Media and Information Literacy Repository – South Asia

The paper argues that although digital technologies are often seen as tools that connect people, online communication can also create fragmentation, polarization, and exclusion. To address these problems, the author emphasizes the importance of Critical Digital Literacy (CDL), which helps learners understand how power and ideologies operate in online spaces. The paper proposes a two-part teaching strategy, inquiry-based learning and digital activism to help students critically engage with digital media. It suggests that language education and intercultural communication can play an important role in promoting a more equitable and inclusive digital environment.

Innovation of technology in communication, especially social media offer an interactive platform for young people to participate in political activities. By using social media, lack of media literacy competency reported has a significant influence on low integrity conduct such as flashing provocation, joining the street demonstration, spreading fake news, defamation and slanders intentionally to create damage on certain political parties. This scenario significantly leads to high political cynicism that affected political participation integrity level among young people in social media. Since, low political participation integrity source of unhealthy democracy, this study aims to examine the effect of media literacy dimensions such as access, evaluation and act toward political participation integrity among young people in social media. A survey was used for data gathering among 388 Higher Education Institution students in Melaka. The data analyzed descriptively and inferentially using SPSS and SEM AMOS to provide an empirical understanding of news media literacy contribution towards political participation integrity. This study presents the significant effect of media literacy from dimensions of access, analysis and evaluation and acts towards political participation integrity. Surprisingly, educated yang people claimed from the previous study has little interest to politically engage in social media, basically participate in political activities such as neutralising negative comment in social media posted by the online community, reporting misconduct in social media to the authorized body and updating political information on certain issues using personal social media account.

This study investigates the information and participatory political practices of marginalized youth via four focus groups with 23 teens (aged 13–17 years) from two geographically distinct regions of the United States to address this limited understanding. The findings indicate that teens encounter political information and news from members of their social networks via digital media more than legacy media outlets, because it enables them to assert agency over social and political issues to which they feel connected. Furthermore, teens identify a tension between viewing adults, specifically teachers and politicians, as authoritative yet untrustworthy information sources, which can lead to their use of digital media to verify or challenge what adults are telling them. Finally, teens must navigate the sociotechnical challenges of digital media, including exposure to unwanted information and the potential social backlash of posting content that could be considered by others to represent slacktivism.

More than 300 studies have been published on the relationship between digital media and engagement in civic and political life. With such a vast body of research, it is difficult to see the big picture of how this relationship has evolved across time and across the globe. This article offers unique insights into how this relationship manifests across time and space, using a meta-analysis of existing research. This approach enables an analysis of a 20-year period, covering 50 countries and including survey data from more than 300,000 respondents. While the relationship may vary cross-nationally, the major story is the trend data. The trend data show a pattern of small, positive average coefficients turning into substantial, positive coefficients. These larger coefficients may be explained by the diffusion of this technology across the masses and changes in the types of use, particularly the rise of social networking sites and tools for online political participation.

Media exposure is widely known to increase institutional forms of political participation such as voting. Less well understood is whether media exposure also affects protest, a less institutional form of engagement. This paper examines the mechanics through which this relationship operates by considering the media's direct and indirect effect on voting and protesting, via political trust, efficacy, and knowledge. We make these comparisons by analyzing the unique Jennings panel dataset that collects information on respondents at three separate points. The results show that media exposure affects voting more than protesting and that these relationships operate through different mechanisms. While media exposure leads to voting because it increases political knowledge, it is associated with protest via external political efficacy. Furthermore, while this relationship is causal for voting it is only correlational for protest. The results illustrate the importance of disentangling forms of political engagement when considering media effects.

This study is based on a survey of 526 adult Malaysians who were interviewed shortly before the 2008 national election about online media use, levels of political participation, and voting intentions. The goal was to document the role of online media in a society that controls political information in traditional media and, in turn, compels citizens to seek alternative news sources online. As predicted, the findings indicated that online media use was positively associated with higher levels of political participation among Malaysian voters. The use of and exposure to social networking sites, political blogs, political online videos, party websites, and political ads on cell phones showed strong associations with political activism. However, the use of political online media did not predict voters’ likelihood of voting.

