research topics about media literacy

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• Published: 14 August 2024

Media literacy tips promoting reliable news improve discernment and enhance trust in traditional media

• Sacha Altay   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2839-7375 1   na1 ,
• Andrea De Angelis   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6866-6683 1   na1 &
• Emma Hoes   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8063-5430 1   na1  

Communications Psychology volume  2 , Article number:  74 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Media literacy tips typically encourage people to be skeptical of the news despite the small prevalence of false news in Western democracies. Would such tips be effective if they promoted trust in true news instead? A pre-registered experiment (N = 3919, US) showed that Skepticism-enhancing tips, Trust-inducing tips, and a mix of both tips, increased participants’ sharing and accuracy discernment. The Trust-inducing tips boosted true news sharing and acceptance, the Skepticism-enhancing tips hindered false news sharing and acceptance, while the Mixed tips did both. Yet, the effects of the tips were more alike than different, with very similar effect sizes across conditions for true and false news. We experimentally manipulated the proportion of true and false news participants were exposed to. The Trust and Skepticism tips were most effective when participants were exposed to equal proportions of true and false news, while the Mixed tips were most effective when exposed to 75% of true news - the most realistic proportion. Moreover, the Trust-inducing tips increased trust in traditional media. Overall, we show that to be most effective, media literacy tips should aim both to foster skepticism towards false news and to promote trust in true news.

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Introduction.

In the digital age, discerning between misinformation and credible news is vital. Global concerns about the spread of misinformation have prompted policymakers to seek effective solutions. These strategies aim to diminish the public’s tendency to believe and disseminate misinformation and have evolved from broad regulatory approaches to more scalable individual-level interventions. However, there is a growing concern that while media literacy interventions are effective in safeguarding against misinformation, they may inadvertently escalate skepticism towards factual news 1 , 2 . This unintended consequence is particularly problematic in Western democracies for three main reasons.

First, the majority of online news stories people consume are genuine and originate from reliable sources 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 . Given the paucity of misinformation in people’s news diet, interventions that reduce the acceptance of misinformation are thus bound to have small effects 6 . Second, trust in the news is low worldwide and a growing number of people avoid the news, which—combined with low levels of political interest—leaves a substantial part of the population largely uninformed about political matters and current events 7 , 8 . Moreover, while people are good at spotting false news when prompted to do so, they show high levels of skepticism towards true news 1 , 9 . Third, disinterest in news and the small portion of misinformation in people’s online news diet suggest that many more hold misperceptions because they are not exposed to reliable information rather than because they consume and accept misinformation 3 . This suggests that while the fight against misinformation is necessary, it is by no means sufficient to reduce misperceptions and to improve the information ecosystem. To be most effective, the fight against misperceptions should go hand in hand with the promotion of reliable information.

Following the above, our study makes two primary contributions: first, we employ survey experiments in the United States ( N  = 3919) to assess the effectiveness of three distinct media literacy interventions—focusing on skepticism, trust, and a balanced approach—on the ability to discern misinformation. Second, we experimentally manipulated the proportion of false and true news rated by participants, addressing whether these variations can significantly influence the efficacy of media literacy interventions.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of interventions against misinformation: reactive interventions, including fact-checking and labeling, and proactive interventions, such as inoculation, accuracy prompts, and media literacy efforts. Proactive interventions are particularly praised for their role in enhancing individual autonomy and promoting political engagement while respecting the principles of free press 10 . Both reactive and proactive interventions aim to increase the accuracy of public beliefs and to enhance the overall quality of the information ecosystem.

Yet, misinformation is only one side of the equation: to make informed decisions, people must not only reject false and misleading information but also embrace accurate and reliable information 6 , 11 . For instance, people may refuse to get vaccinated because they believe misinformation, or simply because they do not trust reliable information about the vaccines. To improve the accuracy of people’s beliefs and the quality of the information ecosystem, it is thus necessary to both counter misinformation and foster reliable information. Before the 2016 US Presidential elections and the 2020 COVID pandemic, scholars examined media literacy interventions as a way of educating people more generally on journalistic practices 12 , or—more specifically—on spotting media violence 13 and biases in news reporting 14 . Yet,—with the exception of the accuracy prompt 15 —most current interventions aimed at reducing misperceptions and improving decision-making disproportionately focus on misinformation at the expense of reliable information 16 . This is the case despite the lack of evidence that the acceptance of misinformation is more damaging than the rejection of reliable information 6 , 11 . We show that most current interventions could benefit from more explicitly promoting reliable information, while additionally—but not solely—targeting misinformation.

The role of digital media platforms in countering misinformation has come under scrutiny. Soft measures like source labels, while minimally impacting free speech, also exhibit limited effectiveness 17 . Concerns about misinformation on social media have prompted public institutions, including the European Union, to heavily invest in media literacy initiatives like the European Union Media Literacy Agenda. These programs aim to foster long-term critical thinking 18 , 19 , 20 but prove less beneficial for digital platforms that require rapid and scalable interventions. Traditional media literacy programs, which focus on developing knowledge and skills to counter misinformation, may not effectively address emotional and impulsive online behaviors, which align more with immediate attitudinal reactions than with knowledge and skills 21 . Moreover, skill-based programs may struggle to keep pace with the fast-paced and continuous evolution of digital media environments 22 , which calls for more agile approaches to train citizens to discern news accurately 23 , 24 .

Media literacy tips embrace the view of agile interventions that directly engage with the acceptance and sharing of information. They often employ short-form advice 25 consisting of actionable behaviors—for example, encouraging verification of news sources—and responsible attitudes—such as inviting to be skeptical of nonprofessional news sources. Such media literacy tips typically raise awareness about misinformation 1 , 26 and promote mindfulness and skepticism on social media 16 . For instance, in 2017, Facebook employed media literacy tips at the top of users’ news feed in 14 countries to help them identify false news. The advice ranged from “Be skeptical of headlines” to “Some stories are intentionally false”. These tips were shown to reduce the perceived accuracy of false news headlines but also, to some extent, of mainstream news headlines 25 . Similarly, a recent study testing the effect of health media literacy tips raising awareness about manipulation techniques, such as “Biased, Overblown, Amateur, Sales-focused, Taken out of context”, increased skepticism in both accurate and inaccurate news headlines 27 . These findings are consistent with a growing body of research showing that, while well-intended, media literacy interventions targeting misinformation can inadvertently undermine acceptance of true and reliable information 26 , 28 , 29 , 30 . Many other interventions against misinformation were shown to increase skepticism in true news 1 , 2 , 31 or to decrease trust in typically reliable actors such as professional media and scientists 32 .

These concerns are not new. Two decades ago, long before the recent misinformation hype, scholars were concerned that media literacy interventions—even when not specifically targeted at misinformation—may fuel media cynicism 10 . Indeed, “[f]ostering skepticism toward news and information, while avoiding cynicism, is a longstanding goal and challenge of media literacy education” [ 10 , 33 , 34 , p. 151]. In recent years, a lot of progress has been made on this front. On the methodological side, it has now become clear that researchers should measure treatment effects on both misinformation (or information people should be skeptical of) and reliable information (or information people should accept 11 ). On the statistical side, more sophisticated measures of discrimination, that account for response bias (e.g., participants rating everything as false), are being proposed and popularized 31 .

Negative spillovers from media literacy interventions are a significant concern since false news represents only a minor portion of the total news content to which people are exposed in Western democracies 3 , 4 , 6 , 32 , 35 , 36 , 37 . However, the vast majority of interventions against misinformation test participants with equal proportions of true and false news 9 . The standard 50/50 split raises concerns for two reasons. First, in real-world settings, individuals typically encounter about 5% false news and 95% true news 6 —a stark contrast to the balanced 50/50 split commonly used in misinformation discernment studies. Second, this conventionally balanced pool of news could lead to overstating the effectiveness of interventions, inducing skepticism, and understating the benefits of those intended to foster trust. In one notable study 25 , scholars re-adjusted the effect of their media literacy treatment to reflect the real-world prevalence of false news. However, they kept the proportion of false news constant and adjusted the proportion of false news post hoc. To estimate the causal effect of the proportion of news on such treatment effects, one needs to experimentally manipulate the proportion of false news.

