Media and Information Literacy Repository – South Asia

Memes, or image macros, have become a standard method of digital information sharing. This is especially true during times when current events ignite a heightened desire for information seeking among students. Memes can be sources of misinformation, such as during events of the past decade, including recent presidential elections, social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Librarians need to address this format in their information literacy teachings. In this article, the author briefly outlines the rise of internet memes, discusses how higher education students are engaging with them, and highlights some problematic meme-sharing throughout some of the aforementioned events of the past decade. Within the modern information landscape, where misleading information and fake news abound, librarians can and should create and share their own educational memes designed to promote information literacy by example. These librarian-authored memes should also demonstrate source attribution and ethical information sharing practices. Resources for meme creation, tips on how to use them within information literacy instruction, and examples of how the author has included them in her own pedagogy are included.

Despite continued attention from academic librarians, many college students lack essential information literacy (IL) skills required for academic success. New approaches to IL instruction recognize the traditional “one-shot” is not a sufficient strategy. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative Action Research study that investigated how the availability of asynchronous learning modules in Canvas impacts IL learning among community college students. Results indicate that leveraging the existing technology of the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) is a pragmatic and effective approach to extending IL learning beyond the “one-shot,” and that it facilitates the embedding of IL learning that may contribute to student success.

This study investigated a journalistic learning approach in a high school English class within a civic media literacies framework toward civic intentionality. Informed by social-cognitive theory, this study focused on learning if and how the student experience developed (a) motivational factors for student writing, including self-efficacy, belonging, writing anxiety, agentic engagement, metacognitive self-regulation, flow in writing, and intrinsic writing motivation, and (b) cognitive factors for writing, including critical thinking and digital media literacy. The sequential mixed method study used correlations, pre- to post-program change analysis, and the triangulation of qualitative thematic analyses of student focus group and teacher interview data. Results supported most of the expected relationships, suggesting the experience likely contributed to a positive shift in motivational and cognitive factors for writing. Qualitative data highlighted the most impactful parts of the journalistic learning experience, such as interviewing real-world experts for their stories, that increased students’ interest and motivation in writing about real-world issues. The mixed method results build an integrated narrative of students’ agentic, cognitive, and metacognitive development in journalistic skills, reinforcing the importance of interest-driven learning opportunities in writing and autonomy-support in skill development, such as in writing, that brings anxiety to many students.

This edition of Discourse comes into being after two decades of engagement with the cultural politics of the body
through the arts, teaching, research and varied encounters with ‘disability’ ranging from the very personal to the professional. From the critique of ‘the medical model’ of disability undertaken during the early and mid1990s, a ‘social model’ emerged, particularly in the caring professions and those trying to shape policy and practice for people with disability. In education and schooling, it was a period of cementing inclusive practices and the ‘integration’ and inclusion of disability into ‘mainstream’ (Northway, 2002; Vincent, Evans, Lunt, & Young, 1996; Vislie, 2003). What was lacking in the debates around the social model, however, were the challenges to abledness that were being grappled with in the routine and pragmatics of self-care by people with disabilities, their families, carers and caseworkers. Outside the academy, new forms of activity and new questions were circulating. Challenges to abledness flourished in the arts and constituted the lived experience of many disability activists. In the early 1990s, for instance, performing arts companies such as the London-based CanDoCo and Restless Dance Theatre1 in Adelaide, Australia, were making dance and redefining its boundaries as physically based performance sourced in bodily capacity (in preference to disciplining the body into extant genres of ‘the dancing body)

As digital natives enter higher education, there is the need to improve their information skills but they often overestimate their information research skills and are unfamiliar with the library. The serious games give the opportunity for innovative and engaging approaches to information literacy learning. The paper describes NAVIGATE - Information Literacy: a Game-based Learning Approach for Avoiding Fake Content, a project funded by Erasmus + program. The Project aims to improve the competences to avoid fake content of the higher education students in the Humanities. The paper focuses on the comparative analysis of the students’ skills gap and the difficulty of actually assessing the learning improvement achieved by games, highlighting the lessons learned and the open issues.

