Media and Information Literacy Repository – South Asia

The article addresses the growing demand for evidence-based education and the need for teachers to effectively use data in instructional decision-making. It argues that the knowledge and skills required for “data literacy for teaching” are complex and insufficiently defined. Through empirical analysis and domain mapping, the authors develop an emergent conceptual framework outlining the competencies teachers need to interpret and apply data in classroom contexts. This framework forms the first step in an evidence-centered design process aimed at defining and measuring data literacy.

The article argues that as societies become increasingly data-driven, citizens must develop strong data literacy skills, beginning in school education. It notes the absence of a clear and unified definition of data literacy and examines how it overlaps with and differs from statistical literacy. The paper critically evaluates whether existing frameworks adequately address contemporary civic and societal data needs. It also reviews current school-based approaches to teaching data literacy to understand how the concept is applied in practice

The article examines digital media literacy in the context of societies where media significantly shape perceptions of reality. It highlights the growing exposure of children and parents to digital media and stresses the importance of developing digital literacy to address associated cognitive, social, and developmental challenges. The paper reviews theoretical approaches to digital media literacy and introduces the concept of digital parenting, emphasizing the shared responsibility of schools and families.

The chapter argues that digital media literacy is essential in a technology-driven world that shapes how young people learn, socialize, and participate in civic life. As device use increases, children and adolescents need skills to navigate digital environments in healthy and productive ways. Although some research suggests that digital media literacy can reduce harmful effects of technology use, its integration into school curricula and state policy remains limited. The chapter highlights this gap between need and implementation. It concludes by outlining research and policy priorities to strengthen digital media literacy education across the lifespan.

The article conducts a systematic meta-review of research on information literacy, media literacy, and digital literacy. Through a cross-analysis of existing literature reviews, it examines how these concepts are defined and theorized across academic discussions. The study identifies significant conceptual confusion, particularly regarding the core dimensions and boundaries of each literacy. It also highlights recurring challenges in linking theoretical contributions and in operationalizing these literacies for observation and assessment.

The literature highlights the significance of media literacy instruction in pre-service teacher education period, but there are few attempts to develop and implement curricula to this end. This action research study aimed to report the steps to adapt ‘the media literacy skills curriculum design’ for pre-service teachers, which was developed for face-to-face education environments, to an online learning management system in line with emergency remote teaching amid Covid-19 pandemic, and report the results of curriculum evaluation. The study adopted ‘The Curriculum Development through Action Research Model’. The participants were pre-service teachers at an education faculty of a state university in Turkey. The quantitative data were collected through Media Literacy Skills Scale and qualitative data were collected using several forms, rubrics, and reflection tools. The study revealed that the implementation of the media literacy skills curriculum had a strong positive effect on pre-service teachers’ levels of media literacy skills. The study also revealed changes in pre-service teachers’ perceptions of media and media literacy, interactions with media, as well as certain areas for curriculum development in terms of contents, teaching-learning experiences, and assessment components of the curriculum. The study discusses the results and offers implications for media literacy education in preservice teacher education.

In the ongoing struggle with media and technology on the individual-society axis, the importance of having a say in social and political issues as active citizens and being able to express oneself in digital environments is increasing. For this reason, media literacy, which is a life skill, appears as a skill that should be maintained throughout life in both formal and informal environments. The aim of this study is to improve the media literacy awareness of university students. The participants of the research are 150 university students who are studying in different departments of three state universities in three underdeveloped cities in Turkey and have not previously received media literacy education. The data of the research, which was designed as action research, was collected in the 2021-2022 academic year within the scope of an international outsourced project. An eight-week media literacy training was completed by providing face-to-face and online training to the students three days a week. The data results of the training were collected through a semi-structured interview form and also by the evaluation of student activities. According to the results of the research, the media literacy awareness of the students studying at all three faculties, which was weak at the beginning, increased by strengthening after the education. Students have gained an important awareness about criticizing the media and questioning the media, and media production.

In recent years, the media literacy education movement has developed to help individuals of all ages acquire the competencies necessary to fully participate in the modern world of media convergence. Yet media literacy education is not practiced uniformly at all educational levels. This study used a survey to compare the extent to which students are exposed to several basic elements of media literacy education at the high school and university levels. Results suggest that students are exposed to more course content related to media use and creation in high school, but more course content related to media analysis in college.

Teachers must first acquire the necessary media literacy skills, strategies, dispositions, and pedagogy to impactfully integrate media literacy into their instruction. Furthermore, previous studies have suggested designing curricular resources as an effective form of media literacy professional learning. This case study examined how high school teachers of different content areas integrate media literacy into their instruction while participating in an on line professional development course and how high school teachers applied the content from a media literacy online professional development course to design media literacy instruction. Findings indicated that teachers made minor changes to their previous instructional practice, which indicated that participating in the online course led them to think about media literacy integration in new ways. Additionally, teachers applied the online profes sional development content by using media to build background knowledge, offering explicit media literacy strategy instruction and support, promoting independent practice at the intersection of content curricula and media literacy, and assigning media production to demonstrate content knowledge. Recommendations include equipping teachers with media literacy background knowledge, examining instruction stemming from media literacy pro professional development, and empowering teachers to design media literacy instruction through critical lenses.