With these considerations in mind, we tested the effectiveness of three approaches to news media literacy interventions on a balanced sample in terms of gender and political orientation in the United States via Prolific ( N  = 3919). Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three media literacy conditions or a control group (with no tips). Participants were asked to either rate the accuracy of headlines or to report their willingness to share the headlines (between participants). We also measured several variables pre- and post-treatment such as trust in the news or interest in political news, to capture potential unintended treatment effects. The Skepticism Condition ( N  = 983) relies on the most common tips that aim to enhance skepticism (such as ”Be skeptical of headlines”). The Trust Condition ( N  = 973) relies on trust-enhancing tips emphasizing the prevalence of trustworthy (online) news (such as ”Be trusting of news”). Finally, the Mixed Condition ( N  = 967) relies on a mix of the above-mentioned skepticism- and trust-enhancing tips. Figure  1 provides a clear overview of what each intervention looked like.

Media literacy tips in the Trust Condition ( A ), the Mixed Condition ( B ), and the Skepticism Condition (C).

Unlike past research designs testing the effectiveness of interventions against misinformation without including true news items 11 or using unrealistic proportions of true and false news (50/50) 9 , we experimentally manipulated the proportion of true and false news participants were exposed to. Participants were either exposed to 75% of true news (and 25% of false news), 50% of true news, or 25% of true news. Given the interest of policymakers and platforms to implement these interventions, it is crucial to address this potential methodological problem and test these interventions on realistic proportions of true and false news.

We preregistered six hypotheses regarding the effects of media literacy strategies on the perceived accuracy of headlines and participants’ willingness to share them. First, we expected that all tips would be effective at improving discernment between true and false news (H1). Second, we predicted that the Skepticism-enhancing tips would lead to a more cautious assessment of news headlines, lowering the overall ratings of both true and false headlines (H2a). Conversely, we predicted that the Trust-inducing tips would result in more favorable evaluations across the news spectrum, increasing the overall ratings of both true and false headlines (H2b). Note that H1 and H2 are not incompatible. For instance, a treatment can increase discernment by increasing the sharing of both true and false news, as long as the effect on true news is significantly stronger. We also tested whether the proportion of false news participants were exposed to would influence the effectiveness of the tips. We predicted that the skepticism-enhancing tips would be most effective with a higher proportion of false news (75% compared to 25%; H3a), and that the trust-enhancing tips would be most effective with a lower proportion of false news (25% compared to 75%). Finally, we predicted that the skepticism-enhancing tips would decrease interest in the news (H4a), trust in the news (H5a), and trust in untrustworthy news outlets (H6a). Conversely, we predicted that the trust-enhancing tips would increase interest in the news (H4b), trust in the news (H5b), and trust in trustworthy news outlets (H6b).

Participants

Between the 22nd of August 2023 and the 31st of August 2023, we recruited 3919 participants in the US via Prolific and excluded five participants who failed the attention check (1944 women and 1970 men; 1330 Independents, 1278 Republicans, 1306 Democrats; M age  = 42.18, SD age  = 13.82). The sample was balanced in terms of gender and political orientation. Participants were paid $1.12 ($11.19/h) to complete the study (for a median completion time of 6 min).

Design and procedure

After the consent form, participants reported the extent to which they are interested in political news “How interested are you in political news?”(from “Not at all interested” [1] to “Extremely interested” [5]). Then, participants were asked “Generally speaking, to what extent do you trust news sites such as” (on a 7-point Likert scale from [1] Not at all to [7] Completely, with “Neither trust nor distrust” as the middle point [4], and “I don’t know any of them” as the last option) and reported the extent to which they trust four groups of news outlets: (i) CNN, The New York Times, MSNBC, (ii) Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, (iii) Occupy Democrats, Daily Kos, Palmer Report, (iv) Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller. We consider the first group as “mainstream left-leaning”, the second as “mainstream right-leaning”, the third as “generally untrustworthy left-leaning” and the fourth as “generally untrustworthy right-leaning”. Next, participants were asked, “To what extent do you trust the following institutions/groups?” (on a 7-point Likert scale from [1] Not at all to [7] Completely, with “Neither trust nor distrust” as the middle point [4]) and reported the extent to which they trust (i) traditional media, (ii) social media, (iii) journalists, and (iv) scientists.

Participants reported how much time they spend on social on a typical day (“On a typical day, how much time do you spend on social media (such as Facebook and Twitter; either on a mobile or a computer)?” from “Less than 30 min” [1] to “3+ hours” [5]). We measured self-reported media literacy (taken from 38 by measuring agreement with the following four statements on a 7-point Likert scale (from “Strongly disagree” [1] to “Strongly agree” [7], with “Neither agree nor disagree” as the middle point [4]): “I have the skills to interpret media messages”, “I understand how news is made in the U.S.”, “I am confident in my ability to judge the quality of news”, and “I’m often confused about the quality of news and information” (reverse coded). Participants completed an attention check requiring them to read instructions hidden in a paragraph and write “I pay attention”. All the questions, including the Qualtrics files necessary to replicate the survey, are publicly available on OSF: https://osf.io/73y6c/ . We also report the full survey questions in Supplementary Information  F .

Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (i) the Trust Condition ( N  = 963), where they received media literacy tips aimed at enhancing trust, (ii) the Skepticism Condition ( N  = 983), where tips were designed to enhance skepticism, (iii) the Mixed Condition ( N  = 967), which involved a combination of trust- and skepticism-enhancing tips, and (iv) the Control Condition, where no tips were provided. Prior to the study, we pre-tested the tips to ensure they conveyed the intended properties effectively. Tips in the Trust Condition were rated as more positive and trust-enhancing than those in the Balanced Condition, which, in turn, were seen as more positive and trust-enhancing than those in the Skepticism Condition. All tips were evaluated as easy to read, informative, and moderately convincing.

We also manipulated the dependent variable, prompting half of the participants to rate the accuracy of the headlines (“To the best of your knowledge, how accurate is the claim in the above headline?” from “Certainly False” [1] to “Certainly True” [6]) while the other half reported how willing they would be to share the headlines (“If you were to see this post online, how likely would you be to share it online?” from “Extremely unlikely” [1] to “Extremely likely” [6]).

In addition, we manipulated the proportion of true-to-false news to which participants were exposed. One-third of participants assessed eight true and four false news (75% true news), another third evaluated six true and six false news (50% true news), and the final third ratied four true and eight false news (25% true news). Our experimental design encompassed four media literacy conditions, two response types (sharing or accuracy), and three proportions of news veracity (i.e., 4 × 2 × 3). All participants viewed 12 political headlines formatted as they would appear on Facebook—a headline with an image and a source. We selected these political news headlines from a pre-tested pool of 40, ensuring a balance of perceived accuracy, sharing intentions, and strength of partisanship across Democrats and Republicans. The true headlines were found on mainstream US news outlets, while false headlines were found on fact-checking websites such as PolitiFact and Snopes.

After rating the headlines, participants assessed their performance in the study relative to other Americans, ranging from “worse than 99% of people” [1] to “better than 99% of people” [100] 39 . We calculated overconfidence by subtracting participants’ actual performance from their estimated performance, with higher scores indicating greater overconfidence. Then, participants reported their interest in political news, trust in news, and trust in specific US news outlets again. Information about political orientation (self-identification as an Independent, Democrat, or Republican), gender, and age were retrieved via Prolific. At the end of the survey, participants were debriefed about the purpose of the study and warned about their exposure to false news. The study received ethical approval from the University of Zürich PhF Ethics Committee (ethics approval nr. 23.04.17).

Statistical analyses

We use an alpha threshold of 5% for statistical significance. To estimate treatment effects on accuracy and sharing ratings, we analyzed the data at the response level ( N observations = 46,992) using linear mixed-effects models with random effects for participants and news headlines. The effect on attitudes was analyzed at the participant level and tested with OLS linear regressions. In all models, we control for age, gender, and political orientation, as well as for the proportion of true news, the type of dependent variable (sharing or accuracy), and the experimental condition.

Data distribution was assumed to be normal but this was not formally tested. As a robustness check, we ran a poisson generalized linear mixed model (robust to violations of normality) to test H1 and replicated the results of the linear mixed-effects models (see Table  17 in Supplementary Information  E) . All variables measured with Likert scales were treated as continuous. Age and education were treated as continuous as well, whereas Condition, Veracity, and political orientation were treated as categorical.

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the  Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.

What is the effect of the media literacy interventions on discernment (H1)?

