Media and Information Literacy Repository – South Asia

Information literacy is an essential skill for biologists; however, most biology curricula do not intentionally integrate information literacy into classroom and laboratory exercises. There is evidence that developing information literacy skills in undergraduates improves their research skills, writing, and GPAs. Our objective was to integrate information literacy skills into a first semester introductory biology laboratory with a multi-week, inquiry-based module that leverages primary literature. Here we describe the module, which challenges students to develop and test a hypothesis related to parental care behaviour in birds. Students form hypotheses based on literature searching done during librarian-led information literacy sessions, produce an annotated bibliography, collect and analyse video data of barn swallows feeding their offspring, and present their findings. Analysis of students’ annotated bibliographies indicates that 83% of the referenced papers were appropriate for developing their specific hypotheses. The key elements ofa successful information literacy training plan include faculty-librarian collaboration, multiple classroom or laboratory sessions that introduce or utilize information literacy, and relevance ofthe information literacy training to an assignment. By introducing information literacy early inbiology curricula, departments can develop tiered information literacy plans that incorporate opportunities for students to use and refine these skills throughout their studies.

Internet and media use can provide accessible, diverse, and timely opportunities for civic engagement. However, to use media and the internet to interact and collaborate, citizens need to be equipped with particular skills and knowledge. This study draws on a national survey of Australian adults (N = 3,510) to examine how media abilities and online interaction activities are related to their civic engagement. The findings suggest that the more active people are online, interacting with content or other people, the more likely they are to be engaged in civic activities. The data also shows that those with a higher level of confidence in their media abilities are more likely to engage in more civic activities. A broader understanding of the multidimensional characteristics of media literacy is needed to consider the role online interaction activities and media literacy abilities play in contributing to civic engagement. At the same time, the research suggests that equipping citizens with media literacy as well as enabling them to use the interactive functions of digital media can increase citizens’ civic engagement.

The existing literature highlights social network sites (SNS) as important channels for consuming news and receiving misinformation. However, people surf multiple SNS daily, such as Facebook, Twitter, Line, etc. People also connect and interact with each other, given the characteristics of specific SNS. Driven by partisan bias, partisan supporters may be driven to converge on a specific SNS due to a political echo chamber that exists there. In such a partisan convergence scenario, politicized SNS usage may lead to bias to color the spread of fact-checking and, therefore, politically bias SNS users’ level of media literacy. We examine this hypothesis in a pre-registered national survey (n = 1060) in the 2020 Taiwan Presidential Election. Results show that (1), in general, the usage of the private messaging app Line is related to a lower level of media literacy. The effect holds across political and non-political misinformation items. (2) DPP supporters are much more likely to use Facebook than other supporters, while their political opponents are alienated from Facebook. Therefore, (3) Facebook usage is related to a higher media literacy discerning DPP-related fake news but not others, and the effect exists beyond DPP supporters.

This article is the result of work carried out within the scope of Erasmus+ project Kit@: Media competency training for professionals in day-care centres and comparable institutions in rural areas of Europe. Its main objective is to describe ECE systems, curriculum guidelines, pre-service teacher training curricula and teacher profiles related to media education and ICT use in ECE across the Europe project partners from Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Portugal, and Slovakia. Data collection was carried out by documentary consultation of the curriculum guidelines of each country involved and a questionnaire on ICT use and media education in ECE, specifically developed for this purpose, answered by partners participating in the Kit@ project, and through consultation of official international reports (e.g., OECD, EURYDICE), who collected the data between January and July, 2018. Findings indicate there is a pedagogical area in all countries where the use of ICT and media education is referred to directly or indirectly in the ECE curriculum. However, in most countries, there are no guidelines for media education in initial education. Furthermore, the training of professionals and costs in ECE are quite different. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for media literacy practices in kindergarten across Europe.

