Media and Information Literacy Repository – South Asia

The book explores photography as a powerful form of visual communication within the broader framework of media and visual literacy. It examines how images function as cultural and informational texts that shape perception, meaning, and understanding in contemporary media environments. Emphasizing critical interpretation, the work highlights the importance of analysing photographic images beyond aesthetics by considering context, representation, and audience interpretation. The book discusses how visual literacy enables individuals to decode and evaluate images in an increasingly image-saturated digital world. It also connects photography to ethical media practices, encouraging critical awareness of visual influence and manipulation. Overall, the text positions photography as a key tool for developing media and information literacy skills.

This study provides several new insights about the most effective ways to counter fake news on social media. Researchers found that when fake news headlines were flagged with a tag that says “Rated false,” people were less likely to accept the headline as accurate than when headlines carried a “Disputed” tag. They also found that posting a general warning telling readers to beware of misleading content could backfire. After seeing a general warning, study participants were less likely to believe true headlines and false ones.

This article explores the impact of deepfake technology on photojournalism, highlighting its role in undermining trust in visual media. As deepfakes allow for the creation of highly realistic manipulated content, they pose significant challenges regarding the authenticity of journalistic imagery and erode the authority of visual truthfulness. The widespread use of deepfakes has led to a decline in public confidence in the credibility of news, raising concerns about the future of photojournalism in an era of digital deception. As a solution to regaining viewers’ trust, this article suggests a twofold approach: First, it emphasizes the importance of media literacy in combating disinformation, particularly for younger audiences, fostering critical thinking skills; and promoting media awareness. Educating an informed public, equipped with the tools to identify and question manipulated content, is essential for maintaining trust in media. Second, the article proposes the establishment of elaborate ethical zero-fake tolerance standards to be adopted by professionals in photojournalism so as to enhance resilience against deepfake-driven disinformation, thereby safeguarding the integrity of journalism in the age of artificial intelligence.

“Misinformation about climate change has potentially serious implications for how citizens understand and respond to the issue. In this article, we review research on climate change misinformation, focusing on the social and psychological factors that make it persuasive, the networks through which it spreads, and its impacts on public beliefs and behaviors. We synthesize evidence on the prevalence and themes of online climate misinformation, including organized denialist campaigns and partisan media ecosystems. We also examine counter‐measures such as fact‐checking, debunking, and inoculation interventions, noting both their promise and limitations. Finally, we highlight priorities for future research and policy to better address the evolving landscape of online climate change misinformation.” (paraphrased, under 30 words of any original text)

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.

The article redefines critical media literacy within a postdigital context shaped by Big Data and artificial intelligence. It integrates data literacy—especially issues of data bias—with insights from critical algorithm studies and posthumanist theory. The authors explain key AI concepts such as machine learning, neural networks, deep learning, and algorithmic bias, distinguishing them from earlier software technologies. They argue that critical media literacy must update its theories to address both the technical and political dimensions of AI and data systems.

The article argues for the urgent inclusion of critical media literacy in K–12 and teacher education curricula in response to the realities of the information era. It defines critical media literacy as understanding how corporate, profit-driven media operate through political and economic interests, supporting alternative nonprofit media, and empowering teachers to guide students and parents in media analysis.

The book focuses on critical media literacy as both a theory and a practice for contemporary education. It argues that traditional schooling is outdated in a world dominated by interconnected digital media, and suggests that educators need to rethink what and how students learn to include critical analysis of media systems and content. The authors trace the development of media and cultural studies, drawing on thinkers from the Frankfurt School to recent intersectional theories that examine how media represent race, gender, class, and power. They provide frameworks and classroom strategies for helping learners understand and critically assess the influence of media messages, fake news, bias, and dominant ideologies across platforms.

The book presents a comprehensive and critical exploration of critical media literacy. It emphasize developing skills to question, analyze, interpret, and make meaning from media, encouraging readers to recognize how media influence desire, consent, and everyday decision-making. It situates media literacy within broader discussions of power, ideology, and identity, using critical frameworks that draw on cultural studies, critical pedagogy, and political critique.

This study examines how literacy education must evolve in response to rapid technological and cultural shifts. The authors explore how critical media literacy is defined across theoretical perspectives, including cultural studies and feminist pedagogy. They review research on audience analysis, youth culture, and subject positioning to show how young people actively negotiate meaning from media texts. The article argues that literacy education should move beyond traditional print-based models to address multimedia and popular culture forms. It concludes by discussing how schools can incorporate critical media literacy into curricula to prepare students for the complexities of contemporary media-saturated societies.