This work focuses on facilitating upper elementary students’ media literacy skills development. Students engage in authentic techniques to recognize and verify media content and sources. Relevant background topics follow this structure: (a) introduction including literature review and purpose, (b) brief history of fake news, (c) impacts of misleading information on society, and (d) how to moderate fake news. The final student inquiry adheres to the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies. Students investigate these questions: What is fake news? Why should I care? How can fake news affect people and institutions? Why does fake news affect our lives and societies? Interactive, current resources are included to activate students’ abilities to discern multiple fake news concepts and categories. Extra resources accentuate students’ debate skills regarding free speech rights versus media ambiguity. Recommendations for students’ public informed action solutions are discussed.

Geography instructors have a role to play in helping their students to become more information literate. This is especially important today, given the complex and dynamic nature of our informational landscape, and given the evidence that young people lack much of the knowledge that is needed to engage with information critically. This paper reports on the effectiveness of an information literacy module that was included as part of a course on the Geography of the Middle East. It describes the design and rollout of the module, and the results of a study designed to assess the effectiveness of the module and the class on students’ information literacy, and to better understand students’ existing relationship to information about the Middle East. The findings of the study suggest several ways that future iterations of the module might be improved.

This chapter presents how media literacy education can correct biased practices in the media realm to promote the welfare of disabled people (Friesem, 2017). It dwells on the role and impact of media and media literacy education on the lives of disabled people. Specifically, it examines the locus of disabled people in the media to identify factors that hinder and enable involvement of disabled people in the media. Understanding how the portrayals of disability in the media affect the disability community, especially learners with disabilities, is critical in understanding ways that media literacy education can contribute to the dismantling of institutionalized ableism and to the empowerment of disabled people. This can be realized when disability studies are infused in media literacy education to promote individual transformation and media industry and society reformation (National Association for Media Literacy Education [NAMLE], 2007).

Background: Today, the importance of teaching media literacy in education has been highlighted, and the need for effective instructional design in this field has received more attention. This research attempts to investigate the effect of the Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) model on developing media literacy. Method: This study employs a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design. The research subjects were recruited from tenth-grade students at secondary schools in Mashhad, Iran. A total of 30 students were selected as the sample using the convenience sampling method. Fifteen students were placed in the experimental group, and the rest were placed in the control group. Result: Statistical analysis (ANCOVA, MANCOVA & MANOVA) showed that designing instruction based on the complex-learning model (4C/ID) improved learning outcomes, critical thinking, and conscious interaction with the media. Conclusion: Acquiring media literacy competence is a complex learning process. Based on the results of this study, the four-component instructional design model (4C/ID) can promote the development of media literacy skills in students.

Library research instruction is most effective in First-Year Writing (FYW) when the instructor and participating librarians collaborate. In this case study from Eastern Washington University, an instructor-librarian collaborative partnership was taken to a deep, sophisticated level. The instructor and librarians utilized a flipped classroom model to introduce students to the academic research process within a writing context. The results of an assessment of student learning from this class (pre-survey versus post-survey) indicated that a collaborative flipped classroom maximized student learning in information literacy skills.

This study utilized global publication trends and patterns to comprehensively analyze current research on artificial intelligence (AI) and information literacy (IL) in higher-education institutions (HEIs). This study employed bibliometric indicators to identify key trends, patterns, and research gaps in the literature review. A comprehensive dataset of 701 research papers on AI and IL in HEIs published between 2015 and 2025 was collected and analyzed via the Web of Science database. Various bibliometric tools, such as Biblioshiny, HistCite, VOSviewer, and Python, were used to enhance this analysis. The findings of this study reveal exponential growth in publications, particularly after the emergence of generative AI and ChatGPT, underscoring the dynamic nature of the field. China, the USA, and the UK dominate productivity, whereas countries such as India and Germany demonstrate high citation impacts despite fewer outputs. Author productivity analysis deviates from Lotka’s Law, showing that most contributors published only once, whereas a few scholars and journals shaped discourse. Thematic mapping identified artificial intelligence, higher education, and literacy as core research clusters, with emerging attention to generative AI, chatbots and ethics. Despite its rapid expansion, research remains fragmented, with significant gaps in conceptual clarity, ethical considerations, and inclusivity across different regions. This study contributes to the understanding of the evolving role of AI in advancing IL, offering insights into future pedagogies, policies, and interdisciplinary collaboration in higher education and beyond.