This paper examines the “Review of Social Media as Alternative Medium for Political Participation” in Nigeria, investigating diverse demographic groups and their engagement patterns.The study adopted survey methods, utilizing a sample size of 372. The study also investigates the key challenges and risks associated with social media use in political contexts, such as the spread of fake news, hate speech, privacy concerns, and online harassment. The research reveals a dynamic social media landscape in Nigeria, with active participation across various age groups. Young adults, especially those aged 25-34, are prominent users, indicating their active involvement in political discussions. Social media platforms serve as vital channels for disseminating political information and mobilizing citizens, with roles expanding from basic information sharing to active political campaigning. The findings underscore the influential role of social media in Nigerian politics, bridging generational gaps and mobilizing diverse segments of the population. The study highlights the need for robust regulations to curb the spread of misinformation and hate speech, ensuring the integrity of political discussions. The paper recommended the Implementation of the government to the adopt comprehensive media literacy programs to educate citizens, especially the younger demographic, about identifying and combating fake news and misinformation. Educated users are more likely to critically evaluate information, mitigating the impact of false narratives.

Mobile media have become increasingly popular and important in recent years as a means of accessing political information and participating in politics and elections worldwide. However, the emergent field of mobile-focused political participation research requires further definition and development to more clearly address why and how mobile media are producing distinct consequences for political participation. To address this problem, this article uses interdisciplinary insights and a critical review of relevant literature to identify research opportunities that stand to advance mobile political communication theory. Contributions and limitations of studies focused on ICTs and political participation are reviewed and discussed. Analysis of studies focused on the political participation outcomes of mobile media use is synthesized with theory from user-focused mobile communication literature to highlight the unique qualities that distinguish mobile media and the implications of those distinguishing features for studying political participation. Recommendations are made for research directions that would further investigate the association of mobile media’s distinctive features with online and offline forms of political participation. This analysis indicates opportunities for scholars to unpack mobile media’s unique features in ways that potentially redefine political participation, and, accordingly, further the development of research questions and theories that investigate the relationship of mobile media and political participation. It is concluded that research is needed that explains mobile media use in finer detail, accounts for shifting conceptualizations of political participation, and contributes to the development of cross-cultural comparative frameworks.

With the proliferation of new media technologies, online spaces for civic engagement are being used as new sites by the young people for enacting global citizenship. Some of these online civic spaces are managed by parent organizations and guide the participants towards accomplishing goals that align with the institutional policies. We use Stuart Hall’s theoretical framework to ground the two methods we used for empirical research- textual analysis of the selected online spaces and in-depth interviews with young bloggers. Our analysis shows how negotiated reading of the encoded messages on the online platforms for youth civic engagement marks a political moment of signification in which there lies a possibility of challenging the dominance of the adult centered notions of civic engagement. Shelat’s online civic culture framework [2014. “Citizens, Global Civic Engagement on Online Platforms: Women as Transcultural Citizens.” Dissertation] helped us examine how these managed platforms encode global citizenship with pre-designed participatory practices that reinforce the hegemonic definition of youth political participation. Interviews of young bloggers on two online global spaces foreground the process of negotiation with the dominant definitions and the use of decoding strategies to create scope for subjective, more local definitions, as well as practices of civic engagement and global citizenship. Though literature suggests that adult-management of online youth spaces perpetuate a gap between the adult-centric notions of participation and the youth oriented ideas of civic engagement, our study reveals that the young participants find ways of articulating their ideas and enter these spaces with plans on how to fulfill their civic goals.

