Media and Information Literacy Repository – South Asia

The article considers the explanation of the necessity of innovations in the processes of forming institutional forms of media education, the problem of the status of scientific knowledge caused by research of social communication. Overview of alternative practices of media education reflects the dynamics of social transformations, connected with the use of media in the field of education, art, media production and communication services.

Minors are active on social media, not only as consumers but also as content creators. This context has allowed kidfluencers—underage content creators prioritizing interacting with their communities of followers—to emerge. The present research seeks to describe and analyze the content prominent Peruvian kidfluencers generated in 2022 and 2023. To this end, the content of 500 Instagram and 500 TikTok posts was analyzed. Results show that kidfluencers base their popularity on showcasing their artistic talents and lifestyle and that their content heavily features brands. It is also relevant to reflect on the role of minors in social network environments because they are highly exposed and create even sexualized content that is not appropriate for their age.

This paper presents the results of e-MEL, a European project aiming at promoting the development, implementation and testing of training scenarios for pre- and in-service teachers’ training in the field of digital and media literacy education. The analysis of the results led the research team to identify the critical and successful aspects of the testing, and to draw some recommendations for the future implementation of teacher training interventions. The final goal is to reflect on sustainable models of media and digital skills training both in terms of teacher education and teachers’ professional development.

This study explores the representation of socio-cognitive components in Indonesian political multimodal news text using the framework of Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA). With the increasing prominence of multimedia in contemporary news production, understanding how socio-cognitive aspects are conveyed through multiple modes becomes essential. Drawing on SF-MDA, which combines systemic functional linguistics and multimodal analysis, the study examines how Indonesian political news texts incorporate social and cognitive elements to shape meaning and influence audience perceptions. This study was undertaken qualitatively involving three online news published by Indonesia’s publishers as the data. The result reveals that the visual and verbal modes merged in the news tend to highlight the good image of the political figures. It means that the meanings of visual and verbal components of the news persuasively work together to create the good impressions among readers to the human actor in the news. As the implication, multimodal resources are strategically employed to shape public opinion and promote specific political ideologies. Ultimately, this research aims to contribute to the development of critical media literacy and foster a more nuanced understanding of the socio-political dynamics in contemporary Indonesia

As the most obvious provision of social media in the individual world, „selfie“ is confronted ata point where self-confidence is increased or lost. Nowadays, the use of social media startsat a very early age, and self efficacy beliefs are also developing at an early age. However, themadness of selfie is becoming more of an „infantilized“ action. Thus, it can be argued thatit functions as a counterfeit of the self and serves as a mirror in the individual’s world. It isalso true that this „new or pseudo mirror“, which shows us both to ourselves and to others,also raises concerns about perceptual development, curiosity and visibility in the era of selfdiscovery throughout the developmental process. The concept of self-reflection and „selfie“in its social media term emerges at a point where the individual’s internal communication isbroken. It brings a „dual-dyadic“ concept on one hand and a „triad theory“ on the other. Thestudy aims to analyze „selfie“ madness in social media, providing examples and assumptionswithin the framework of these theoretical discussions. The study aims to add new dimensionsto the concept of self portrayals of individuals within national and international examples in thelight of current media scrutiny.

Research addressing non-binary identities and experiences across the media landscape—including the representation of non-binary individuals, but also production and reception processes—remains limited. This article aims to reflect on studying non-binary issues across the media while addressing the central challenges inherent in this work. It begins by situating media studies within the broader context of research on non-binary identities and highlighting the place of non-binary issues within LGBTI/Queer and Trans Media Studies. The article then hones into two main challenges when studying non-binary issues: defining non-binary identities, on the one hand, and non-binary or gender-neutral language, on the other. Following this, a comprehensive review of the existing literature provides a current overview of the research that explicitly engages with non-binary identities in media. Concluding remarks synthesize the main aspects of the article, and outline avenues for future research, aimed at consolidating existing efforts, and fostering a sense of cohesion within the scholarly community researching mediated non-binary identities.