Information literacy in higher education and academic research has proliferated. From 1991 to 2020, a total of 9,400 research publications on information literacy and higher education were produced steadily, as indexed in Web of Science (WoS) on 10 June 2021. This study shows the scientometric visualisation of information literacy and research in higher education using quantifiable characteristics from the publication’s dataset. The results disclose that the publication growth rate (16.84%) is highly significant for a synergistic response. Due to the productivity of authors, total of 470 papers were produced on an average per year from 1991 to 2020. Several academic publishers have allowed immediate access to their preprints and also allowed open access. The research output on Information Literacy has been published in more than 1256 journals. The results shows that most of the publications were in the domain of educational research and Library and Information Science. However, closely associated terms are health literacy, education, information literacy, higher education, and so on. Academic pivots are mainly located in Germany, USA, Australia, India, and Canada. The University of California, USA; The State University System of Florida, USA; and The University of London, UK are outstanding productive institutions. The G20 countries together produced 90% of the world’s research output on information literacy and higher education and also identified encouraging trends in collaborative research in several countries. Thus, the CI (3.757), DC (0.862), and CC (0.584) values are very substantial. Lastly, the geographic range of collaborating authors thereby visualized their linkages through co-occurrences. It analysed the influence of publications to show the most dominant contributions of global research on information literacy and higher education.

The purpose of this study was to explore the current practices of information literacy instruction in the libraries of universities in Pakistan. The research method consisted of a quantitative approach using a structured questionnaire for empirical data collection, which was sent to the universities and degree awarding institutions recognised by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. The collected data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS version-24). Both the descriptive (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation) and inferential (Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney U statistic) testing were applied for analysing the data. The findings of the study show that 63% of the responding university libraries offer information literacy (IL) education mostly to new students and this ranges from basic to advanced skills. Face-to-face delivery is the most popular IL delivery method. The IL instruction appears to take place in library training rooms. The outcome of this study will help the Library and Information Sciences (LIS) schools, library associations, and universities comprehend the present status of information literacy instructions in the libraries of Pakistani universities.

Information literacy (IL) is generally accepted as an important learning competency in undergraduate education and is directly and indirectly mentioned in many national accrediting bodies’ standards. While information literacy has been seen as the sole domain of librarians, research shows that disciplinary faculty believe it is important and teach it in their classes. This study reports the findings from a survey conducted at California State University, Los Angeles on faculty’s information literacy teaching practices. The results show that faculty take responsibility for teaching all areas of information literacy and do so in a variety of ways.

This paper advocates for increased news media analysis within the disability studies field. Using a media research project about Canadian news media coverage of disability, this paper explores the shifting nature of recent disability coverage within Canadian newspapers between 2009 and 2010. As a group of researchers in Canada and the USA, who have undertaken numerous content analyses of news media representations of disability, we argue that a paradigm shift is taking place in which some traditional news media representations of people with disabilities are now being framed through a disability rights lens. This paper’s analysis is based on data collected by the Toronto-based Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI). The project investigates Canadian news coverage of disability issues through Joseph Gusfield’s theory of societal “ownership” of a public problem, which in this case means discrimination against and societal barriers for people with disabilities become identified problems that need to be solved within Canadian society.

Warning signs for the health of the American democracy abound. These challenges have multiple manifestations and multiple roots, but media and the Internet, more broadly, are implicated in prominent ways. Schools, the institutions charged with educating current and future generations, have a role to play in supporting the preparation of an informed citizenry. This study examines the extent to which state level legislation supports the provision of civically oriented media literacy education. To do so, we first identify several critically needed media literacy education dimensions and then examine how well existing legislation from all 50 states responds to these identified needs. Findings reveal that not only is there an overall dearth of K-12 media literacy policy, but definitions and corresponding resources remain sparse and varied. For schools to fulfill their role of providing young people with the knowledge, skills, and commitments to participate and promote a vibrant and informed democracy, this study concludes that more must be done to support media literacy education within state level policy.