This paper discusses the fragmented nature of media literacy and its relationship with technology. It highlights the need for standardised media literacy strategies, particularly the strand that deal with evaluation, which can help address the challenges of the current media landscape (e.g. the fake news phenomenon). Subsequently, we introduce early work towards developing a new evaluative media literacy tool that can empower media consumers to think strategically about the information they are exposed to. This tool, called Fallasigns, is based primarily on research that suggests news topics can attract specific logical flaws. Fallasigns cultivates the ability to anticipate the most likely logical and rhetorical pitfalls to emerge in a news story before being exposed to it. We argue that this strategy may work to effectively inoculate media consumers and provide a more systematic approachwhen evaluating information.

Information literacy focuses on knowing how to use information for work and civic duties, however, critical information literacy goes a step further to recognize that a source’s good reputation does not mean that the source is accurate or unbiased. Critical information literacy questions the motives of the systems that produce the information and includes the knowledge of students so that they influence the lesson as well. Librarians have made critical information literacy a part of their lessons in a variety of ways, and teaching critical information literacy is rooted in critical pedagogy. A review of the literature on critical information literacy and a discussion of the American Association of College and Research Libraries’ framework “Authority Is Constructed and Contextual” in a critical information literacy lesson in an advanced legal research class is considered.

Studies on information and media literacy focus on describing activities and frameworks individually, and most of the time, connect within the field of library science. However, other frameworks and practices can be used. This case study presents the application of Behrman’s Critical Literacy Practices to information and media literacy to engage students to think critically about information within their field of study. The purpose of this research is to model the information behavior of education students through the perspective of constructivist learning. The study used a qualitative method with six upper-level undergraduate education majors. Activities that comprise practices and theories in both education and library sciences are presented to form a continuous exposure to critical thinking. Factors that influenced how students perceived the validity of information came from personal, educational, and societal factors. This research contributes to the ongoing discussion about critical thinking skills in undergraduate students, presenting a model that describes how practices from other fields can be used and incorporated with information and media literacy.

Engaging with digital media is part of everyday living for the majority of children, yet opportunities to learn about, through and with media are denied many pupils in compulsory schooling. Whilst Media Studies in the UK is internationally reputed to be well established, changes made to the primary and secondary national curriculum in 2014 included removal of existing media study elements. We demonstrate what is lost by these actions in relation to the United Nations Rights of the Child and, in particular, the right of the child to express identity. We demonstrate how media literacy had previously been included in curriculum, enabling opportunities to address children’s rights, and propose that the absence of media education is part of an overall trend of the non-prioritisation of children’s rights in England and Northern Ireland. The paper calls for media literacy to be reintroduced into primary and secondary curriculum.

Young people need strong digital information literacy (DIL) skills to effectively source, interpret and evaluate the credibility of online information. As DIL educators and advocates within contemporary schools, school library professionals can provide cross-contextual insights into their students’ DIL knowledge, skills and learning opportunities. Data from the 2024 International School Library Workforce Survey suggest that developing DIL may not be a typical priority in all schools and countries. Students’ DIL was felt to be low. School library professionals may be underutilized for supporting DIL learning in 35% of contexts, highlighting the need for greater understanding of this professional role.

Background: The assessment of cross-curricular skills is gaining attention in many countries. In Japan, the ‘Information Literacy Survey for Upper Secondary Students’ (the ILSUS) was designed to measure information literacy through Computer-Based Testing (CBT). It was the first large-scale survey based on Item Response Theory (IRT) implemented by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Purpose: This paper reports on the history and development of the survey and discusses its findings. As ‘information literacy’ is a generic and cross-curricular ability, we measured cognitive ability relating to how information can be utilised for problem-solving. Main argument: We present some released survey items that were actually used in the ILSUS, to explain how the items covered three aspects of ‘information literacy’. Using proficiency levels, we discuss what the findings indicated about the features of the students’ ‘information literacy’: it was evident that, whilst many had the ability to deal with complex and large amounts of information, few were able to address unfamiliar contexts. Then, using questionnaire items from the ILSUS, we report how we determined that ‘information literacy’ was strongly associated with ‘student-teacher relationships’ and ‘meta-cognition’. Conclusion: This account of the ILSUS offers insight into how we measured information literacy and, more widely, the kinds of skills that Japanese education policy is trying to develop. In planning a new Information Literacy Survey (ILS), we will try to capture what has not been clarified yet, such as the trends in information literacy and differences between educational stages. It may ultimately become possible to specify, more clearly, the goals and teaching methods that should be aimed at in the acquisition and teaching of information literacy.