The digital age has revolutionized civic engagement, transforming traditional participatory models through technological innovation. From social media to digital advocacy platforms, citizens now have unprecedented avenues to interact with democratic institutions and influence policy. This paper examines the multifaceted nature of digital civic engagement, tracing its historical evolution, highlighting key opportunities for participation, and examining persistent challenges such as digital inequality, misinformation, and ethical concerns. Special attention is given to the experiences of marginalized communities, the role of education in shaping civic consciousness, and the evolving strategies for measuring digital engagement’s impact. Through real-world case studies and critical analysis, this research underscores the importance of inclusive digital governance and a multidisciplinary approach to ensure that civic participation in the digital era remains equitable, effective, and aligned with democratic values.

In this paper, we explicate our research on technology-mediated urban experience specific to two hyper-local tests in which the space of the ‘public’ is transformed into a virtual network by connective broadcasting. The first case study presents collective mapping in Rio de Janeiro toward increased civic engagement and sustainability, the second tests documentation of political demonstrations for strategic and archival purposes for Occupy Boston. Grouped under the term “participatory urbanism,” the projects intend to explore how an individual activates interstitial space (between the physical city andhovering networks, between public and private) by engaging technology and civic media to affect change in the built environment. The physical and virtual environments serve as reciprocal sources of information, engendering a collective practice of shared encounters. We investigate how such encounters of user-centered activity through mobile and web-based media support or implicate the perception and manipulation of the built environment over spans of time and locations, and will highlight qualitative elements of a mobile and web platform designed for successful civic engagement and participatory urbanism.

This joint publication by UNODC and UNESCO highlights the transformative power of education in strengthening the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary for addressing global challenges, especially those that stem from a lack of integrity, like corruption. It provides educational activities, lesson plans and outside the classroom resources designed to empower youth to reject corrupt practices and become agents of change, promoting integrity and upholding democratic values.

These guidelines for policymakers suggest concrete ways to address anti-semitism, counter prejudice and promote tolerance through education, by designing programmes based on a human rights framework, global citizenship education, inclusiveness and gender equality.

There has been widespread concern in contemporary Western societies about declining engagement in civic life; people are less inclined to vote, to join political parties, to campaign for social causes, or to trust political processes. Young people in particular are frequently described as alienated or apathetic. Some have looked optimistically to new media—and particularly the Internet—as a means of revitalizing civic life and democracy. Governments, political parties, charities, NGOs, activists, religious and ethnic groups, and grassroots organizations have created a range of youth-oriented websites that encourage widely divergent forms of civic engagement and use varying degrees of interactivity. But are young people really apathetic and lacking in motivation? Does the Internet have the power to re-engage those disenchanted with politics and civic life? Based on a major research project funded by the European Commission, this book attempts to understand the role of the Internet in promoting young people's participation. Examples are drawn from Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom—countries offering contrasting political systems and cultural contexts. The book also addresses broader questions about the meaning of civic engagement, the nature of new forms of participation, and their implications for the future of civic life.

Media literacy has been increasingly becoming a prerequisite of full citizen participation. The latter has been shifting, especially among youth, away from the traditional media forms and more and more towards non-conventional ones. For example see the FridaysForFuture movement. The possibility for and abilities to get involved in the public debate are, though, not distributed equally. One of the tools to narrow down the ‘participation gap’ may be in media literacy education (MLE). This chapter presents a participatory action research exploring the possibilities of the MLE for the development of citizen participation of disadvantaged youth. It draws especially on the three-month intervention at the vocational school in the Czech Republic. 17 students aged 17–19 participated in the study in 2019.