Visualization in various aspects requires students to understand the meaning clearly, particularly through the skill of visual perception. This article examines how students' visual perception skills are applied in interpreting advertisements. The research method employed is a descriptive qualitative approach with multimodal analysis (linguistics, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial) to uncover the meanings behind advertisements. The respondents involved in this study are students from two universities in Indonesia. The results indicate that students tend to engage more with digital-based advertisements than non-digital ones, with a clear preference for video ads over static images. Additionally, Indonesian students successfully applied multimodal analyses to various types of advertisements. These findings have practical implications for educational practices, especially in enhancing visual literacy and developing critical skills for understanding and creating media. The significance of visual literacy in global educational contexts is highlighted, providing insight into its potential applications in curriculum development and advertising literacy.

This paper examines a critical approach to analyzing advertising media messages and describes a number of instructional activities meant to enhance students’ reading and discussion skills, enforce their inferential thinking and critical analysis skills. It also considers linguistic, extralinguistic and extracurricular reasons for integrating advertising media messages in the EFL classroom. The focus is on key media education concepts which rely on applying critical questions advertising media messages. Analysis of advertising messages can help EFL teachers encourage sociocultural interpretation of contemporary media texts and raise students’ media literacy in the EFL classroom.

Engaging with influencer posts has become a prevalent practice among adolescents on social media, exposing them to the combined elements of promotional content and entertainment in influencer marketing. However, the versatile and appealing nature of this content may hinder adolescents’ ability to engage in critical thinking and accurately interpret this hybrid form of advertising. This study aims to investigate adolescents’ capacity to critically process persuasive content shared by influencers, utilizing the five components of digital critical thinking outlined by Van Laar (2019): clarification, evaluation, justification, linking of ideas, and novelty. To analyze minors’ online experiences, a qualitative approach was employed involving twelve discussion groups with a total of 62 children and adolescents aged 11 to 17 in Spain. The findings indicate that the exercise of critical thinking in response to influencer marketing is closely associated with the cognitive and affective dimensions of advertising literacy in adolescents, while wamong them.

This study explores early adolescents’ understanding of and perceptions about the digital advertising system and the types of responses they feel are available as they engage with digital advertising, particularly personalized online ads and influencer marketing, two forms of digital advertising that introduce unique challenges as users must navigate platform dynamics and processes of datafication. To answer these questions, we facilitated an advertising literacy program for 11- and 12-year-old students. We designed the program using what we call the EASY (Ethics of Actors in SYstems) approach, which engages students in role-play activities and reflective discussion, whereby creating an opportunity for students to grapple with the range of actors and the ethical dilemmas that are introduced by and embedded within the multiple components of the digital advertising system. Here we present findings from this program, including how participating students articulated their understandings of and strategies for negotiating the digital advertising system, as well as their ideas for how the system could work more ethically. This research can inform the further development of advertising literacy education that helps adolescents explore how various actors might work toward a transformed digital advertising system.

This paper questions the notion of digital advertising literacy. We first propose a theoretical positioning that tries to think of self-taught literacy, not necessarily linked to education and state intervention, by a daily company with advertising. We will explore the French case, since the nineteenth century, to understand how people developed advertising literacy through different means. In this respect, how can we think of an active receiver, controlling codes instead of manipulated crowds? We will then explore contemporary forms of advertising digital literacy such as online conversation on social networks, algorithmic advertising, and advertising culture

The aim of the conducted study is to reveal the effects of the media literacy course taken by social studies teacher candidates on solving advertising messages they come across. This study is a qualitative study in the pattern of action research. The research group of the study constitutes 48 teacher candidates who are studying in the Department of Social Studies Teaching at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University and took Media Literacy course as a selective course in the 2016-2017 academic year. In the study, the results obtained from the interviews with the students was analyzed using content analysis method. When the findings obtained in this study are evaluated in generally, it is seen that, before giving any information about the media literacy course to the students in the department of social studies teaching, students interpreted detergents, cigarettes, telephone operators, razors, burgers and cakes advertisements as they saw on the screen and without questioning such as "detergent advertisements, cake advertisements, razor advertisements, etc."; after ten weeks of training related to media literacy, the same group of students have approached the same ads text more critically and questionably and have entered into an attitude that reveals the secret information contained in the ads text.

