Media Literacy

Internal code: 1.3 Target groups: students, teachers, adults

General description
 * EU Human Rights Guidelines on Freedom of Expression Online and Offline, 2018: An open society based on the rule of law can only operate effectively if there is an independent and pluralistic media environment offline and online. A free, diverse and independent press and other media provide public platforms that are essential to any society to ensure freedom of opinion and expression and the enjoyment of other human rights.
 * (Ipsos (2021)) Media literacy market
 * (Harrison, R. (2021)) The EU and media literacy

Interventions - (Higgings, E. (2022) ) "We must take a broader approach. The answer lies in creating a society that’s not only resilient against disinformation, but has the tools to actively contribute to efforts towards transparency and accountability. For example, digital media literacy charity The Student View has been going into schools and showing 16- to 18-year-olds how to use investigation techniques to look into issues affecting them. In one case, students in Bradford used freedom of information requests to uncover the unusually large number of high speed police chases in their areas. Teaching young people how to engage positively with issues they face and then expanding this work into online investigation is not only empowering, it gives them skills they can use throughout their lives. This is not about turning every 16- to 18-year-old into a journalist, police officer, or human rights investigator, but giving them tools they can use to contribute, in however small a way, to the fight against disinformation." - (Higgings, E. (2022) ) "But how do you grow and nurture what are essentially decentralised, self-organised, ad hoc groups like this? Our approach [Bellingcat] has been to engage with them, creating links from their useful social media posts to our publications (all thoroughly factchecked by our team), and crediting them for their efforts. We also create guides and case studies so that anyone who is inspired to give it a go themselves has the opportunity to learn how to do it." See also: Maldita, Mutante.
 * EDMO - "The European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) brings together fact-checkers, media literacy experts, and academic researchers to understand and analyse disinformation, in collaboration with media organisations, online platforms and media literacy practitioners."
 * The digital transformation of news media and the rise of disinformation and fake news : " Actions promoting a reassessment and adjustment of educational policies.
 * Key competencies and school rankings across EU. European institutions and national governments should recognize media and information literacy as core literacy, adding it into school curricula and adding this to the measurements that determine all school rankings, particularly in the OECD’s PISA rankings. The EU should make this a stated priority with the aim of integrating critical media literacy into the core literacies guaranteed to all schoolchildren in Europe, with formal status in national school curricula. This can engage libraries as well.
 * Training for Teachers. European institutions and national governments should mandate teacher training colleges to include critical media literacy modules and encourage critical media literacy to become an integral part of all subject-learning, lifelong learning for teachers.
 * (YouVerify!) Media and Information Literacy Online Course.
 * (KRRiT (nd)) (p.99-124) Overview
 * (Jankowicz, N. (2020)) “The Finnish government equips even its youngest citizens with tools to survive in today’s crowded media environment.”
 * European Democracy Action Plan : The Action Plan is built on 3 pillars and sets out measures to promote free and fair elections, strengthen media freedom and counter disinformation.
 * Support collaborative fact-checking

Media Literacy Impact Measurement

Assumptions
 * (McIntyre, L. (2018) ) “The Internet makes it so easy (and cheap) to get news that we have gotten lazy. Our feeling of entitlement has eroded our critical thinking skills.”
 * (Jankowicz, N. (2020)) “Even with greater investments in quality journalism, people will still need help in navigating the unending flow of information that characterizes the modern media environment ...”
 * It's not only about teaching/ learning better media skills. It is also about changing media behavior.
 * (Pomerantsev, P. (2019)) Changing behaviour. Nigel Oakes. “You need to work out why someone smokes, argues Oakes, if you want to stop them from doing it.” Young women smoked because they thought it made them look attractive. So focus on “how smoking makes their hair and breath stink, how it makes them unattractive.”
 * Habits can be created - Eyal, N. (2014).
 * Changing habits - Duhigg, C. (2012),, Alter, A. (2017) , Hassan, S. (2013)
 * Adolescents and habits
 * Changing adolescent habits