The democratization of media in India has ushered in a dynamic era marked by both challenges and opportunities, particularly in the realms of political activism and youth empowerment. The primary aim of this article is to investigate the impact of media on political activism and the empowerment of youth within the Indian democratic context. It seeks to explore how various media platforms, including digital and social media, contribute to shaping political opinions and facilitating civic engagement among India’s younger population.This article delves into the multifaceted role of media in shaping India's democratic landscape, with a specific focus on its impact on political discourse, citizen engagement, and youth empowerment. Through a comprehensive review of existing literature and empirical evidence, the article explores the challenges posed by the spread of misinformation, regulatory constraints, and digital inequalities, while also highlighting the opportunities presented by citizen journalism initiatives, alternative media outlets, and social media platforms. By equipping citizens, especially the youth, with critical media literacy skills andpromoting digital citizenship, India can navigate the complexities of media democratization to foster a more inclusive, participatory, and resilient democracy. Through this analysis, the article contributes to a deeper understanding of the intricate interplay between media, politics, and youth empowerment in the context of India's evolving democratic landscape.The future of Indian democracy will significantly depend on how well the nation manages to harness the potential of media platforms to foster informed political participation while mitigating the risks associated with digital media proliferation. As this article illustrates, nurturing a resilient and inclusive democratic process is contingent upon empowering the youth with the tools to critically engage with media and actively participate in the democratic governance of their country.

Social media has transformed activism by facilitating the mobilisation of support, enabling challenges to power structures, and influencing public discourse. The #EndSARS movement in Nigeria, which protested police brutality and governance failures, demonstrated the efficacy of hashtag activism as a form of digital advocacy. This study examines the role of digital literacy in promoting engagement, mobilisation strategies, and participation in the #EndSARS protest. It specifically analyses the use ofTwitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram by digitally literate users for organising protests, disseminating real-time information, and countering misinformation. Employing qualitative content analysis of social media posts, digital campaign materials, and online discussions, this study investigates the role of digital literacy in message framing, audience engagement, and the overall sustainability of the movement. Individuals with higher digital literacy typically create mission-driven content that fosters significant engagement, using diverse media and algorithmic visibility to enhance content reach. However, the long-term success of the movement was hindered by challenges such as internet censorship, the digital divide, and state-sponsored misinformation campaigns. This research contributes to academic discussions on digital activism, online political participation, digital literacy, and social movements through its educational and community profile. It underscores the necessity of structured digital literacy curricula that enhance civic engagement and equip grassroots activists with essential digital skills.

Looking at recent examples of hashtag activism as collaborative storytelling practices and digital political communication, this article argues that sharing – in the sense of collectively held beliefs and grievances and their potential for creating narrative and social movements on social media – can be seen as operating on an educational level as well. Drawing on Ruth Page’s concept of the shared story and an analysis of the #MeToo movement, the article positions hashtag activism as a case study for sharing ideas, experiences, and skills, and the acquisition of information and media literacy. By extension, the paper provides an example of adopting an interdisciplinary approach in higher education that aims at enabling future teachers to retell, adapt, and remix stories and skills for their work in the EFL classroom.

Information literacy emerged in the 1970s to address information needs in an active and critical way. However, the increasing availability of information and the evolution of technology led information literacy to focus more on instrumental aspects and less on its cognitive, axiological, and critical dimensions. As a response, a new wave emerged to explicitly focus on the most critical and emancipatory aspects: Critical Information Literacy (CIL). This concept has been developed in a dynamic and spontaneous way through the various practices and publications on the topic and as a reflection of the social advances in recent decades. In this paper, CIL is presented as a means of action for informational activism to promote changes in society aligned with the values of human rights and social justice. We present a review of the main authors that have worked with CIL, including the active scene in Brazil and its Freirean influence, aiming at systematizing the concept and its main characteristics in a global landscape dominated by misinformation and absence of informational and digital competences. The concept of informational activism is presented and discussed as one of the main lines of action for Library and Information Science in today's polarized society.

The wide adoption of social media platforms has altered how people communicate, obtain information, and participate in society. Regarding political participation, social media has emerged as a novel venue for people to voice their opinions, connect with others who share their viewpoints, and engage in activism. As a result, knowing the effect of social media on political participation is critical, particularly in developing nations like Jordan. This research investigates the moderating effect of certain factors on the impact of social media on political involvement among Jordanian youth. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach is used to analyze data from a survey of 334 young people. The findings show that social media has a favorable and considerable impact on political participation. Gender was also discovered to have a strong moderating effect on the relationship between social media use and political participation. According to the analysis, gender positively moderates the effect of the frequency of social media use on political participation, while gender negatively moderates the effect of the purpose of social media usage on political participation. The study sheds light on the significance of social media in young people’s political participation in Jordan, emphasizing the need of taking differences in gender into account when developing effective tactics to engage young people in the political processes.