The study explores possible methods of assessing the level of advertising literacy by examining it in juxtaposition with artificial intelligence (AI) and human judgement. The ability to understand advertisements is an important part of being able to correctly interpret information in the media, which helps people recognize techniques in advertising and make decisions based on recognition. Traditional approaches to testing advertising literacy, such as surveys, tests, and qualitative techniques, are important, but have limited scope and granularity of analysis. New technologies that incorporate artificial intelligence allow for deeper exploration of behavior and emotion using hybrid models that combine the accuracy of artificial intelligence with human understanding. The present exploration assesses the possibilities and includes attributes such as effectiveness, benefits and barriers of AI-driven tools and combined technologies. The results suggest the necessity to develop tools for specific target groups and propose methods for combining technological advances with human aspects in order to improve the assessment of advertising literacy. The study highlights the potential of using flexible and easily scalable methods to cope with the increasing complexity of advertising in the current digital age.

This study documents how a high school ESL teacher working with new immigrants ages 14–20 supported the development of their critical thinking and English language skills by using advertising analysis activities. The article examines the use of key critical questions for analyzing media messages and documents instructional activities designed to strengthen students’ vocabulary, reading, and discussion skills to build inferential thinking and critical analysis skills. The researchers focus on four instructional practices used by the participating teacher, which rely on strategies for applying critical questions to analyze advertising: the cloze technique, the question generation approach, practice in analyzing ads using critical questions in class discussion, and a collaborative online writing activity resulting in the creation of a multiparagraph multimedia document. These activities provided a meaningful opportunity for students to practice speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in English while supporting the development of abstract thinking, balancing the learning of new academic language and cultural knowledge, and connecting with students’ prior knowledge, home cultures, and everyday experience

Recent research has called on scholars to develop pedagogical interventions to address issues of media literacy. This teaching note answers that call by describing a media literacy project designed for use in social problems classes. The project acquaints students to the constructionist approach to social problems and the method of content analysis. Guided by the principles of scaffolding, the note discusses how students are guided through a series of readings, assignments, and activities that enables them to analyze how social problems are portrayed in news media. Analysis of student papers and comments reveals an increased understanding of the rhetorical strategies that are commonplace in media coverage of social problems. While designed for social problems, the project can be adjusted and modified for use in other sociology courses.

In the analysis of scientific and pedagogical approaches to news literacy, two fundamentally different areas of research have been identified: practice-oriented and comprehensive. The origins, essence, subject field, and crucial concepts of library and information approach to news literacy are elaborated. The institutionalization patterns of news literacy within the framework of library and information activities have been identified and discussed. The experience of designing an educational discipline on the analysis of news is characterized, and original analytical technology for deconstructing news messages is presented.

Critical thinking in the post-truth era demands that news users develop and maintain a skeptical way of knowing, and cultivate the ability to discern evidence-based and unbiased information to make sound judgments. While adolescents are becoming the most dedicated social media news consumers, the literature is yet to catch up with empirical research on whether adolescents are able to apply critical thinking to make sense of real-life news. We investigated the relationships between social media news consumption, news media literacy, and critical thinking of 1505 adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age. Multivariate analyses suggested an internal news-seeking motivation, a cautious perception towards social media personalized news algorithms, and a reported habit of news-source tracking each independently predicted skills in thinking critically about a real-life news report. Hierarchical regression analysis further indicated the unique and combined variances of news consumption and news media literacy in predicting critical thinking in news. Insights for preparing our youth to become news-literate critical thinkers are discussed.