The study investigates the effect of gender-integrated media literacy and media literacy training in terms of pre-service teachers’ noticing and analysing gendered messages in the media, and developing attitudes and consciousness towards these messages. The experimental design was used to examine whether the training sessions resulted in a change in the traits that were used to measure in pre-service teachers. The research data were collected through the Gender Equality-Conscious Media Literacy Scale, and the pre-test-post-test scores were analysed. Furthermore, the perspectives of pre-service teachers who participated in the training sessions were investigated using content analysis after the training sessions. Gender-integrated media literacy training was found to be a highly effective method of noticing and analysing gendered elements in the media.

Online environments are now central to political life, especially for youngpeople. They are prominent contexts for activities that include: fundraising,political debate, sharing political perspectives, mobilizing individuals andgroups to act, and applying pressure to governments, corporations, andnonprofits. Much of this online politically focused activity occurs within abroader media ecology that can be characterized as a participatoryculture (Jenkins, H., R. Purushotma, K. Clinton, M. Weigel, andA. J. Robison. [2009]. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:Media Education for the 21st Century. Occasional Paper on Digital Mediaand Learning. Chicago: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation).Many have argued that media literacy efforts are needed for youth tofully leverage these digital opportunities, but rigorous studies of sucheducational efforts are just beginning to emerge. Drawing on an originalpanel survey, this paper examines whether efforts to promote digitalengagement literacies increase youth online engagement in politics. Wefind that they do. Educators’ efforts to foster digital engagement literacies increase youth engagement in participatory politics and inapplying targeted political pressure to government, corporations, and nonprofits.

This article explores issues of critical media literacy with middle school students in an urban setting in the United States. The author focuses on data from a qualitative study engaging students in the reading and writing of video texts. The article examines intersections of issues relating to the “crisis of representation” in social science research and critical media literacy pedagogy. The middle school participants involved in this media literacy project proved to be quite articulate in regard to their critique of mainstream media. In addition, the students resisted teacher-centered approaches to critical media literacy that would have them creating counternarratives based on the “politics of the mundane.” The author argues for the importance of a critical media literacy pedagogy that is careful to make curricular space for students' discussions and explorations of issues of representation in media texts.

With the advent of new media technologies, the role of media in a society has been changed that leads researchers to re-construct the meaning of literacy from classic literacy to new media literacy. There have been continuing efforts to understand new media and promote the importance of becoming new media literate among researchers, educators, and policy makers. Fundamental understanding to what is new media literacy still remains unclear. There is only one paper providing the preliminary work in unpacking the framework of new media literacy. Although the developed framework has its merit, more details and information need to further elaborate and refine. In this paper, we acknowledge the two continua framework and endorse four types of literacy comprising of this two-continua. Moreover, we provide ten fine-grained indicators to reflect these four types of literacy. We also propose another new divide that distinguishes Web1.0 from Web2.0.

Every five years since 1995, the GMMP has documented trends in the portrayal and representation of women and men in news media discourse and imagery. The qualitative and quantitative evidence gathered has revealed that women are grossly underrepresented in news coverage in contrast to men. The outcome of underrepresentation is an imbalanced picture of the world, one in which women are largely absent. Further, the studies have shown a paucity of women’s voices in news media content in contrast to men’s perspectives, resulting in news that presents a male-centred view of the world

This handbook is intended for teachers and teacher trainers in formal school settings at the secondary school level. It aims to provide teachers with relevant and accessible educational resources that aim to support the development of youth who are critically informed, socially connected, and ethically responsible and engaged. It may also be of interest to professionals working in non-formal education settings or other sectors – namely the justice, social and health sectors – working with secondary level students

The flagship IWMD report offers data on women's participation in news-making operations, decision-making hierarchy and ownership structure of media companies across the world. It aims to promote women's voices in news gathering and their participation in news dissemination processes. The data was gathered by a team of over 150 researchers who interviewed executive-level staff in over 500 news companies in more than 59 countries.