This article explores the relationship between media literacy and transmedia storytelling within contemporary convergence culture. It argues that storytelling now unfolds across multiple media platforms, requiring audiences to actively navigate, interpret, and participate in interconnected narrative environments. The authors highlight how transmedia storytelling reshapes communication by blending production and consumption practices, encouraging audience engagement and collaborative meaning-making. The study emphasizes that media literacy must expand beyond traditional reading skills to include the ability to critically analyze, evaluate, and create content across diverse media formats. Overall, the article positions transmedia storytelling as an important framework for developing participatory, critical, and multimodal literacy competencies in digital media environments.

Stories and narratives are fundamental forms of human communication that have evolved into digital experiences within today’s convergence culture. In this environment, transmedia storytelling spreads interconnected content across multiple media platforms, allowing meaning to develop through different formats. Drawing on the work of Jenkins, Scolari, and Gosciola, the article conceptually explores transmedia storytelling and its potential to foster transliteracy—the ability to navigate, interpret, and create content across diverse media. It discusses key features of transmedia narratives, examines the concept of transliteracy, and highlights their interconnected, transdisciplinary relationship in contemporary media and learning contexts.

This research is dedicated to the dominance of digital visual literacy in modern media, how it is used, and the problems associated with it. The study primarily highlights the mistakes made by journalists and media organizations in relation to visual literacy and offers solutions to these issues. The analysis shows that digital visual literacy is not just a skill, meanwhile it is a necessity in the digital age. It enables individuals to engage with the visual world of modern media in a critical, creative, and responsible manner. As technology evolves, digital visual literacy also develops and emerges in various forms. Today, as the media faces an overwhelming flow of information, it encounters more visual content than plain text. Therefore, verifying and analyzing the authenticity of this visual content has become one of the most crucial responsibilities of journalists. Otherwise, media ethics are compromised, and society receives false information. Media outlets must also know how to use the tools related to digital visual literacy, which are constantly evolving. Azerbaijani media is somewhat lagging in this area, mostly due to financial constraints. In short, this study outlines the problems and proposes solutions, while also providing examples from both local and international media cases.

This study examines the growing role of visual mis- and disinformation in contemporary digital media environments and its implications for democratic societies. The authors argue that misinformation is increasingly communicated through images, videos, memes, and other visual formats that audiences often perceive as authentic representations of reality. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, the article explains how social media platforms amplify visually manipulated content through algorithmic promotion and rapid sharing practices, making such content highly persuasive and emotionally engaging. The study highlights emerging threats posed by deepfakes and advanced visual editing technologies, which not only spread false information but also undermine public trust in journalism, institutions, and verified evidence by creating uncertainty about what is real. It further discusses the limitations of traditional fact-checking in correcting visual misinformation and emphasizes the need to expand media and information literacy to include strong visual literacy and critical evaluation skills. Overall, the article concludes that understanding and addressing visual disinformation is essential for protecting informed public discourse and democratic processes in the digital age.

While a fast-growing body of research is concerned with the detrimental consequences of disinformation for democracy, the role of visuals in this context has so far only been discussed superficially. Visuals are expected to amplify the impact of disinformation, but it is rarely specified how, and what exactly distinguishes them from text. This article is one of the first to treat visual disinformation as its own type of falsehood, arguing that it differs from textual disinformation in its production, processing and effects. We suggest that visual disinformation is determined by varying levels of modal richness and manipulative sophistication. Because manipulated visuals are processed differently on a psychological level, they have unique effects on citizens’ behaviours and attitudes.