Interest in media literacy education is increasing across the United States and around the world but little is still known about the prevalence of various instructional practices used to implement it in elementary and secondary schools. Surveys and semi-structured interviews with a statewide quota sample of education stakeholders included school leaders, educators, librarians, elected public officials, parents, and members of the community in all 24 school districts in Rhode Island. Results show that only a few instructional practices are implemented with most or nearly all students in the state. However, the implementation of various media literacy instructional practices varied considerably from one community to another but these differences were not due to the size of the community, its geographic location, or its socioeconomic status. Nearly half the variance in instructional practices can be accounted for by obstacles including technology limitations, school policies, academic priorities, perceptions of students, and educator response.

In 2016, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) library acquired ProQuest’s discovery tool Summon. To determine when information literacy instruction using Summon would be effective and what aspects should be taught, librarians conducted a usability study. Students completed tasks focused on determining whether Summon is intuitive and whether the interface needs to be taught. Results indicate that students are comfortable with the interface and have few problems with the tool. Instead, participants struggled with critical thinking processes associated with research. Results were used to integrate the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education into instruction.

Even though media literacy education has grown in the United States and around the world, policymakers still lack knowledge about the scope and depth of implementation of media literacy learning activities in the elementary and secondary grades. This study reports how the Media Literacy Implementation Index (MLI) was developed and validated using a quota sample of stakeholders from across all school districts and local communities in Rhode Island. Using an established theoretical framework for media literacy, we first constructed a scale to examine the likelihood that learners may encounter a set of media literacy learning activities. Multiple methods were then used to assess reliability and validity of the instrument including cognitive pretesting, think aloud protocols, a content validation of MLI learning activities in relation to national education standards documents, and statistical validation including principal components analysis to assess internal consistency, reliability, and validity. An easy-to-implement measure of the scope and depth of media literacy education in elementary and secondary schools will be useful to diverse stakeholders including educators, school leaders, librarians, parents, community members, and elected public officials.

Researchers have increasingly called for a framework that critically engages Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED). From the dual lenses of an education technology leadership and a critical media studies scholar, we analyze the challenges faced in education with the exponential uses of AI through a critical digital media literacy lens to create a Critical Media AI Framework. We provide an analysis of the current landscape of challenges in understanding layered bias in AI and strategic approaches to overcome these hurdles through a conceptual framework for AIED practices. Our framework provides conceptual understandings of AI and aligned critical questions. As our purpose is to offer a framework for scholars, instructors, and students to examine AI through a critical media studies lens, we bring together major concepts from seminal frameworks in our respective fields with novel guiding questions to reflect major overarching concepts that students must grasp about the non-neutrality of media as well as the layers of bias and elements of AI that make it unique from other types of media. Through critical questioning and understanding of these biases, we show that students can be empowered to be critical engagers and to reimagine the ways in which AI can be used.

Acquisition of information literacy (IL) skills is useful for creators and users of information. Learning IL skills can benefit individuals who are the least empowered to engage with sophisticated systems to access information. This study investigates key IL frameworks and models, for reference to the skills needed to save and re-find analogue information, and to recommend the best approach for communities who have limited access to information and would benefit from saving information that they may need again. A critique of existing IL frameworks and models from the perspective of accessibility and the sustainability of information content for marginalised communities is reported. This study spans the period 1975-2023, investigating IL frameworks and models approaches to the management and preservation of non-digital, or user-created, written documents. Existing IL frameworks and models were found to be inadequate as they did not include any processes for analogue documents. This finding has wide-ranging implications for future IL frameworks, for if they include strategies for analogue information, or develop separate IL frameworks for such contexts, it has the potential to help various underserved communities across the world. The findings could enhance IL teaching, practice and application in society beyond the education sector.