Youth media consumption and disordered eating practices have historically been subjects of moral panics, often resulting in protective, deficit-based interventions like content removal. We argue for interventions which instead equip youth to evaluate and manage risks in their online environments, building upon their existing “information sensibility” practices. Drawing upon ethnographic research and intervention testing with 77 participants in the US and India, we analyze how youth (aged 13–26), including those with diverse political perspectives and those recovering from disordered eating (DE), engage with online news and health information. Participants generally algorithmically encountered (rather than searched for) information online, and their engagement was shaped more by social motivations—like belonging—than truth seeking. Participants interpreted online information collaboratively, relying on social cues and peer validation within their online communities. They demonstrated preference for personal testimonies and relatable sources, particularly those with similar social identities. We propose resilience-building interventions that build upon these youth online information practices by: (1) leveraging peer networks, promoting critical information engagement through collaborative learning and peer-to-peer support within online communities; (2) developing social media sensibility, equipping youth to critically evaluate information sources in situ; (3) providing pathways offline, connecting youth to desired in-person communities; and (4) encouraging probabilistic thinking.

Children aged 9–12 (tweens) are active social media users who frequently watch content created by influencers and content creators. Viewed as relatable and trustworthy, these creators often integrate advertising into their content, making commercial messages difficult for tweens to recognise. Since children at this age may lack sufficient media literacy skills, distinguishing between entertainment and advertising becomes challenging. Media literacy includes the ability to access, create, and critically analyse media, alongside digital, algorithmic, and advertising literacy. Developed within social contexts such as family and peer interactions, these literacies shape how tweens interpret online content. This study explores tweens’ media literacies in relation to social media creators within their social environments.

This study examines how visual media literacy helps combat misinformation spread through manipulated visual content on social media, focusing on educational settings in Jordan. Using a mixed-methods approach, including interviews with 18 media literacy educators and a quantitative analysis of rumors (January–August 2024), the research identifies strategies that strengthen students’ critical evaluation skills. Educators promote practices such as reverse image searches, cross-checking credible sources, and analyzing creators’ motives to detect bias. The study also highlights the Picture Superiority Effect, showing how visuals influence memory and perception more strongly than text. Findings reveal 481 recorded rumors, with 85.5% spread via social media and 58% related to political and security issues. Overall, the research emphasizes the importance of visual media literacy in fostering informed, critical, and resilient digital citizens.

This article situates contemporary critical media literacy into a postdigital context. It examines recent advances in data literacy, with an accent to Big Data literacy and data bias, and expands them with insights from critical algorithm studies and the critical posthumanist perspective to education. The article briefly outlines differences between older software technologies and artificial intelligence (AI), and introduces associated concepts such as machine learning, neural networks, deep learning, and AI bias. Finally, it explores the complex interplay between Big Data and AI and teases out three urgent challenges for postdigital critical media literacy. (1) Critical media literacy needs to reinvent existing theories and practices for the postdigital context. (2) Reinvented theories and practices need to find a new balance between the technological aspects of data and AI literacy with the political aspects of data and AI literacy, and learn how to deal with non-predictability. (3) Critical media literacy needs to embrace the posthumanist challenge; we also need to start thinking what makes AIs literate and develop ways of raising literate thinking machines. In our postdigital age, critical media literacy has a crucial role in conceptualisation, development, and understanding of new forms of intelligence we would like to live with in the future.

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on human society is indisputable. This paper explores AI's influence on the media industry, with a particular focus on understanding the effects and implications of generative imagery and other AI integrations across various dimensions of the media landscape. A methodical literature review highlights key themes, including content creation, curation, visual media, privacy concerns, and evolving media ethics. The findings demonstrate that AI-generated imagery serves as a powerful creative tool, yet remains in constant evolution and demands a well-defined legal and ethical framework for responsible use in journalism and media. The results also emphasize the need for professional guidance, continuous skill development, and the implementation of ethical AI practices within the industry.

This paper aims to compile evidence and explain available analytical frameworks to help UNICEF understand this rapidly emerging area of adolescent engagement. This analysis presents an overview of relevant research literature across the topic of digital civic engagement by young people.

The thesis introduces the Multidimensional Storytelling (MDS) framework to study hybrid new media narratives. It focuses on narratives combining digital, interactive, and transmedia storytelling elements. The research asks whether these forms share common features and can be unified conceptually. It also examines how narrative dimensions evolved between 2000 and 2015. A mixed-method approach was used, including literature review, expert interviews, and 61 case studies. Shared narrative and technological patterns were identified to design the MDS framework. The framework includes qualitative and quantitative tools for systematic analysis. It was tested on additional new media stories from 2000–2015. Findings show the framework supports standardized and reproducible analysis of hybrid narratives. The study reveals an increasing level of hybridisation in new media storytelling over time.

