Media and Information Literacy Repository – South Asia

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.

This study investigates how Omani youth perceive the safety and transparency of social media platforms as tools for civic engagement. Using a mixed-methods approach, data were collected from a nationwide survey of 346 respondents aged 18–29 and three virtual focus group discussions containing 15 participants. Survey respondents were selected through random sampling to ensure representation across gender, region, and socio-economic background. Focus group participants were also randomly drawn from the survey pool and stratified by age to capture generational differences in perception and behavior. Findings indicate that while social media platforms are recognized as accessible and interactive spaces that facilitate awareness and civic expression, significant concerns persist regarding data privacy, misinterpretation, and online harassment. Informative content and user-generated media were found to foster accountability, while entertainment-driven posts and emotionally charged activism often led to polarization or disengagement. The paper calls for enhanced digital literacy, context-sensitive platform moderation policies, and institutional support for transparent digital civic spaces.

Social media use has redefined the production, experience and consumption of news media. These changes have made verifying and trusting news content more complicated and this has led to a number of recent flashpoints for claims and counter-claims of ‘fake news’ at critical moments during elections, natural disasters and acts of terrorism. Concerns regarding the actual and potential social impact of fake news led us to carry out the first nationally representative survey of young Australians’ news practices and experiences. Our analysis finds that while social media is one of young people’s preferred sources of news, they are not confident about spotting fake news online and many rarely or never check the source of news stories. Our findings raise important questions regarding about the need for news media literacy education – both in schools and in the home. Therefore, we consider the historical development of news media literacy education and critique the relevance of dominant frameworks and pedagogies currently in use. We find that news media has become neglected in media literacy education in Australia over the past three decades and we propose that current media literacy frameworks and pedagogies in use need to be rethought for the digital age.

The aim of this study was to advance understanding of how to foster media literacy among older people. A systematic review was conducted of 40 empirical studies published between January 2005 and April 2019. The literature review provided information and practical implications for researchers, designers, and providers of media-literacy education for older people. Based on the review, it can be concluded that interventions aimed at fostering media literacy in older people need further development and creative enrichment in terms of aims, content, providers, recipients, and pedagogical approaches.

This article presents a systematic meta-review of the scientific literature discussing the concepts of information literacy, media literacy, and digital literacy. While carrying out a cross analysis of the way in which literature reviews specifically address these three concepts, this article identifies, and articulates a critical analysis of, the main findings from the reviewed texts regarding the conceptual landscape that they cover. This work highlights confusion between the constitutive dimensions of literacies, recurrent difficulties in establishing theoretical articulations between contributions, and operationalization problems in observing and assessing these literacies. These issues are the subject of a discussion grounded in the specific field of media education.

The study examines the factors influencing K–12 teachers’ intentions to learn artificial intelligence, addressing the gap in educators’ understanding and effective use of AI in education. Based on survey data from 318 teachers across multiple regions in China and analyzed through structural equation modeling, the findings identify key determinants of AI learning intentions. Teachers’ perceptions of AI’s potential for social good and their self-efficacy in learning AI directly predict their intention to engage with AI learning. Awareness of AI ethics and overall AI literacy function as indirect influences.

The article presents an interdisciplinary framework for designing introductory AI literacy courses that move beyond the technical focus of traditional computer science curricula. Drawing on teaching experiences across general education, computer science majors, and high school settings, the authors refine a socio-technical AI literacy model adaptable to diverse learners. The proposed course design is structured around four pillars: understanding AI’s technical scope, interacting effectively with generative AI tools, applying ethical and responsible AI principles, and analyzing AI’s societal implications.

The article proposes a comprehensive framework for data and AI literacy designed to support their systematic integration into school curricula, teacher education, higher education, and lifelong learning programs. It seeks to establish a shared conceptual foundation that treats data and AI literacy as transdisciplinary competencies across three perspectives: application-oriented, technical-methodological, and socio-cultural. The framework aims to equip citizens with the skills needed to engage with data and AI consciously and ethically in a data-driven society.

This article introduces a competency-based model for generative artificial intelligence (AI) literacy covering essential skills and knowledge areas necessary to interact with generative AI. The competencies range from foundational AI literacy to prompt engineering and programming skills, including ethical and legal considerations. These 12 competencies offer a framework for individuals, policymakers, government officials, and educators looking to navigate and take advantage of the potential of generative AI responsibly. Embedding these competencies into educational programs and professional training initiatives can equip individuals to become responsible and informed users and creators of generative AI.

The manual is based on the principle of integrating the education and practice of journalism. The first part of the book is focused on explaining the basics of media and information literacy. The use of the term “media” throughout this document refers to two dimensions. Firstly, there is the news media as an institution, the “fourth estate”, having specific professional functions that its constituents pledge to fulfil in democratic societies and which are necessary for good governance and development. This includes radio, television and newspapers, whether online or offline, as well as journalistic content on the Internet. Secondly, there is media as the plural of the term “medium”, and which here refers to multiple communication modes such as broadcast and cable television, radio, newspapers, motion pictures, video games, books, magazines, certain uses of the Internet etc. MIL encompasses engagement with all these modes. For its part, UNESCO is particularly concerned with information and news, but recognise that there is other content such as entertainment, interpersonal communications, and advertising.The use of the term “Information providers” throughout this document refers to the information management, information agencies, memory, cultural and Internet information organisations. It includes libraries, archives, museums, documentation centres, information management institutions, not-for-profit and for-profit infor-mation providers, networks, and companies which provide a range of services and content online and others.

