The social value of the images. A case study in university students

A study was carried out on the consumption and creation of images in students of the Faculty of Education of the University of Murcia, with a sample of 321 students of the Degree in Primary Education of various specialties. The main objective of this study was to find out the use they make of images in their social context of communication, as well as the degree of veracity they give to them and the degree of reflection they carry out on them. An objective questionnaire of typical individual performance was carried out, approached from three dimensions: the use of the photographic image, the use of the graphic image and the degrees of reflection and veracity of the image, carrying out the analysis through Principal Components Analysis (PCA). The analysis shows that there is a great deal of reflection on the message of social media and advertising images, but that only on some occasions do they look further to verify whether the underlying message is truthful or not. Students of physical education show a lower use of images, while those of educational resources attribute a high social value to them, with ages between 20 and 25 standing out, although the highest consumption is evident in ages between 25 and 30. Above the age of 35, the social value attributed to the image shows the lowest score. The female gender shows a higher social value of the image, both in social media and in those generated as a reflection of the self through selfies.