In our interconnected world, people are witnessing a dramatic increase in access to information and communication. Nevertheless, discerning trustworthy sources, validating information, distinguishing between fact and opinion, determining what content to share, and navigating other related challenges have become increasingly complex. Therefore, people should acquire the knowledge, skill, belief, and behavior to consume and create news informedly and ethically. As young individuals transition into adulthood, they begin to take charge of their life decisions. At this juncture, they must acquire news literacy skills. Thus, the au-thors developed an intervention to enhance news literacy among this age group in a College of Science and Technology employing the student's media competence (SuMeC) framework. Following a three-month training period, the participants' literacy proficiency was assessed through assignments using the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy. The study adds new dimensions to the existing research pool by focusing on how and to what extent college students apply the competencies in everyday life. The findings demonstrate that the intervention effectively integrates news literacy skills among them and the intervention sets an example of how to generate news literacy skills among students in Indian settings.

Purpose This study explores social studies preservice teacher’s orientation toward teaching news media literacy in the era of fake news. Previous literature indicates that many social studies teachers express a desire to maintain neutrality in the classroom. As such, this study focuses on the preservice teachers’ articulated pedagogical practices around news media literacy, as well as the described forces and factors that influence their described stances. Design/methodology/approach This study uses work from the field of political communication to analyze course assignments, semi-structured interviews and survey responses in order to consider the ways 39 preservice social studies teachers articulated their anticipated and enacted pedagogical practices around news media literacy. Findings Findings suggest a prevalent desire among the participants to pursue neutrality by presenting “both sides,” echoing traditional journalistic pursuits of objectivity. The possible consequences of this desire are also explored. Additionally, the study suggests that parents, administrators and the content standards are viewed as forces, which will constrain their practices. Practical implications Using theorizing about the civil sphere, this paper considers implications for teacher educators. The civil sphere may provide a lens with which to analyze news media and may help preservice teachers adopt practices they view as risky. Originality/value This study aims to extend conversations around the teaching of news media, controversial political and social issues and the preparation of social studies teachers in the current social and political ecology by working to align the field with growing conversations in the field of political communication and journalism.

The amount of news on the web often confuses the ideas of the reader, who struggles to disentangle information that is sometimes contradictory and difficult to decipher. In the face of such an articulated scenario, the role played by schools is absolutely central: the development of critical thinking in young people (and by extension in their families) is a necessary condition for facing the complexity of the reality with the right awareness and control. Providing young people with a thorough understanding of the fake news spreading phenomenon is a first step in combating it. To this end, in this article, we propose a serious game whose objective is to let young people experience the typical interaction scenario when faced to a feed of real and fake news in social media. Our proposal focuses on educational workshops, carried out in secondary schools and dedicated to the correct use of information on the web, with particular attention to logical fallacies and cognitive bias mechanisms that lead to the formulation of erroneous reasoning or prevent a comparison from progressing logically. Thanks to an intuitive interface that helps the teacher supervise the whole game session, the students are invited to assess the truthfulness of a small set of news at different levels and to share them with their friends. At the end of the game session, the teacher is provided with an interactive detailed report of the activities that enables the analysis of all participants' actions and behavior. The teacher can use such a report to conduct a classroom lecture in a more engaging and interactive way, by stimulating discussions among the students and raising their curiosity on the subject. Our educational platform has been tested accurately in a broad experimental study involving 217 middle school students. The results show the suitability of the platform in providing a valuable educational tool for supporting educational activities on fake news analysis.