We investigate individuals’ capacity for discernment, defined as the difference between the ratings of true versus false news, across the Trust, Skepticism, and Mixed conditions compared to the Control group. Supporting H1, we found that general discernment, combining both accuracy and sharing metrics, was significantly higher in the Mixed Condition ( b  = 0.23[0.17, 0.29],  p  < 0.01), Trust Condition ( b  = 0.22[0.16, 0.29],  p  < 0.01) and Skepticism Condition ( b  = 0.19[0.13, 0.25],  p  < 0.001).

Significant effects were observed for both accuracy ratings and sharing ratings. As shown in Fig.  2 , sharing discernment was greater in the Mixed Condition ( b  = 0.17[0.09, 0.24],  p  < 0.001), Trust Condition ( b  = 0.24[0.16, 0.32],  p  < 0.001) and Skepticism Condition ( b  = 0.17[0.09, 0.24],  p  < 0.001) compared to the Control Condition. Similarly, accuracy discernment was also significantly larger in the Mixed Condition ( b  = 0.22[0.14, 0.30],  p  < 0.001), Trust Condition ( b  = 0.12[0.04, 0.21],  p  < 0.001) and Skepticism Condition ( b  = 0.18[0.10, 0.26],  p  < 0.001).

Estimated differences in accuracy (blue triangles) and sharing (red circles) discernment in each experimental condition compared to the Control Condition. The error bars represent the 95% CIs. In the Control Accuracy N  = 477. In the Sharing Accuracy N  = 505. In the Mixed Accuracy N  = 494. In the Mixed Sharing N  = 472. In the Skepticism Accuracy N  = 487. In the Skepticism Sharing N  = 496. In the Trust Accuracy N  = 495. In the Trust Sharing N  = 478.

We observed no statistically significant differences between treatments regarding general discernment (see Tables  11 and 12 in Supplementary Information  E) . The only statistically significant difference observed between conditions is that the Trust Condition was less effective at increasing accuracy discernment compared to the Mixed Condition ( b  = −0.09[−0.17, −0.01],  p  = 0.025). Note that sharing discernment is slightly higher in the Trust Condition compared to the Mixed Condition ( b  = 0.07[−0.00, 0.15],  p  = 0.068) but this difference is not statistically significant.

What is the effect of the media literacy interventions on true and false news ratings (H2)?

We hypothesized distinct outcomes for the Skepticism and Trust Conditions. Specifically, we hypothesized that participants in the Skepticism Condition would be less likely to rate news stories as accurate and to share them, compared to those in the Control Condition (H2a). Conversely, we anticipated that participants in the Trust Condition would be more likely to perceive news as accurate and to share it, relative to the Control Condition (H2b).

Our results, displayed in Fig.  3 , provide partial support for H2. In the Trust Condition, we observed a significant increase in the ratings of true news ( b  = 0.12[0.04, 0.21],  p  = 0.004); however, the effect on false news was not significant ( b  = −0.04[−0.11, 0.03],  p  = 0.27). Similarly, the Skepticism Condition significantly reduced the ratings of false news ( b  = −0.10[−0.16, −0.027],  p  =0.006), but did not significantly affect true news ratings ( b  = 0.067[−0.02, 0.15],  p  = 0.11). Remarkably, the Mixed Condition achieved both objectives: it significantly increased the ratings for true news ( b  = 0.10[0.02, 0.19],  p  = 0.018) and reduced the ratings for false news ( b  = −0.07[−0.14, −0.01],  p  = 0.034). Furthermore, the results show that the efficacy of media literacy interventions is contingent upon their focus: the Trust Condition predominantly bolsters the rating of true news, the Skepticism mainly reduces the rating of false news, while the Mixed Condition does a bit of both.

Estimated difference in true (red circles) and false (blue triangles) news ratings in each experimental condition compared to the Control Condition. The error bars represent the 95% CIs. The number of participants are the same for true and false news. In the Control Condition N  = 982. In the Mixed Condition N  = 967. In the Skepticism Condition N  = 983. In the Skepticism Condition N  = 973.

Note however that while the treatments significantly differ from the control, exploratory post-hoc analyses show the effects of the treatments are not statistically different from one another (see Tables  8 – 11 in  Supplementary Information for all possible contrasts between conditions). For instance, the effect of the Trust Condition on true news is not statistically different from the effect of the Skepticism Condition on true news. Likewise, the effect of the Skepticism Condition on false news is not statistically different from the effect of the Trust Condition on false news.

Is the effect of the media literacy tips moderated by the proportion of true news (H3)?

We hypothesized that the Skepticism Condition would be most effective with a high proportion of false news (H3a), while the Trust Condition would be most effective with a low proportion of false news (H3b). To test H3, we ran a three-way interaction between the assigned condition, the news veracity, and the assigned proportion of true news, such that the effect of the condition is compared to baseline levels in the Control Condition.

In Fig.  4 , we can see that our findings contradict these expectations: in contrast with H3b, the Trust Condition and the Skepticism Condition were mostly effective at increasing discernment when participants were exposed to 50% of false news and 50% of true news—mostly because of an increase in true news ratings. The Mixed Condition was most effective when participants were exposed to 75% of true news and 25% of false news—mostly because of a reduction in false news ratings.

Estimated differences in true (red circles) and false (blue triangles) news ratings in each treatment condition compared to the control. The estimates are divided by the proportion of true and false news participants were exposed to. For instance, in the “75% False” participants were exposed to 75% of false news. The error bars represent the 95% CIs. In the Control 75% False N  = 318. In the Control 50/50 N  = 344. In the Control 75% True N  = 320. In the Mixed 75% False N  = 346. In the Mixed 50/50 N  = 295. In the Mixed 75% True N  = 326. In the Skepticism 75% False N  = 325. In the Skepticism 50/50 N  = 357. In the Skepticism 75% True N  = 301. In the Trust, 75% False N  = 311. In the Trust 50/50 N  = 310. In the Trust 75% True N  = 352.

The three-way interactions showed that (compared to the Control) the Trust Condition was most effective at increasing discernment when participants were exposed to 50% of true news compared to 75% of true news ( b  = 0.25[0.11, 0.40];  p  = 0.001). The Mixed Condition was most effective at increasing discernment when participants were exposed to 75% of true news compared to 25% of true news ( b  = 0.18[0.021, 0.34];  p  = 0.027). All the other contrasts are not statistically significant (see Table  4 in Supplementary Information  E) . Note, however, that we lack the statistical power to reliably detect small effects in such three-way interactions (despite our analysis of the data at the response level of 46,992 ratings).

What is the effect of the media literacy tips on interest and trust in the news? (H4–6)

We formulated several hypotheses regarding the effect of media literacy tips on interest in the news, trust in traditional media and journalists, and trust in specific news outlets. The data did not support our hypotheses. Compared to the Control Condition, the media literacy tips had no statistically significant effects on interest in the news, trust in traditional media and journalists, or trust in specific (right- or left-wing) news outlets (see Tables  4 – 6 in Supplementary Information  E) . The only statistically significant effect (partially supporting H5b) is that the Trust Condition increased trust in traditional media compared to the Control Condition ( b  = 0.08[0.02, 0.14];  p  = 0.008). This increase in trust in the Trust Condition is also significantly different when compared to the Skepticism Condition ( b  = 0.092[0.03, 0.15];  p  = 0.003) as well as the Mixed Condition ( b  = 0.076[0.02, 0.14];  p  = 0.014).

What is the effect of the media literacy tips on confidence and overconfidence? (preregistered exploratory analyses)

Here we investigate the effect of the media literacy tips and the proportion of false news on people’s confidence in their ability to discern true from false news. These analyses are restricted to accuracy ratings given that the confidence question is about ”recognizing news that is made up”.

We found that, compared to the Control Condition, the media literacy tips tended to increase participants’ confidence in their ability to discern true from false news while reducing overconfidence, but these effects were small and inconsistent across conditions. Second, the more false news participants were exposed to, the more confident they were in their ability to recognize made-up news, but this increase in confidence did not translate into more or less overconfidence—these effects were consistent across conditions (see Supplementary Information  A) .