The information explosion has increased accessibility and relevance problems. Misinformation and disinformation accentuate problems for scholarly users in differentiating between genuine and fake information. The negative impact of this factor is worsened when there is also a lack of information literacy. This research aims to identify information literacy models that can minimize or, preferably, overcome this problem. A comprehensive literature review of 175 scholarly articles and other relevant online sources was undertaken. The literature exploration meticulously employed strategically chosen key terms, delving exclusively into a curated selection of preeminent and trustworthy sources for a comprehensive and impactful review. The review systematically deliberated on integrating misinformation and disinformation issues into the information literacy framework, probing the prospect of substantially alleviating the challenges. This study aimed to understand whether current information literacy models can appropriately identify misinformation and disinformation. The information gleaned indicated that existing information literacy models could not correctly identify misinformation and disinformation. Accordingly, there is a need to improve strategies and methods for identifying misinformation and disinformation. The study proposed an information literacy model to identify misinformation and disinformation, benefiting library professionals, patrons, academicians, IT professionals involved in library services, library and information service policymakers, and authors.

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.

Almost one in two women journalists have suffered sexual harassment, psychological abuse, online trolling and others forms of gender-based violence (GBV) while working.

Often coined as digital natives, contemporary teens are ascribed a paradoxical status of skilled but vulnerable media users. Therefore, media literacy initiatives often target young audiences in order to mitigate detrimental media effects as well as to facilitate emancipatory media engagements. The literature on media literacy draws from diverse disciplines (e.g. educational sciences, media studies) and examines a wide range of thematic areas (e.g. privacy, news, citizenship). However, the voices of those who are the target population of media literacy policy and research are seldom heard. We identify the absence of teenagers’ perceptions and experiences as a limitation in contemporary debates on media literacy. Therefore, this study aims to shed light on how teenagers give meaning to media literacy, how they perceive the contemporary discourse on the importance of media literacy for teens, and in which way they encounter concrete media literacy initiatives at school. Based on in-depth interviews with 31 high-school students between 16 and 18 year old, we found how teenagers primarily have a risk discourse in mind when talking about media literacy. Contextualizing these perceptions, it became clear that both the public discourse and media literacy initiatives largely draw from protectionist approaches.

This paper argues that the coloniality of global knowledge has centralized the Global North to the media literacy debate, leaving some non-western countries to abandon their own experience while mimicking western theory and practice. This paper highlights three major historical events that exemplify the westernization of media literacy and calls for geo-culturalism in its conceptualization to accommodate locations like East Africa whose digital media practice is rooted in their colonial past. Using field data from three East African countries, the paper argues that the geo-cultural approach can help decolonize the debate by accounting for the media literacy variations brought in by varying social-political experiences.

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.

GMMP 2015 affords an opportunity to assess how far the vision for media gender equality has been achieved over the past two decades, and identify persistent and emerging challenges. The results are based on data gathered by volunteer teams in 114 countries, who monitored 22,136 stories published, broadcast or tweeted by 2,030 distinct media houses, written or presented by 26,010 journalists and containing 45,402 people interviewed and/ or subjects of the stories. Among the key findings, GMMP 2015 reveals that the rate of progress towards media gender parity has almost ground to a halt over the past five years.

This article proposes a theoretical framework for how critical digital literacy, conceptualized as incorporating Internet users’ utopian/dystopian imaginaries of society in the digital age, facilitates civic engagement. To do so, after reviewing media literacy research, it draws on utopian studies and political theory to frame utopian thinking as relying dialectically on utopianism and dystopianism. Conceptualizing critical digital literacy as incorporating utopianism/dystopianism prescribes that constructing and deploying an understanding of the Internet’s civic potentials and limitations is crucial to pursuing civic opportunities. The framework proposed, which has implications for media literacy research and practice, allows us to (1) disentangle users’ imaginaries of civic life from their imaginaries of the Internet, (2) resist the collapse of critical digital literacy into civic engagement that is understood as inherently progressive, and (3) problematize polarizing conclusions about users’ interpretations of the Internet as either crucial or detrimental to their online engagement.