The authors address the goals, objectives and concepts of the project on mass media education in Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The purpose of the study: a comparative analysis of the development of media education in the CIS (1992-2020) at each stage (including theoretical concepts, goals and objectives, role, place, functions, organizational forms of media education in the mainstream education). Object of the study is media education in the countries of the CIS. The research's subject is basic stages of development, theoretical and methodological concept of media education in the CIS countries over the past 25 years. Research objectives are to formulate and justify a set of theoretical stances that make up the methodological basis of research into the history of mass media education in the CIS (1992-2020); to analyze theoretical sources and practical experience of the leading figures of media education in the CIS countries, to determine the essential features, qualities and properties of media education in the CIS countries, to investigate the structure, main stages of historical development, directions, theoretical concepts, goals and objectives, contents, media education technologies in the CIS; to carry out a comparative analysis and systematization of the material, to identify the main theoretical and methodological concepts of media education in the CIS countries, which may be a promising basis for further successful development in the Russian contexts.

With our paper we analyze four renowned media literacy models from Germany, UK and USA to derive, through comparisons, the necessary core competencies which apply to all professions and that are valid across disciplines. In the results, as key-competencies, we identified critical analysis as essential to be able to act as self determined individuals in so called mediatized societies. Further results show that media literacy learning can be developed in formal learning settings, as well as in non formal and in informal learning settings that complement each other. Media literacy promotion is therefore a cross-disciplinary task for all kinds of professionals in the educational and social systems. With referring to the concept of mediatization, we also show the deep social impact of media on people’s lives and explain why it is helpful to see media literacy learning as part of lifelong learning. We finally conclude, that the terms «teaching media literacy» and «media literacy education» are no longer applicable. Instead, we highly recommend the terms «promoting media literacy» and «media literacy learning». By seeing media literacy learning as a cross-disciplinary task and as a process of lifelong learning, our findings can help to unify discussions about media literacy on a global level.

The purpose of this study is to analyze and compare the concepts of media literacy and computer literacy based on the works indexed on the Web of Science. The present study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of methodology with a scientometric approach in which network analysis techniques have been used. The research community of scientific products is related to the subject of media literacy and computer literacy. Findings indicate that 1736 works have been indexed in the field of media literacy and 772 works in the field of computer literacy. Fedro in the field of media literacy and Grasser AC have the most products in the field of computer literacy. Among the countries, the United States is in the first place in two areas, among which Iran with 11 works is in the position of 31 computer literacy, and with 8 works is in the position of 19 media literacy. The co-occurrence of media literacy works was 9 clusters and computer literacy works were 6 clusters. There are 327 common keywords in the thematic clusters of these two domains. Also, paying attention to the field of media literacy and computer literacy as one of the components of society can play an important role in the growth and promotion of individuals. In the analysis and results of the present study, suggestions were made for managers and politicians to better clarify the issues in this area and to invest better in its development.

This article analyzed the results of survey of university students’ media literacy competence (on the base of a classification of indicators of media literacy competence of the audience as an effective tool for comparative analysis of the levels of development of media competence of students of the control and experimental groups): the level of media competence of students who have a one-year training course in the framework of media literacy education courses four times higher than in similar indicators in the control group. Analysis of the results of this survey confirmed the general trend of media contacts of student audience – its orientation to entertainment genres of audiovisual media, visually appealing; positive, active, unmarried, childless, educated, highly qualified characters (primarily – male characters) aged 19 to 35 years. These heroes are characteristic optimism, independence, intelligence, emotion. They have an excellent command of the life situation and have a positive impact on the development progress of the plot of a media text

Reception analysis takes into consideration not only individual differences but also cultural differences. On the other hand, there are diverse factors determining audience’s reception and active participation. Education, age, sex, economical status, family background, ethnicity, world –view and similar factors affect the reception process. Besides that, being media literate and fostering a critical approach towards media texts also determines reception. Taking into account all these factors, this research is designed as a comparative reception analysis. We will be comparing the reception of a global product by youngsters (Survivor Show) within the scope of media literacy education and cultural differences. For that purpose we realized focus group discussions with communication faculty students from Spain and Turkey. The research was realized in the framework of literature review including the above mentioned topics.