Heterogeneous treatment effects (preregistered exploratory analyses)

We found that the Skepticism Condition was much more effective than the other conditions at increasing discernment among Independents compared to the Control Condition ( b  = 0.34[0.19, 0.48],  p  < 0.001). The Mixed Condition was more effective at increasing discernment among men than women ( b  = 0.15[0.03, 0.28],  p  = 0.014), while the Skepticism Condition was more effective among women than men ( b  = 0.13[0.01, 0.25],  p  = 0.042). We also found that the Mixed Condition and the Skepticism Condition were slightly less effective at increasing discernment among more frequent social media users ( b  = − 0.06[−0.11, −0.01],  p  = 0.02). Finally, we found no statistically significant heterogeneous treatment effects of media literacy (Trust: b  = 0.02 [−0.04, 0.09], p  = 0.46; Mixed: b  = 0.04 [−0.02, 0.10], p  = 0.22; Skepticism: b  = 0.02 [−0.04, 0.08], p  = 0.47), age (Trust: b  = −0.001 [−0.01, 0.001], p  = 0.58; Mixed: b  = −0.001 [−0.01, 0.001], p  = 0.23; Skepticism: b  = 0.001 [−0.01, 0.01], p  = 0.84), interest in news (pre-treatment) (Trust: b  = 0.001 [−0.06, 0.07], p  = 0.88; Mixed: b  = 0.001 [−0.06, 0.07], p  = 0.91; Skepticism: b  = −0.063 [−0.13, −0.001], p  = 0.050), trust in social media (pre-treatment) (Trust: b  = −0.02 [−0.06, 0.03], p  = 0.46; Mixed: b  = −0.001 [−0.05, 0.04], p  = 0.95; Skepticism: b  = 0.02 [−0.02, 0.07], p  = 0.29). In Supplementary Information  B , we offer a visual representation of statistically significant effects.

Determinants of discernment (exploratory analysis)

We ran an OLS regression to estimate the effect of socio-demographic variables while controlling for the effect of Conditions and the proportion of false news participants were exposed to. We found that interest in political news ( b  = 0.14[0.09, 0.19],  p  < 0.001), self-reported media literacy ( b  = 0.10[0.05, 0.15],  p  < 0.001), being older ( b  = 0.004[0.001, 0.007], p  = 0.031), being a woman ( b  = 0.10[0.01, 0.18],  p  = 0.032), and identifying as Democrat rather than Independent ( b  = 0.11[0.01, 0.22],  p  = 0.040) was associated with greater discernment. Identifying as Republican ( b  =− 0.07[−0.18, −0.04],  p  = 0.214), trust in the news ( b  = 0.016[−0.013, 0.045],  p  = 0.272), and social media use ( b  = − 0.03[−0.061, 0.009],  p  = 0.142), were not significantly associated with discernment (see Fig.  3 in Supplementary Information  C) .

Our pre-registered survey experiment shows that all the tips increased participants’ ability to discern between true and false news headlines, both in terms of sharing intentions and perceived accuracy. The Trust Condition significantly increased ratings of true news (but not false news), the Skepticism Condition significantly decreased ratings of false news (but not true news), while the Mixed Condition did both. Yet, the effects of the tips were much more alike than different, with very similar effect sizes across conditions for true and false news. The media literacy tips had null effects on interest in the news and trust in the news—the only exception being that the Trust Condition increased trust in traditional media.

These findings are insightful for social media platforms and other entities keen on enhancing the quality of the information ecosystem. While most existing media literacy tips resemble our Skepticism Condition and specifically target misinformation 25 , 40 , we show that improving discernment does not require focusing on misinformation. Discernment can also be improved by targeting reliable information (Trust Condition) or by emphasizing both skepticism toward misinformation and trust in reliable information (Mixed Condition). Future media literacy interventions should consider both sides of the equation. Yet, one should keep in mind that there is no quick fix, and the effectiveness of the tips should be seen as a complement to, not a substitute for, longer interventions and more ambitious systemic solutions.

The weight given to either combating misinformation or promoting reliable information should be context-dependent. For instance, in high-quality information environments, where misinformation is relatively rare but where trust in the news is sometimes low, it may be more fruitful to foster reliable information. In contrast, in lower-quality information environments where misinformation is rampant such as in some emerging democracies or autocracies, the emphasis should be on cultivating a healthy skepticism. More granular targeting is also possible. For instance, “Trust tips” could be featured as ads on trustworthy news websites or alongside their social media posts to boost acceptance of their content. Conversely, “Skepticism Tips” could be targeted at untrustworthy news websites or alongside their social media posts to encourage rejection of their content. Trust tips may be effective even if misinformation is not very prevalent and impactful, as long as there is some room to increase the acceptance of reliable information 9 , 16 . Yet, our experimental findings do not support the idea that trust tips are more effective in an environment with more true news, and vice versa. More testing is necessary to know what kind of tips may be more or less effective in different kinds of environments.

In Western democracies, the importance of promoting reliable information is all the more pressing in light of low levels of trust in the news, low levels of political interest, and the growing number of people who avoid the news and are left largely uninformed about political matters and current events 7 . Literacy efforts should adapt to this reality and reconsider the importance of promoting reliable information. Otherwise, these efforts risk fueling people’s cynicism toward the news even more 41 .

Given the discrepancy between the high prevalence of false news in experiments testing the effectiveness of interventions against misinformation 9 , and the low prevalence of false news outside of experimental settings 3 , 4 , 5 , we experimentally manipulated the proportion of true and false news participants were exposed to. We found that the proportion of true and false news matters—though not in the way we expected. The Trust and Skepticism Conditions were most effective when participants were exposed to equal proportions of true and false news, while the Mixed Condition was most effective when participants were exposed to 75% of true news—a proportion most reflective of the ecological base rates of true news in Western democracies. Yet, we lack the statistical power to detect very small effects. Thus, before implementing the tips in the wild, our findings should be replicated on a larger sample size and across more diverse populations.

In contrast with recent work 1 , our findings do not support the idea that media literacy tips, even when skepticism-enhancing, have unintended consequences on true news or on trust in the news. More work is needed to precisely estimate the robustness and size of these effects, both for media literacy tips and interventions against misinformation more broadly.

In line with past work showing that the 50/50 ratio does not influence news discernment 42 , our findings do not imply that studies relying on a 50/50 ratio are flawed or that the use of this ratio is wrong. Instead, future research should strive to find the optimal balance between statistical power and ecological validity, while concurrently avoiding survey fatigue and excessive exposure to headlines. A 50/50 ratio is the sweet spot to maximize statistical power, while 75% of true news and 25% of true news is more ecologically valid. We recommend that interventions intended for real-world application should be tested not just in conditions that maximize statistical power, but also in conditions that heighten ecological validity to accurately gauge the impact of these interventions outside of experimental settings. Given the predominant focus on practical implications in much of the literature on interventions against misinformation, future studies should evaluate the effectiveness of interventions in conditions that more closely mimic the real world (e.g., by using more realistic proportions of true news and false news, or by including non-news items, which represent the vast majority of people’s social media feeds).

Limitations

An important limitation of the present work is that we did not investigate the precise mechanisms through which the media literacy tips improved discernment. One possible explanation is that the tips primarily prompted participants to think about accuracy 15 . However, this account falls short in predicting the specificity of our treatment effects: the Trust-inducing tips selectively enhanced belief in true news, while Skepticism-centered tips uniquely reduced belief in false news. Another possible explanation is that participants genuinely learned from the tips and that this new knowledge helped them better discern true from false news. Given the short length of the tips and past research showing that the effects of such tips and one-shot interventions are ephemeral 25 , 43 , we are skeptical of this explanation. The most plausible explanation, in our view, is that the tips primed trust or skepticism. When told that there was a lot of false news and that they should be vigilant, participants temporarily adopted a more skeptical mindset, expected to be exposed to more false news, and looked for signs of deception. Whereas when told that most news is reliable and that they should be trusting, participants temporarily adopted a more trusting mindset, expected to be exposed to more true news, and looked for signs of reliability. This explanation accounts for the specificity of the treatment effects (such as the increase in news trust in the Trust Condition) and is in line with past work showing that skepticism-inducing interventions against misinformation reduce the acceptance of true news 1 , 2 , 31 . However, this explanation predicts that the trust-inducing tips should be more effective in the 75% true news environment, while the skepticism-inducing tips should work be more effective in the 25% true news environment, and this is not what we find. Future work should experimentally investigate the mechanisms that make such tips effective. One way to do so is to ‘unbundle’ tips and look at the causal effect of each specific tip in isolation. For instance 44 , found that broad tips (e.g., “Be skeptical of headlines”) are less effective than narrow tips (e.g., “Look closely at the website domain”), and that tips may only work “insofar as they provide specific information that is diagnostic of quality” (p. 15). They found that tips drawing people’s attention to the source of the posts were the most effective. In our case, all tips draw attention to the source, so it cannot explain the differences between treatments, but it is possible that the tips drew attention to other specific elements of the headlines that helped participants discern between true and false news.