Recommendations - "De Senaat beveelt aan een pilootproject op te starten rond de implementatie van een ingebouwde «lees meer»- knop, waarbij gebruikers van digitale nieuwsplatformen op een eenvoudige wijze andere nieuwsbronnen over hetzelfde onderwerp kunnen consulteren." - "De Senaat beveelt aan nog meer in te zetten op mediageletterdheid van jong en oud. Het gaat hierbij over het begrijpen van informatie, maar ook over het begrijpen van de mechanismen achter de verspreiding van informatie via de mediaplatformen." - "De Senaat beveelt aan om de burgers de nodige tools en middelen te geven om met desinformatie om te gaan en vooral om journalistieke en informatieve content van goede kwaliteit te vinden." - "De Senaat beveelt aan de gebruikers van sociale media meerdere en betere hulpmiddelen te geven om zelf foute of misleidende inhoud op te sporen en te signaleren." - "De Senaat beveelt aan actief in te zetten op transversale initiatieven rond mediawijsheid. Deze initiatieven moeten verder bouwen op de bestaande projecten en moeten burgers versterken zodat ze de nodige tools aangereikt krijgen om zich participatief en weerbaar op te stellen in een snel veranderende gemediatiseerde samenleving." - "De Senaat beveelt ook aan actief in te zetten op o.a. het ondersteunen van Nieuws in de Klas, met de focus op digitale media, en van mediacoaches, die de dialoog moeten aangaan met leerkrachten en jongeren. Daarnaast moeten deze mediacoaches zorgen dat het aanbod voor scholen op vlak van mediawijsheid voldoende structureel ondersteunend is." - "Voor de projecten betreffende mediawijsheid is een goede monitoring en een sterke evaluatie noodzakelijk. Het is de enige manier om als overheid zicht te krijgen op de evolutie en resultaten." - "De Senaat beveelt bijgevolg aan dat onze gemeenschappen actief participeren in de federale en Europese onderzoeken en voldoende middelen vrijmaken via een stabiele financiering." - "De Senaat beveelt aan de cijfers van het Nationaal Instituut voor de Statistiek (NIS), van Statistiek Vlaanderen en van WalStat toegankelijker en leesbaarder te maken voor het bredere publiek, zodat mensen gemakkelijk objectief cijfermateriaal kunnen vinden." - "De Senaat beveelt aan een brede informatiecampagne te voeren over de gevaren van desinformatie, onder meer voor onze democratie. Deze informatiecampagne moet er onder andere op wijzen dat desinformatie onder meer bedoeld kan zijn om de opinie van de bevolking over maatschappelijke thema’s te veranderen of te beïnvloeden en om onze democratie te destabiliseren." - "De Senaat beveelt aan om in kaart te brengen welke diensten het meest geschikt zijn om een dergelijke sensibiliserings- en informatiecampagne te voeren." - "De Senaat beveelt aan om bijzondere aandacht te besteden aan de digitale kloof en het versterken van digitale vaardigheden. Jongeren, maar ook ouderen en mensen die om verschillende redenen niet over de nodige schriftelijke of digitale vaardigheden beschikken of er geen toegang toe hebben, moeten speciaal bij die inspanningen beoogd worden." - "De Senaat beveelt de lokale besturen aan om te investeren in laagdrempelige digitale openbare ruimtes, die onder begeleiding toegang bieden tot informaticamateriaal. Dit initiatief kan genomen worden in samenwerking met bedrijven, scholen, woonzorgcentra, bibliotheken, armoedeorganisaties en andere verenigingen."
 * (NATO 2021) "Member states should also work with civil society organizations specialized in the development of programs and curricula on enhancing media literacy. These actors are often well-placed to bridge the trust gap between citizens and traditional media. Governments should also support the creation by such organizations of counter-disinformation websites similar to the Estonian website propastop or the Ukrainian website StopFake."
 * (NATO 2021) "Allied countries should support efforts to raise media literacy levels among youth. In particular, they should follow the example of partner countries such as Finland and ensure that educational institutions raise awareness among children from a young age about the distinction between information and disinformation. Where possible, they should replicate best practices developed by other NATO states and partner countries."
 * (The Royal Society (2022)) "The UK Government should invest in lifelong, nationwide, information literacy initiatives."
 * (Belgian Senate (2021))
 * European Commission (2018a). Action Plan against Disinformation Action 9: As part of the Media Literacy Week in March 2019, in cooperation with the Member States, the Commission will support cross-border cooperation amongst media literacy practitioners as well as the launch of practical tools for the promotion of media literacy for the public. Member States should also rapidly implement the provisions of the Audio-visual Media Services Directive, which deal with media literacy.
 * European Parliament, 2021 :
 * - Calls on all Member States to include media and digital literacy, as well as critical thinking and public participation, in their curricula, from early years to adult education, including training for teachers and researchers;
 * - Calls on the Member States, the EU administration and civil society organisations to share best practices for media literacy training and awareness-raising, as requested in the Audiovisual Media Services Directive; calls on the Commission to organise these exchanges in cooperation with the Media Literacy Expert Group;
 * - Calls for the EU and its Member States to implement targeted awareness-raising and media literacy programmes aimed at diasporas and minorities, and calls on the Commission to set up a system for the easy sharing of material in minority languages, in order to reduce translation costs and reach out to as many people as possible;

Media Literacy Projects

Literature/ research

 * Overview of Dutch media literacy research - https://netwerkmediawijsheid.nl/nieuwe-mediawijsheid-onderzoeken/
 * Van Deursen, A., Helsper, E. (2021). Mediawijsheid: conceptualisering en belang in een gemedieerde samenleving. Lacunes in bestaand onderzoek en beleid. Universiteit Twente. LSE. https://www.utwente.nl/en/centrefordigitalinclusion/Files/mediawijsheid-conceptualisering-en-belang-vandeursen-helsper.pdf