrated within contexts with worse teacher-student communication. Among adolescents who affirm that they regularly consume content on social media, 15.7% do so in environments in which communication with their teachers is less positive, versus 9% of those who enjoy more positive communication. This difference is accentuated in certain high-risk behaviours. Among adolescents who report knowing people online whom they have never met in person (with whom they have established a bond), 6% come from contexts with less positive teacher-student communication, compared to only 1.9% of those who enjoy more positive communication with their teachers. A clear difference also exists in virtual social interaction with unknown people: this practice is four times more common among those who experience less positive communication with their teachers (6%), in comparison with those who consider that they enjoy more positive communication in the classroom (1.5%).

Responsible consumption of traditional media and social media contents is influenced by such factors as age, education level, or belonging to vulnerable groups. In the case of adolescents, in addition to family and social environments, schools can play a decisive role when it comes to encouraging a more critical and conscious relationship with media contents. This research indicates that the teacher figure is key. When a more positive teacher-student communication exists, students consume contents with a prosocial focus more frequently. In contrast, when the communication is less positive, greater consumption of violent contents is observed, as well as more high-risk practices on social media. From this perspective, the influence of teachers stretches beyond the classroom, given that they can provide emotional and cognitive tools that help to interpret what is viewed, read and shared. For this reason, they are indispensable actors in any media literacy strategy that aims to promote safer, more balanced and responsible media consumption in childhood and early adolescence.

Although this study offers significant findings on the relationship between teacher-student communication and media consumption in adolescence, it is important to take into account that it is based exclusively on data obtained through a survey. Like all quantitative tools, this focus enables general patterns to be observed, but does not always manage to capture the complexity of individual experiences. In this sense, the incorporation of qualitative methodologies in future phases of the project would enable in-depth study of some relevant nuances that have been observed in this analysis. Furthermore, it is important to highlight that, for the purposes of being able to narrate the findings in this article, neutral responses whose interpretation is difficult to determine have been disregarded, since they are perceptions that depend on other contextual factors. However, these data are available as a result of the research and will be explored in future publications.

This article contains part of the results of the project titled “The relationship between suicidal ideation and children in Spain and their consumption and exposure to traditional media and social media”, funded within the framework of the 2023 call to support research projects on childhood and vulnerability (FS23-1B) of the Social Observatory of the ”la Caixa” Foundation.
 

CHAMBERS, D. (2016): Changing Media, Homes and Households: Cultures, technologies and meanings, Routledge.

GARCÉS-PRETTEL, M.; Y. SANTOYA-MONTES; J. JIMÉNEZ-OSORIO (2020): “Influencia de la comunicación familiar y pedagógica en la violencia escolar”, Comunicar, 28(63), 77-86.
   
HAMIDEH HOSSEINI, S.; N. NOSRATY; S. TOMRAEE (2025): “Children, Healthy Lifestyle and Media Literacy”, Journal of Cyberspace Studies, 9(1), 1-23.  

ROTH-EBNER, C. (2024). “‘You just have to join in’ - A mixed-methods study on children’s media consumption worlds and parental mediation”, Communications, 49(1), 27-50.

BARREDO IBÁÑEZ, DANIEL; MERCHÁN, ANA; VEGA, SILVIA; ARROYAVE, JESÚS; CARO, LUCÍA; GARCÉS, MIGUEL, & SANTOYA, YANIN (2026). «Cybervictimization, suicidal ideation, and positive pedagogical communication: a survey with children in Spain», BMC Psychology. 
 
BARREDO IBÁÑEZ, DANIEL; CARO, LUCÍA; GARCÉS, MIGUEL; ARROYAVE, JESÚS; MERCHÁN, ANA; VEGA, SILVIA, & SANTOYA, YANIN (2026). «Predictive models of suicidal ideation in Spanish children: the impact of online media usage (lurkers, sharers, and interactors)», Media International Australia.
 
BARREDO IBÁÑEZ, DANIEL; GARCÉS, MIGUEL; CARO, LUCÍA; VEGA, SILVIA; MERCHÁN, ANA; SANTOYA, YANIN, & ARROYAVE, JESÚS (2026). «Patterns of media and social media consumption associated with suicidal ideation in Spanish children», Humanities & Social Sciences Communications.

* At present, this author is a member of the teaching staff at the Universidad de Sevilla.