In conclusion, our findings underline the value of media literacy tips in increasing citizens’ ability to discern truth from falsehoods. We also show that to increase discernment, such tips do not need to focus exclusively on inducing skepticism in misinformation but can also promote trust in reliable information. We encourage organizations and social media platforms that rely on such tips to stop using tips that exclusively induce skepticism—especially given the low prevalence of misinformation in Western democracies. Instead, they should aim at both inducing skepticism in misinformation and promoting trust in reliable information.

Data availability

The replication data, including all (stimulus) materials used in this study, is available at https://osf.io/73y6c/ .

Code availability

The replication code is available at https://osf.io/73y6c/ .

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Fabio Mellinger and Sophie van IJzendoorn for excellent research assistance. Funding : This project received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement nr. 883121) and the Swiss National Science Foundation under Grant (grant agreement nr PZ00P1 201817). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Research Council or the Swiss National Science Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the paper.

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Conceptualization: S.A., A.A., and E.H. Analyses: S.A. and A.A. Investigation: S.A, A.A., E.H. Visualization: S.A., A.A. Writing—original draft: S.A., A.A., and E.H. Writing—review & editing: S.A., A.A., and E.H.

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The authors declare no competing interests. For transparency, we report that in 2021 E.H. received an unrelated, unrestricted research grant ($50k) from Meta. Meta did not contribute in any way to this study.

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Altay, S., De Angelis, A. & Hoes, E. Media literacy tips promoting reliable news improve discernment and enhance trust in traditional media. Commun Psychol 2 , 74 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00121-5

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Article contents

Critical media literacy in teacher education, theory, and practice.

• Jeff Share , Jeff Share University of California Los Angeles
• Tatevik Mamikonyan Tatevik Mamikonyan School of Education, University of California Los Angeles
•  and  Eduardo Lopez Eduardo Lopez University of California Los Angeles
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1404
• Published online: 30 September 2019
• This version: 20 September 2023
• Previous version

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 education (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 technology corporations. It is essential to develop a critical response to the new information communication technologies, artificial intelligence, and algorithms 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 literacy 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 alternative media. The voices of teachers engaging in this work can provide pragmatic insight into the potential and challenges of putting the theory into practice in K-12 public schools.

• critical literacy
• critical pedagogy
• media education
• media literacy
• critical media literacy
• social justice
• politics of representation
• cultural studies
• teacher education

Updated in this version

The authors made minor revisions to this text to reflect more recent scholarship. The reference list and further readings have similarly been updated.

Introduction

It is a formidable challenge to prepare critical educators to work inside a system in which every brick in the wall has been laid to transmit the information, skills, and ideas necessary to reproduce the social norms, inequities, ideologies, and alienation that are undermining the quality and sustainability of life on this planet. However, education can be a powerful tool to challenge these problems and create opportunities for students to work in solidarity with others to create a more socially and environmentally just world. To support these changes, we need teachers ready to engage students in critical inquiry by posing questions about systemic and structural issues of power, hierarchies of oppression, and social injustice. In the current media and information age, information communication technologies (ICTs) are available to either continue the control and degradation or to deconstruct the systems of oppression and reconstruct a more just and sustainable society.

Digital technology is opening opportunities for individual participation and alternative points of view, while at the same time a handful of enormous media and technology corporations have become the dominant storytellers, often repeating the same story at the expense of countless different perspectives and creative ways of thinking. Many of these storytellers are actually story-sellers, more interested in peddling ideas and products than informing, enlightening, inspiring, or challenging. While young people are using more media, they are also being used more by media companies. Giant transnational corporations are targeting youth as one of the most valuable markets for building brand loyalty and selling to advertisers. Researchers found 8- to 18-year-olds in the United States spend well over 10 hours a day interacting with various forms of media, such as music, computers, video games, television, film, and print ( Rideout et al., 2011 ). Another investigation discovered that 95% of American 13- to 17-year-olds have access to a smartphone and 97% say they are online daily and 46% use it constantly ( Vogels et al., 2022 ).

Not only is the amount of time with media increasing but the quality of that engagement is also changing by becoming more commercial and rarely critical. Researchers at Stanford University administered six tasks to 3,466 high schools across 14 states in the US to judge their ability to assess online information. In one task, students were asked to evaluate the credibility of a website that claimed to “disseminate factual reports” and 96% failed to learn about the site’s ties to the fossil fuel industry. In a different task, over half of students believed an anonymously posted video purporting to show voter fraud in the US was real, even though it was filmed in Russia ( Breakstone et al., 2021 ). In another study, Vosoughi et al. (2018) examined approximately 126,000 stories tweeted over 4.5 million times between 2006 and 2017 . The researchers were interested in understanding what accounted for the differential diffusion of verified true and false news stories. They found that false news stories spread “farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth because humans, not robots, are more likely to spread it” (p. 5). In analyzing the tweets, the authors concluded, false stories were 70% more likely to be retweeted because people found them not only more novel but the stories also inspired emotional responses of fear, disgust, or surprise.

The concern about “fake news” has encouraged many people to recognize the need for critical readers and writers of media. Some have suggested that we simply need better cognitive skills to determine truth from lies. However, making sense of the media and our information society is far more complicated than a reductionist idea of simply finding the truth. Rather than judging information as either true or false, students need to learn to search for multiple sources, different perspectives, and various types of evidence to triangulate and evaluate findings. In order to best evaluate and understand the information, they also need to question the influence of media in shaping the message and positioning the audience. Since all knowledge is an interpretation ( Kincheloe, 2007 ), interpreting the meaning of a message is a complex process that requires skills to probe empirical evidence, evaluate subjective biases, analyze the medium and construction of the text, and explore the social contexts.

This is an opportunity for educators to guide their students to think critically with and about the ICTs and media that surround them. Morrell et al. (2013) argue that the technology itself will not bring about transformative educational change. “That change will only come through teachers who draw on critical frameworks to create learning communities where the use of these tools becomes an empowering enterprise” (p. 14). Therefore, the changes in media, technology, and society require critical media literacy (CML) that can support teachers and students to question and create with and about the very tools that can empower or oppress, entertain or distract, inform or mislead, and buy or sell everything from lifestyles to politicians. Now more than ever, teachers should encourage students to be reading, viewing, listening to, interacting with, and creating a multitude of texts, from digital podcasts to multimedia productions.

Teacher Education

Even though youth are immersed in a world in which media and technology have entered all aspects of their lives and society, few teacher education programs are preparing teachers to help their students to critically understand the potential and limitations of these changes. It is crucial that new teachers learn how to teach their K-12 students to critically read and write everything, from academic texts to social media.

This means that schools of education responsible for training the new wave of teachers must be up to date, not just with the latest technology, but more importantly, with critical media literacy (CML) theory and pedagogy in order to prepare teachers and students to think and act critically with and about media and technology. In Canada, where media literacy is mandatory in every grade from 1 to 12, most new teachers are not receiving media literacy training in their preservice programs ( Wilson & Duncan, 2009 ). Researchers investigating media education in the United Kingdom and the US have found that many teachers are unprepared to teach media education and that professional learning opportunities are limited ( Butler, 2020 ; Kirwan et al., 2003 ). The progress has been slow, especially considering that inclusion of media literacy in formal public education has a history dating back to the 1980s in Australia, Britain, and Canada. However, nonformal media education has been occurring in many parts of the world for decades ( Hart, 1998 ; Kaplún, 1998 ; Kubey, 1997 ; Pegurer Caprino & Martínez-Cerdá, 2016 ; Prinsloo & Criticos, 1991 ).

While it is difficult to know for sure who is and who is not teaching critically about media and technology ( Mihailidis, 2008 ), there seems to be an increased interest in media literacy in the United States. In 2022 , the National Council of Teachers of English published a position statement recommending implementation of media education in English Language Arts along with two special issue journal publications ( Lynch, 2021 ; Kist & Christel, 2022 ) devoted to critical media literacy, arguing that “media education must be an essential component of the professional identity of teachers” ( National Council of Teachers of English, 2022 ).