A pilot investigation examined the views of 105 first-year students on an Information Literacy (IL) training program at the University of Namibia (UNAM), with 69 participants providing feedback. This research employed a case study methodology to evaluate the viability of incorporating IL into the curriculum through a joint initiative between the university library and the Language Centre Department at UNAM’s Windhoek Campus. The study centered on English for General Communication courses, analyzing students’ experiences, obstacles, and suggestions. The results indicated that a session on past exam papers was deemed the most valuable by 50 respondents. Furthermore, 10 students found the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) session beneficial, whilst nine preferred the e-resources component. However, mature students displayed notable unease when using the OPAC, exhibiting hesitation and frustration during practical book searches. Although past exam papers emerged as the most helpful resource, students indicated needing additional clarification to navigate e-resources and OPAC. These findings inform a crucial institutional decision: the endorsement and integration of an IL course into the Academic Literacy module for all first-year students commencing in 2023. A subsequent assessment is scheduled for 2025 to evaluate students’ perspectives and academic progress, ensuring the ongoing enhancement of IL instruction.

The emergence of artificial intelligence has necessitated a transformation in pedagogical methodologies. This study evaluated the integration of gamified project-based learning (GPBL) and artificial intelligence-generated content (AIGC) tools in enhancing information literacy education. The primary objectives were to explore the relationship among students’ learning experiences, information literacy, creativity, and engagement in an integrated learning environment. Using an explanatory sequential design with surveys and interviews, first-year university students (n = 36) from the School of Art and Design participated. Results indicated that students perceived moderately high levels of engagement(3.72) and creativity(4.11) during the GPBL activities, with positive emotions contributing significantly to motivation. Moreover, information literacy skills have substantially improved, such as in information retrieval, using AIGC tools, and understanding the ethical aspects of AI technology. A process model illustrated how positive emotions, motivation, creativity, engagement, and information literacy were linked in a GPBL-incorporating AI setting.

Islamic education in Indonesia confronts challenges including social inequalities and critical thinking deficiencies among graduates. Traditional teacher-centered pedagogical approaches emphasizing memorization may limit students’ capacity for critical inquiry and social transformation. This study investigates the integration of critical pedagogy within Islamic educational contexts while maintaining spiritual and cultural authenticity. Using grounded theory methodology, this research examined five Islamic educational institutions involving 67 participants. Data collection included observation, in-depth interviews, and document analysis, Seven major themes emerged: navigating epistemological tensions, transformation of authority relationships, cultural adaptation, student agency within Islamic values, technology integration, assessment transformation, and institutional variations. The study revealed that perceived conflicts between critical pedagogy and Islamic education often result from categorical misunderstandings rather than fundamental incompatibilities. A key innovation was developing ‘double hermeneutics’ - distinguishing between divine revelation and human interpretation - enabling critical engagement while maintaining religious reverence. The Critical-Integrative Pedagogy Model emerged, incorporating epistemological integration, pedagogical transformation, cultural contextualization, and social transformation components. Pilot implementations demonstrated significant improvements in critical thinking measures (p < 0.05), with 94% participant support and 89% increased student engagement while maintaining Islamic knowledge retention. This research demonstrates that critical pedagogy can successfully strengthen rather than compromise Islamic identity in educational contexts.

Work on students’ information literacy and research trajectories is usually based on studies of Western, English-speaking students. South Korea presents an opportunity to investigate an environment where Internet penetration is very high, but local Internet users operate in a different digital ecosystem than in the West, with services such as Google and Wikipedia being less popular. The current study is aimed at expanding a small body of research about Korean students’ behaviour regarding how they perceive and use various online research platforms, and in doing so exploring how they differ from non-Korean students, more commonly studied in similar literature. First, we explore what sources students use for study- or work-related assignments as well as personal needs and interests. Second, we look at how they evaluate and use those sources. We find that Korean students use Wikipedia but less so than their peers from other countries, despite their recognition that Wikipedia is more reliable and comprehensive than the alternatives. Their preferences are instead affected by their perception of Wikipedia as providing an inferior user experience and less local content than competing, commercial services, which also benefit from better search engine result placement in Naver, the search engine dominating the Korean market.