Journalism also needs to proactively detect and uncover new cases and forms of disinformation. This is mission critical for the news media, and it represents an alternative to regulatory approaches to ‘fake news’. As an immediate response to a burning and damaging issue, it complements and strengthens more medium-term strategies such as media and information literacy which empower audiences to distinguish what is news, disinformation and misinformation. Disinformation is a hot story, and strong coverage of it will strengthen journalism’s service to society

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Sangmun Lee is from South-Korea, where he spent most of his life. When he was young he didn't notice how dangerous electronic devices and internet technology can be, but he finally encountered the truth. He thinks that this problem should be solved in some way or people are going to become slaves to technology. He thought about what part of technology made itself so toxic to us, and the reasons why we are so hooked on tech.

This is Mika Brzezinski , the co-anchor of “Morning Joe,” a news talk show on MSNBC. In this segment, the anchors are on camera, chatting, about to launch their daily summary of the top stories of the day. Mika Brzezinski and her co-anchor had been talking about U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar’s critique of the President’s war strategy when she looked down to see the first story on her script was Paris Hilton’s release from jail, which was getting a lot of news coverage at the time. Brzezinski swears it was a spontaneous response and not a publicity stunt. What do you think she is reacting to? If you are going to be effective consumers of news you need to have an understanding of how Paris Hilton’s term in jail came to be the lead story on so many newscasts

Effective media education requires that teachers have sufficient media literacy competencies as well as the competencies to promote media literacy in students. This article describes the development of a questionnaire to measure these competencies individually or as a team. The questionnaire was developed in five stages. A systematic and critical listing of existing inventories resulted in a preliminary questionnaire. In the final stage, the questionnaire was submitted to a representative sample of 454 teachers and 219 student teachers, and an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. The results show that the questionnaire is sufficiently valid and reliable.

Finnish basic education faces a significant change with the 2016 commissioning of the renewed core curriculum, which introduces a new transversal competence, termed multiliteracies—a concept closely related to media literacy. This systematic literature review examines the research literature on media literacy and multiliteracies, analysing and comparing the nature of knowledge constructed and the varying definitions of the two concepts. Previous review articles (Marten 2010; Potter 2010) found little consensus among scholars regarding the definition of media literacy. This review examines the research literature published in international peer reviewed academic journals between 2010 and 2014 to investigate whether a mutual understanding of the concept has since been established. The article argues that significant differences exist between the concepts of media literacy and multiliteracies and, further, that Finnish core curriculum defines multiliteracies differently than the research literature defines the term. In line with previous research, this article finds no consensus on the definition of media literacy in the research literature. Based on the multifaceted nature of the concept, this article rejects attempts to establish a universal definition of media literacy and presents a theoretical framework for conceptualising media literacies based on their abstraction levels. The article aims to facilitate understanding of the concept and its operationalisation in research and practice and discusses future opportunities for research on media literacy and multiliteracies.

In the age of digitalization, Digital and Media Literacy (DML) has gained increasing attention in European compul sory education, blending insights and experiences from the media education and digital literacy domains. Teacher education, starting from pre-service education, is central for the actual integration of DML education in classroom practice. This article discusses the case study of a two-credit introductory course to DML education for pre-service pre-primary and primary school teachers in Switzerland. The course, partially co-designed with its participants, intentionally explored many topics (as opposed to the in-depth analysis of a few) and focused on hands-on experi mentation and reflection. The data collected with a pre/post survey and follow-up interviews offer insights on the evolution of pre-service teachers’ approach to DML, on their perceived role as teachers in this domain, on self efficacy, and on potential enablers and obstacles to implementing DML activities in class. The case study suggests that, despite the limited space in the curriculum and resources available, even a short course can make a difference and enable teachers to integrate DML in their profession

Findings from research on the education of teachers show that student teachers lack competence in the utilization of digital media and often fail to see the added value in using digital concepts in classrooms. Teacher training institutions are faced with the central challenge of providing student teachers and teachers with adaptive learning opportunities for their competence in digital areas. In the context of various teaching subjects, this raises questions about specific starting points and the actual needs of students, as well as university course offerings. The present study tackles this topic and explores the commonalities and differences between student teachers from three subject clusters: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); language literature arts (LLA); and social sciences (SOCS). The questionnaire-based study examines student teachers’ self- assessments of their abilities in terms of digital media, attitudes, and motivational orientations towards the use of digital media in teaching. Group comparisons show that STEM student teachers rate themselves better in competence facets such as technological knowledge, technological content knowledge, and technological pedagogical knowledge, although their attitudes and motivation towards learning with digital media do not differ. Despite the different interrelation effects of investigated influencing factors on motivation depending on subject clusters, the f indings suggest the promotion of technological competencies and positive attitudes to increase motivation.