As technology and media continue to evolve and increasingly enter public and private spaces, more educators are recognizing the need for training new teachers about media literacy ( Domine, 2011 ; Goetze et al., 2005 ; Hobbs, 2007a ) and some are even addressing the need to teach about CML ( Flores-Koulish et al., 2011 ; Funk et al., 2016 ; Robertson & Hughes, 2011 ; Trust et al., 2022 ). Researchers Tiede et al. (2015) studied 64 universities or colleges of teacher education in Germany and 316 U.S. public educational institutions that provide teacher training and graduate studies, concluding that very few offer more than media didactics (basic educational technology that teaches with media, not about media). From their data in the United States, they report, “media education, with emphasis on the instructional practices associated with the critical evaluation of media, culture, and society, were scarce, representing only 2% of all study programs in teacher training programs” (pp. 540−541). In Germany, the percentage increases to 25%, but “media didactics tends to be emphasized to the disadvantage of media education in both countries” (p. 542).

In 2011 , the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published a curriculum guide online in 11 languages for training teachers in media education ( Grizzle & Wilson, 2011 ), declaring that “teacher training in media and information literacy will be a major challenge for the global education system at least for the next decade” ( Pérez-Tornero & Tayie, 2012 , p. 11). 1 In Europe, Ranieri and Bruni (2018) analyzed the successes and challenges of training preservice and in-service teachers about media and digital literacy. An initiative called e-Media Educational Lab, funded by the European Commission, provided blended training to 279 preservice teachers and 81 in-service teachers in six countries. Based on surveys and fieldnotes, Ranieri and Bruni (2018) reported that the preservice and in-service teachers found critical media analysis and media production to be very important; they described their intent to transfer their media competency to their classrooms and expressed a desire to learn more practical ways to help their students develop media competencies.

UNESCO’s approach to media education combines media and information literacy (MIL) to include many competencies, from learning about and using information communication technologies to thinking critically about ethics and democracy. Carolyn Wilson (2012) explains, “MIL is both a content area and way of teaching and learning; it is not only about the acquisition of technical skills, but the development of a critical framework and approaches” (p. 16).

Combining information technology with media-cultural studies is essential, but still infrequent. Within the current wave of educational reform that prioritizes the newest technology and career readiness over civic engagement and critical inquiry, schools are more likely to adopt only information technology or information literacy and not critical media education. In the United States, few universities offer more than a single course in media literacy and most do not even offer that ( Goetze et al., 2005 ; Meehan et al., 2015 ).

Schwarz (2001) asserts that because of the power of emerging literacies, “teacher education needs media literacy as an essential tool and an essential topic in the new millennium” (pp. 111−112). She calls for integrating media literacy across all subject areas of teacher education, “from methods courses and educational psychology to foundational courses and student teaching” (p. 118). This interdisciplinary approach for media education could be easier now for K-12 teachers in the United States since the Common Core State Standards require literacy to be taught and technology to be used across the curriculum ( California Common Core State Standards, 2013 ; Moore & Bonilla, 2014 ; Trust et al., 2022 ).

Two studies with a total of 31 preservice teachers found a discrepancy between their positive attitudes for teaching media literacy and the lack of attention and support in their teacher education programs to prepare them to teach MIL ( Gretter & Yadav, 2018 ). Based on interviews with these preservice teachers, Gretter and Yadav (2018) report that they associated MIL with critical thinking skills and expressed concerns about not knowing how to teach MIL because their teacher preparation program encouraged “teaching with technology and not necessarily about technology” (p. 115). These preservice teachers complained about “a lack of preparation to help them transfer their knowledge of digital media to MIL pedagogies that would benefit students” (p. 111). This highlights the importance of preparing educators with the theory and conceptual understandings as well as the pedagogy and practical applications for how to teach their students to critically analyze and create media.

Teaching Teachers Critical Media Literacy

Transforming education to critically use media, technology, and popular culture for social and environmental justice is the overarching goal of a critical media literacy (CML) course in the teacher education program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The authors of this article have been involved in designing and teaching this course to in-service and preservice teachers. Through combining theory from cultural studies and critical pedagogy with practical classroom applications of digital media and technology, this course prepares K-12 educators to teach their students how to critically analyze and create all types of media. In 2011 , this four-unit course on CML was officially approved and became a required class for all students working on their teaching credential at UCLA.

The teacher education program at UCLA is primarily a two-year master’s and credential program that accepts about 130 candidates annually. The program is committed to developing social justice educators to work with and improve the schooling conditions of California’s ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse children. While most of the students go through the two-year program, additional pathways for earning a teaching credential and master’s degree have been offered, such as a master’s-only program for in-service teachers with two years or more of full-time teaching experience.

The CML class is taught in separate sections, usually divided by subjects, with 25−50 students per section. Most of the candidates taking the class are student teaching at the same time, except for the master’s-only candidates, who were teaching full-time while attending the class once a week in the evening. The class includes lectures, discussions, and activities interwoven into each session during the 10-week quarter.

Beginning with a theoretical overview, the course explores the development of media education that is defined less as a specific body of knowledge or set of skills and more as a framework of conceptual understandings ( Buckingham, 2003 ). Much of the theory behind CML has evolved from cultural studies, a field of critical inquiry that began in the 20th century in Europe and continues to grow with new critiques of media and society. From the 1930s through the 1960s, researchers at the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research used critical social theory to analyze how media culture and the new tools of communication technology induce ideology and social control. In the 1960s, researchers at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham added to the earlier concerns of ideology with a more sophisticated understanding of the audience as active constructors of reality, not simply mirrors of an external reality. Kellner (1995) explains that cultural studies has continued to grow and incorporate concepts of semiotics, feminism, multiculturalism, and postmodernism. Incorporating a dialectical understanding of political economy, textual analysis, and audience theory, cultural studies critiques media culture as dynamic discourses that reproduce dominant ideologies as well as entertain, educate, and offer the possibilities for counter-hegemonic alternatives ( Hammer & Kellner, 2009 ).

Critical media literacy includes three dimensions ( Share & Gambino, 2022 ). The first involves the content students learn about systems, structures, and ideologies that reproduce hierarchies of power and knowledge concerning race, gender, class, sexuality and other forms of identity and environmental justice, as well as general understandings about how media and communication function. The second dimension engages the skills to critically think and question media representations and biases, to deconstruct and reconstruct media texts, and use a variety of media to access, analyze, evaluate, and create. The third involves developing a disposition for empathy, critical consciousness, and empowerment to take action to challenge and transform society to be more socially and environmentally just. This third dimension is based on Freire’s (2010) notion of conscientização , a revolutionary critical consciousness that involves perception as well as action against oppression. These three dimensions of critical media literacy pedagogy are supported through an inquiry-based democratic approach that follows ideas of transformative educators like John Dewey and Paulo Freire. We incorporate feminist theory and critical pedagogy to analyze relationships between media and audiences, information and power ( Carlson et al., 2013 ; Garcia et al., 2013 ). When we first began teaching the course, we used a simple framework with five core concepts and key questions from the Center for Media Literacy. 2 To emphasize the critical potential of these ideas, while providing an accessible tool for teachers to use in the classroom, the following critical media literacy framework was developed, with six conceptual understandings and questions, as shown in Table 1 ( Kellner & Share, 2019 ).

These six conceptual understandings and questions are referred to regularly and are addressed in all lesson plans. It is important for teachers to understand the concepts and questions because theory should inform practice for all three dimensions. However, it is better for K-12 students to learn to ask the questions rather than memorize the concepts, since the questions, with appropriate guidance, can lead students on a path of inquiry where they are more likely to make meaning themselves, related to the conceptual understandings.

The CML framework is designed to help teachers and their students question the role of power and ideology that socialize and control society through making some people and ideas seem “normal” and “natural” while the rest are “othered” and “marginalized” ( Hall, 2003 ). This critical framing supports teachers and students to deepen their explorations of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, overconsumption, environmental exploitation, and other problematic representations in media. Candidates analyze and discuss current media examples, while also learning how to use various ICTs to create their own media with alternative counter-hegemonic representations. Using an inquiry process and democratic pedagogy, problems are posed to the students to collaboratively wrestle with, unpack, and respond to through media production.