An integrative literature review was conducted according to Coopers’ guidelines in order to critique and integrate issues over the convergence among imaginative/Waldorf pedagogy, social-emotional learning and media literacy mindfulness in Primary and Secondary education. A comprehensive analysis of theoretical and empirical articles between 2005 and 2019 was provided. Three research questions were set, discussed and analysed highlighting the followinggaps in the literature: (i) the combination of imagination pedagogies with digital media and social-emotional development is neglected, (ii) there is a lack of longitudinal studies to analyse how social-emotional skills contribute to forming critical media literacy according to student’s developmental stage, (iii) there is urgent need for reconceptualizing media literacy by encompassing and analysing its effects on cognitive, social-emotional and motivational skills development. We provide a framework presenting four perspectives, theoretical, developmental, pedagogical and social, supporting the relationship among imaginative pedagogy, media literacyand social-emotional skills.

Youth turnout at European Parliamentary elections has been dwindling. This study investigates the impact of news media exposure on electoral participation of first time voters. Relying on a data set that combines content analysis of news stories about the EU (N = 769) and a multiple wave panel survey (N = 994), we analyze the impact of exposure to online and offline coverage of relevant topics on turn out across a period of 6 months. We find that exposure to news in offline media had no significant effect on participation, whereas exposure to relevant news in online media positively affected turnout.

New technologies raise fears in public discourse. In terms of digital media use and youth, the advice has been to monitor and limit access to minimize the negative impacts. However, this advice would also limit the positive impacts of digital media. One such positive impact is increased engagement in civic and political life. This article uses meta-analysis techniques to summarize the findings from 106 survey based studies (965 coefficients) about youth, digital media use, and engagement in civic and political life. In this body of research, there is little evidence to suggest that digital media use is having dire impacts on youth’s engagement. We find that the positive impacts depend on directly political uses of digital media, such as blogging, reading online news, and online political discussion. These online activities have off-line consequences on participation, such as contacting officials, talking politics, volunteering, and protesting. We also find a very strong relationship between online political activities, such as joining political groups and signing petitions, with off-line political activities, which undermine claims of slacktivism among youth. Finally, while research generally assumes a causal flow from digital media to participation, the evidence for the alternative causal flow is strong and has very different implications on interventions designed to address youth’s levels of engagement in civic and political life.

In this globalized environment, future instructors must be able to understand and correctly evaluate messages from various sources of media. In this context, the research intends to improve prospective teachers' media literacy knowledge, attitudes, and skills, as well as raise their awareness of media literacy. The study's data collected through applications submitted to the European Union (EU) Project at a public university during the academic year 2021-2022. The study is structured around action research methodology. The research group comprises of 160 aspiring teachers from six different departments within the faculty of education. Prospective teachers were given training during the research. The media literacy level determination scale, student activity sheets, researcher observations, and individual interviews were used to collect data for the project. Quantitative data were analyzed by the statistical analysis Anova method. The content analysis method was used to study the qualitative data. There is a difference between pre-service teachers' initial levels and their levels towards the end of their course, according to the findings of the study. Prospective teachers have gained awareness about media literacy. They've learned about the subjects and abilities that make up media literacy's content. It has been determined that by researching the media, students will utilize it more cautiously, begin to criticize it, and become more conscious of the media's individual and social implications.

The paper analyzes the dual role of artificial intelligence in both combating and amplifying digital disinformation, framing the issue within media ethics and self-regulation. It shows how AI can accelerate the spread of false information, reinforce algorithmic biases, and create new ethical dilemmas—especially in emerging democracies with weaker support systems for ethical journalism. The study argues that existing self-regulatory frameworks must be updated to address AI-driven content production and distribution. It recommends integrating AI accountability into media ethics codes, increasing algorithmic transparency, and providing specialized training for journalists.

The study examines how artificial intelligence and media literacy intersect in shaping journalistic practice and digital media production. Based on a quantitative survey of 150 media professionals at the Iraqi Media Network, the findings show that AI adoption improves content accuracy, production efficiency, and audience engagement. However, these benefits are accompanied by ethical concerns, including misinformation, algorithmic bias, and diminished human editorial oversight. The research highlights AI’s dual character as both a tool for innovation and a risk to professional standards.

The study argues that as AI technologies become central to science and technology news, journalists need stronger AI literacy to fulfill their professional responsibilities. Reporting on AI is uniquely challenging due to the opacity of black-box algorithms and the rapid pace of technological change. At the same time, broader institutional disruptions in journalism further complicate efforts to maintain objectivity, accuracy, and transparency. The authors emphasize that journalists play a key role in educating the public, shaping agendas, and curating scientific information.

The study investigates how media professionals perceive the challenges and responsibilities associated with building AI literacy among journalists. Drawing on qualitative insights from two international workshops involving journalists, civil society representatives, and academic experts, the research identifies key barriers to AI literacy development in newsrooms. It evaluates the adequacy of existing learning resources on AI and AI ethics, finding significant gaps in accessibility and quality. The participants emphasize urgent educational needs, including clearer guidance, practical tools, and ethical frameworks.