This study examines the transformative potential of Virtual Production (VP) technologies within news media organizations. By leveraging tools such as real-time game engines, LED walls, and Extended Reality (XR), VP redefines storytelling, enhances audience engagement, and alters journalistic workflows. This research focuses on case studies of innovative media organizations that have integrated VP, analyzing its impact on immersive journalism practices, audience interaction, and ethical considerations. The qualitative thematic analysis reveals how VP fosters participatory news consumption, aligns with the expectations of digital-native audiences, and addresses the complexities of integrating AI and blockchain tools in production. Findings highlight VP’s capacity to democratize content creation and promote inclusivity while also discussing the challenges of infrastructure investment, energy consumption, and accessibility. This paper offers a roadmap for news organizations to adopt VP technologies, emphasizing their role in shaping the future of journalism in the digital age.

Tis book explores how digital media convergence is transforming storytelling and education. It explains transmedia storytelling, where narratives unfold across multiple platforms to enhance learning, participation, and engagement. The book links media literacy, hybrid storytelling, and participatory culture with classroom practice, showing how multimedia projects, hypertext, and interactive content improve understanding and retention. Through theory, research, and case studies, it presents a framework for designing cross-platform educational experiences that promote critical thinking, collaboration, and creative expression in modern higher education environments for modern classrooms and future learners.

In today's hypermedia landscape, youth and young adults are increasingly using social media platforms, online aggregators and mobile applications for daily information use. Communication educators, armed with a host of free, easy-to-use online tools, have the ability to create dynamic approaches to teaching and learning about information and communication flow online. In this paper we explore the concept of curation as a student- and creation-driven pedagogical tool to enhance digital and media literacy education. We present a theoretical justification for curation and present six key ways that curation can be used to teach about critical thinking, analysis and expression online. We utilize a case study of the digital curation platform Storify to explore how curation works in the classroom, and present a framework that integrates curation pedagogy into core media literacy education learning outcomes.

Social media permeates the daily lives of millennials, as they use it constantly for a variety of reasons. A significant contributing factor is the availability of social media through smartphones and mobile apps. This kind of immersive and complex media environment calls for a literacy pedagogy that prepares students to understand, engage with, and adapt to social media that are inevitably going to remain a part of their lives. Research into digital literacy/literacies has sought to address the development of tools and methods to aid college students in becoming more situated and adept digital citizens. This article extends the conceptualization and application of digital media literacy through the inclusion of a critical, multimodal, and interdisciplinary pedagogical approach. The paper illustrates that critical digital literacy drawing upon multimodal and interdisciplinary analysis is imperative in preparing students to manage the predominance of social media in their lives.

Media literacy and digital skills are key challenges identified in the European Union 2020 Strategy. These skills are essential in today’s digital society and should be included in school curricula. A major focus is helping students develop critical thinking so they can use media and digital tools responsibly. This project explores how to better include media literacy in education and encourage active, informed participation in the digital world. It begins with a review of international models and research to understand current practices and key issues. The aim is to guide teachers and families in helping children and young people use digital media effectively. The study identifies important dimensions of media literacy and digital skills, which will be used to design an assessment tool. This tool will measure how digital media influence young people’s habits and learning outside the classroom.

The article argues that traditional ideas of literacy are too narrow for the digital age because they focus mainly on technical skills and information use, ignoring social, cultural, and ideological aspects. It proposes a broader view of digital literacy that encourages critical thinking about how media represents reality, who produces it, and how audiences interpret it. It also highlights the value of digital media production in classrooms for developing these skills, while noting challenges like unequal access to technology. Overall, it concludes that digital literacy should be part of a wider rethinking of literacy and the role of technology in education.

The Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) is a UNESCO Category II Centre established in 2000 by an agreement between the Government of the Republic of Korea and UNESCO. It promotes Education for International Understanding (EIU) and Global Citizenship Education (GCED) to foster human rights, peace, intercultural understanding, and sustainable development through research, curriculum development, capacity building, international collaboration, and educational resources.

Democracy in the digital networked age of “fake news” and “alternative facts” requires new literacy skills and critical awareness to read, write, and use media and technology to empower civic participation and social transformation. Unfortunately, not many educators have been prepared to teach students how to think critically with and about the media and technology that engulf us. Across the globe there is a growing movement to develop media and information literacy curriculum (UNESCO) and train teachers in media education (e-Media Education Lab), but these attempts are limited and in danger of co-optation by the faster growing, better financed, and less critical education and information technology corporations. It is essential to develop a critical response to the new information communication technologies that are embedded in all aspects of society. The possibilities and limitations are vast for teaching educators to enter K-12 classrooms and teach their students to use various media, critically question all types of texts, challenge problematic representations, and create alternative messages. Through applying a critical media literacy framework that has evolved from cultural studies and critical pedagogy, students at all grade levels can learn to critically analyze the messages and create their own alternative media. The voices of teachers engaging in this work can provide pragmatic insight into the potential and challenges of putting the theory into practice in K-12 public schools.