Critical media literacy promotes an expansion of our understanding of literacy to include many types of texts, such as images, sounds, music, video games, social media, advertising, popular culture, and print, as well as a deepening of critical analysis to explore the connections between information and power. In our digital networked media age, it is not enough to teach students how to read and write just with print while their world has moved far beyond letters on a page. Literacy education in the 21st century requires breaking from traditional practices to include all the varied ways people communicate with media, technology, and any tool that facilitates the transfer of information or connects people. This calls for new skills and understandings to decode and analyze as well as to create and produce all types of texts. The California Teaching Performance Expectations also require teacher education programs to expand this view of literacy and integrate media and technology into coursework in order to “deepen teaching and learning to provide students with opportunities to participate in a digital society and economy” ( California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, 2016 , p. 9).

Each class starts by reviewing and applying the conceptual understandings and questions. Since one goal of the course is for candidates to understand that literacy includes reading and writing all types of texts, we encourage students to analyze as well as produce media. A series of assignments requires candidates to work together to create various types of media projects such as visual posters, photographs, podcasts, memes, digital stories, and social media. The candidates are also expected to work collaboratively on a CML lesson plan and learning segment that they write up, present a summary of to the whole class, and when possible, also teach it. For a detailed description of this course, see Share (2015) and visit the UCLA Library Critical Media Literacy Research Guide for links to articles, videos, and websites used in the course. 3

Table 1. Critical Media Literacy Framework

From a desire to explore if and how former students are applying the skills and knowledge gained from the critical media literacy (CML) course into their teaching practice, we created an online survey for students who had taken the course. Through purposeful sampling, we sent out the survey to the 738 students who had taken the CML course and ended up with 185 usable responses (25% response rate), 153 preservice and 32 in-service teachers. Of the 185 respondents, 53 taught elementary school and 132 were secondary-level teachers. The breakdown of the middle school and high school teachers was: 38 science, 34 math, 33 social sciences, 28 English, and several reported teaching a combination of subjects as well as some who taught other areas such as music, visual arts, Spanish, English language development, or adult education. The span of experience was wide; some just started teaching and some had been teaching over seven years, yet most of the teachers (52%) had been teaching between two and three years.

The mixed method survey included 20 questions. The first eight sought to identify participants’ teaching background. The remaining 12 questions inquired about their experiences teaching CML skills and concepts to their K-12 students. Ten quantitative questions used a Likert scale with a choice of responses, including very frequently, frequently, occasionally, rarely, and never, as well as an option to choose not applicable. The final two qualitative questions were open-ended in which respondents could type their thoughts about any “memorable moment(s) teaching critical media literacy” and “any additional comments.” During the analysis phase, we found it helpful to combine the categories very frequently and frequently and refer to them as VF/F.

Voices From the Field

Using mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative data, we analyzed the survey responses to explore teachers’ ideas about what they had been doing with their students. The overall feedback suggested that the majority of the respondents had brought aspects of media literacy education into their K-12 classrooms, and sometimes even incorporated CML. One of the most recurring patterns we noticed was that these teachers had been expanding the traditional concept of literacy by engaging their students with various types of media.

Teaching With Media

In reply to the first question, most of the respondents reported having integrated media into their class activities: 64% VF/F, 30% occasionally, 6% rarely, and no one responded never ( N = 185). The responses to Question 1 were very similar for elementary and secondary teachers, with only a 1% to 5% difference. Where we saw greater variation was when comparing the subject matter of secondary teachers. The English and science teachers had the highest percentages (75% and 76%) of VF/F responses to Question 1 about integrating media into class activities. Math teachers, by contrast, reported the lowest percentage, with 44% reporting VF/F and 15% rarely integrating media into the curriculum (see Figure 1 ).

Figure 1. Responses from secondary teachers to Question 1 about how often they integrated media into class activities.

While these responses demonstrated an overall high amount of media integration, it was not clear how the teachers integrated media and what students were doing with the media. The responses from Question 5 (“my students have created the following media”) provided more information about the students’ interactions with media, showing that the vast majority of respondents (92%) had their students create some type of media (see Figure 2 for a list of the various media students created).

Since the question only asked teachers to check the box for the type of media their students created, we did not know how often this occurred or with what degree of analysis. Questions 1 and 5 indicated that teaching with media occurred with over 90% of the respondents.

Figure 2. Responses to Question 5 about the different types of media that all 185 respondents report their students have created. They were asked to choose all that apply.

Teaching About Media

The second question tried to find out more about those interactions with media by asking respondents to rate how often they had given their “students opportunities to engage in media analysis.” For Question 2, about one-third of all 185 respondents, 32%, reported VF/F, 43% occasionally, 21% rarely, and 4% never. When comparing responses from Questions 1 and 2, the respondents seemed to have been doing more teaching with media (Question 1) than teaching about media (Question 2) (see Figure 3 ). A similar finding was mentioned in the research conducted in Germany and the United States by Tiede et al. (2015) .

Figure 3. Comparing all responses from Question 1 about integrating media into class activities (teaching with media) with Question 2 about engaging in media analysis (teaching about media).

A more nuanced perspective of Question 2 is possible when comparing the responses about media analysis from different content area secondary teachers. In response to Question 2, the teachers who reported VF/F were the following: 63% of English teachers reported giving the most opportunities for their students to engage in media analysis, as compared to almost half as often by 32% of science teachers and about five times less often by 12% of math teachers (see Figure 4 ). Since literacy is a primary goal of English instruction, it is not surprising that English teachers reported the highest levels of media analysis ( Hobbs, 2007b ).

It is important to recognize that teaching about media can be a highly complex and multifaceted undertaking, especially when done through a CML lens. For example, the second conceptual understanding encourages students to analyze the codes and conventions of the media text and the medium through which they travel by asking how the text was constructed and delivered or accessed. This, in itself, can have many layers and yet is just one of six questions intended to help students think critically about media. Livingstone (2018) asserts, “media literacy is needed not only to engage with the media but to engage with society through the media .” As Luke and Freebody (1997) argue, it is not enough to only have a psychological approach to literacy, as if reading and writing is just an individual cognitive process. We need to also bring a sociological lens into the process of questioning the contexts, the dominant ideologies, and the systems that make some things seem “natural” or “normal.” The CML framework is a holistic tool for thinking about and questioning the dynamic role media play in our relationships with ourselves, each other, and society. Responses and comments to other questions in the survey provide more insight into how some teachers have engaged their students in various types of media analysis.

Figure 4. Comparing responses from different content areas about Question 2 regarding how often secondary teachers gave their students opportunities to engage in media analysis.

Evaluating Information and Advertising

In the qualitative responses to Questions 11 and 12, teachers mentioned embracing basic media literacy principles in the ways students were evaluating the credibility of information and advertising as well as creating different types of media. The popularity of the term “fake news” and the growing amount of disinformation have increased the challenge to distinguish misinformation and propaganda from journalism and scientifically researched facts ( Rogow, 2018 ). An elementary teacher who reported “frequently” integrating media into the classroom, asserted:

Though my students are younger and some of these concepts are more difficult to teach than others, I find it important to bring up especially in terms of making sure they don’t believe every YouYube video they watch. We’ve had many meaningful discussions about what can be created for a video shouldn’t just be accepted as the truth. For example, the ‘mermaid’ documentary that came out a few years ago had all of my students convinced that they had found a mermaid. It led to an interesting discussion on hoaxes and further reading about Bigfoo[t] and other such stories.

Since all media contain bias because they are created by subjective humans, it is important for teachers to help their students to recognize the bias and also be able to judge the credibility of information. A high school math teacher wrote:

It has not happened until this school year, when I began teaching Statistics. I introduced some pictographs for students to analyze and an article for students to read about how a website stated that if polls were unskewed, Trump would be leading the polls for election. I had students read and discuss about the validity and why/why not it is trustable.

Several respondents mentioned having their students study political advertising, and since all U.S. elections are now multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns (e.g., Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign won the top prizes at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Awards), there is little distinction between selling products, ideas, and political candidates.