The question “What is news literacy?” has been asked and answered in a number of ways, as scholars, teachers, librarians and journalists have sought to address the confusion resulting from the increasingly crowded digital information sphere. Concerns center on how the difficulty people face in differentiating reliable, credible information from unverified and biased information threatens their ability to participate in democratic life. Approaches to training and curriculum aimed at minimizing that difficulty have included standalone courses, modules in existing courses, after-school programs, and online exercises aimed at a variety of populations, from K 12 to college students to adults. Given this wide range of settings and populations, it is perhaps not surprising that the content of news literacy instruction also has ranged widely. A series of articles in the Columbia Journalism Review covering the 2014 National News Literacy Summit (the coverage and the summit were sponsored by the McCormick Foundation) makes clear that beyond shared civic goals, there remains a lot of diversity and, even, disagreement about what news literacy is and what efforts to enhance it should include (e.g. Jolly, September 4, 2014; Fry, 2015; Hobbs, 2010b). The lack of a common understanding has hindered efforts to assess the effectiveness of different approaches to news literacy instruction and to examine the relationship between news literacy and achievement of those shared civic goals. A newly developed and validated measure of news media literacy may offer a way to help fill this gap.

Although we live in a global society, educators face many challenges in finding meaningful ways to connect students to people of other cultures. This paper offers a case study of a collaboration between teachers in the US and Turkey, where 7th grade students interacted with each other via online social media as a means to promote cultural understanding. In a close analysis of a single learning activity, we found that children had opportunities to share ideas informally through social media, using their digital voices to share meaning using online writing, posting of images and hyperlinks. This study found that students valued the opportunity to develop relationships with each other and generally engaged in sharing their common interests in Hollywood movies, actors, celebrities, videogames and television shows. However, not all teachers valued the use of popular culture as a means to find common ground. Indeed, teachers had widely differing perspectives of the value of this activity. Through informal communication about popular culture in a “Getting to Know You” activity, students themselves discovered that their common ground knowledge tended to be US centric, as American students lacked access to Turkish popular culture. However, the learning activity enabled students themselves to recognize asymmetrical power dynamics that exist in global media culture, where information and entertainment flows are primarily one-way in nature and perceptions about the value of popular culture are contested.

It studies about Media literacy and the challenge of new information and communication technologies

The article investigates whether media literacy education can enhance youth civic and political engagement. Using a longitudinal panel dataset of high school and college students, it provides rare quantitative evidence on the prevalence and impact of media literacy education. The study finds that exposure to media literacy education is not strongly tied to demographic characteristics. Controlling for prior political interest and online political activity, the results show that digital media literacy education is associated with higher levels of online political engagement. It also links media literacy exposure to greater interaction with diverse political perspectives, suggesting its democratic potential.

The article addresses the growing need for AI literacy in light of artificial intelligence’s expanding influence on workers and citizens. It reviews and compares existing definitions of algorithmic literacy, AI literacy, and generative AI literacy across fields such as media studies, human–computer interaction, technology, and education. The authors analyze how these disciplines conceptualize AI literacy differently, revealing conceptual ambiguities and overlaps. Moving beyond narrow skill-based approaches, the paper proposes a definition of responsible generative AI literacy that extends beyond effective prompting. It frames AI literacy as a broader ethical, critical, and socially aware competence required for responsible engagement with AI systems.

The article examines how widespread algorithmic decision-making systems shape digital media while remaining difficult for the public to critically evaluate. Drawing on the theory of attitude–behavior consistency from political communication, the authors develop a framework to foster algorithmic literacy and encourage more informed public attitudes toward algorithms. They design and test an intervention that combines algorithmic education with personalized user experiences to assess its impact. The findings show that both components together shape attitudes toward algorithms, but the effectiveness of the intervention varies depending on individuals’ patterns of technology use.

The article argues that artificial intelligence is pervasive, complex, and often opaque, making it difficult for individuals to understand its influence on everyday life. It contends that existing digital and information literacy frameworks are insufficient for addressing the specific challenges posed by AI systems. To fill this gap, the authors introduce the concept of algorithmic literacy as a necessary extension of current literacy models. They outline a working definition of algorithmic literacy, explain why it is urgently needed, and propose pedagogical strategies for teaching it.

The article examines how brands have become deeply embedded in social media and online spaces, reshaping advertising practices. It critiques the professional discourse that presents social media marketing as transparent, conversational, and equal, arguing that such claims mask strategic promotional intentions. Using a socio-semiotic communication framework rooted in French information and communication sciences, the study analyzes how brand messages continuously transform and hybridize within digital environments. It also highlights how users are becoming increasingly skilled at recognizing and interpreting marketing strategies online.