Analyzing advertising is an important aspect of media education because advertising is the motor that drives commercial media and has become so common in our lives that there are few spaces that are completely ad-free ( Jhally, 2003 ). Several respondents reported about their students investigating advertisements for false health messages, misleading packaging, political campaigns, tobacco, alcohol, and different perspectives. One secondary English teacher wrote, “My students took pictures of advertisements that surrounded their neighborhood and we analyzed them for patterns, themes, and purposes.” A high school science teacher reported, “I had many times this past year where students were able to reflect on marketing strategies and how they affect the viewer’s perspective of their life and themselves. Students made great connections.”

During the critical media literacy (CML) class, students scrutinize consumer culture and the role advertising plays in creating anxieties, shaping desires, and normalizing representations about all things, from consumption to gender, race, and class. Candidates in the CML class learn about these ideas through readings, by analyzing advertisements, and also by creating ads for different target audiences. When asked about the media their students had created, one third reported their students created advertisements.

Creating Different Types of Media

When students are taught print literacy, they are instructed how to decode letters on a page and how to write with those letters to construct words, sentences, and paragraphs. The same process of teaching reading and writing should be applied to visual images, movies, songs, video games, social media, and all the various multimedia texts that students are encountering daily. In responses from the survey, teachers reported about having their students write and create many different types of texts beyond print (see Figure 2 ).

One English teacher wrote that having students create media was “very successful. They loved being able to create memes, posters, Prezis, etc. to present their work.” An elementary teacher shared about students “creating podcasts/npr style news stories regarding UN sustainability goals.” Several respondents commented on their students designing commercials or challenging ads by producing spoofs that parody the ads. One middle school teacher shared, “students analyzed ads for nicotine and alcohol products, then used the practice with critical media skills to create ‘anti-ads’ with Google drawings.”

During the first year of teaching, a high school science teacher reported about a memorable moment when “creating a multi-lingual, easy-to-understand and scientifically supported pamphlet on the hazards in LA’s environment.” A high school Spanish teacher wrote about his students creating critical memes in Spanish, like the ones they created in the critical media literacy (CML) class. During the session exploring racism and media, candidates challenge racist representations through creating racial myth-busting memes. As a strategy to demonstrate the value of media production, the CML class has students create various media in almost every session, and these activities are often the favorite lessons mentioned in the end of course evaluations.

Increasing Engagement

While engagement is not a learning objective, all teaching benefits from students being engaged in their learning. One of the patterns that emerged from the responses was teachers’ observations that student engagement increased. An eighth-grade English teacher wrote that after incorporating media literacy, the students’ “entire attitude toward learning shifted. Especially the hard to reach students.” An elementary teacher reported, “Media literacy has made great contributions in my class with science research in the past. The simple act of using google images, google maps and finding credible sources has sparked learning and interest in my class.” Another elementary teacher shared about using critical media literacy (CML) to analyze food justice issues: “They were instantly engaged and students who had a difficult time writing and with critical thinking then did not.”

A secondary science teacher reported, “Students spent the entire class engaged in discussion when I intended for it to only be an introduction to the unit.” Another high school science teacher wrote, “When I did teach a class specifically geared towards media literacy, it was great because students were engaged. They were quick at analyzing images and creating their own.” A third science teacher wrote, “using critical media literacy made engaging my students in abstract chemistry concepts more meaningful and engaging.” Engagement tends to increase when students are genuinely interested and intrinsically motivated, something that often comes out of personal connection, a sense of meaningfulness, and an authentic belief in the value of the learning ( Dewey, 1963 ). These are all elements of good CML pedagogy. A high school science teacher described the feelings of students and their parents as they responded to their CML work: “My favorite moments are students exuding pride and passion over the work they are creating that speaks to their perspectives and experiences; parents proud of their students’ media creations.” Feelings of pride and passion are important for all students to experience; they help lower students’ affective filters for learning ( Krashen, 1995 ) and increase intrinsic motivation to want to learn.

Critical Media Literacy

As we analyzed teachers’ written responses, we saw a number of comments in which they were taking basic media literacy concepts to deeper levels of criticality. Several mentioned how useful the class was to understanding critical theory and be able to see how it can be enacted in their K-12 classroom. Similar findings were mentioned after Joanou (2017) analyzed data about a critical media literacy (CML) class taught to master’s-level practicing K-12 educators. Joanou (2017) reported, “critical media literacy helps bridge the gap between theory and practice” (p. 40). The use of media texts and popular culture can provide relevant examples for entry into abstract concepts that are often politically and emotionally charged, and sometimes too sensitive or too distant to begin discussing on a personal level.

Teaching about the connections between information and power reflects a key goal of CML ( Kellner & Share, 2007 ) and our respondents demonstrated this through their qualitative comments about recreating counter-narratives, analyzing the politics of representation, making critical connections between history and current events with media texts, and engaging in political, social, and environmental media activism. Questions 3 and 4 attempted to assess the frequency in which teachers were bringing critical aspects of media education to their students.

Question 3 asks teachers to rate how often: “My students have engaged in media analysis by exploring media representations of ideology, race, class, gender, sexuality, environmentalism, and/or other social justice issues.” Elementary and secondary teachers reported almost identical frequencies in response to Question 3: 22% in both groups reported VF/F while 42% (elementary) and 45% (secondary) stated occasionally. When asked Question 4 about making connections between information and power, the differences increased: 39% of the secondary teachers responded doing this VF/F while just 23% of the elementary teachers reported doing this VF/F.

In-service teachers reported higher frequencies for Question 3: 54% of in-service teachers reported VF/F while preservice teachers reported 14% VF/F. For Question 4: 56% of in-service teachers reported VF/F compared with 30% of preservice teachers who reported VF/F.

When comparing responses separated by subject matter with secondary teachers, 33% of English teachers and 30% of social science teachers reported VF/F for engaging in critical media analysis, as seen in Question 3 about exploring media representations. This is considerably higher than the 16% of science teachers and 9% of math teachers reporting VF/F. The math and science teachers reported the highest percentages for rarely or never having their students explore media representations of social justice issues (see Figure 5 ). The literature supports similar findings. Garii and Rule (2009) reported that student teachers had a difficult time integrating social justice into math and science content due to several factors. In their research with novice elementary teachers, Garii and Rule discovered that the candidates were not confident in their ability to teach math and science and had limited and unsophisticated knowledge of the content. They also viewed math and science “to be a set of routinized, algorithmic practices that lead to a single, correct answer and neither science nor mathematics are assumed to be closely connected to real-world issues and concerns” (p. 491). Given that they are struggling to learn and understand the content, math and science candidates turned to classroom textbooks to guide instructional practices. Incorporating nontraditional practices or making connections to students’ lives becomes a challenge because they disconnect social justice from their teaching and focus on teaching to the content ( Garii & Rule, 2009 ).

Figure 5. Responses to Question 3 from secondary teachers about how often they engaged their students in critical “media analysis by exploring media representations of ideology, race, class, gender, sexuality, environmentalism, and/or other social justice issues.”

One of the more significant findings of the study is the number of respondents reporting they “noticed that using critical media literacy encourages critical thinking among students” (Question 9). Of the preservice respondents, 61% reported VF/F, and for the in-service teachers, the percentages jump to 81% who reported VF/F. In both cases, the majority of respondents expressed their feelings that CML promotes critical thinking most of the time (see Figure 6 ). A middle school social science teacher wrote that after teaching CML, “students were deeper thinkers and our discussions were so much richer. Students were highly engaged and more invested in the classroom.” When comparing grade levels for Question 9, we see 78% of elementary teachers reported that using CML VF/F encourages critical thinking, and 61% of secondary teachers reported VF/F. This large percentage of elementary teachers reporting about CML encouraging critical thinking shows great promise for the potential of CML in the early grades.

Figure 6. Comparison of preservice and in-service teachers’ responses to Question 9 about how often they have noticed CML encourages critical thinking among their students.

Creating Counter Narratives and Supporting Students’ Voices

Many of the responses regarding transformative education centered on guiding students to create counternarratives and supporting student ideas and voices. Respondents mentioned activities that enabled their students to recreate media texts with a critical lens. These counternarratives included recreating superhero comic books, news, advertisements, digital storytelling, national holiday observances, and poems. A high school English teacher noted, “after analyzing recent and popular superhero comic books, my students used the comic medium to tell an autobiographical story wherein they exhibited power in the face of oppression.” A middle school English teacher reported:

The most memorable lesson I’ve taught involving critical media literacy was a unit based on perseverance and the power of the human spirit in regards to power structures and oppression. After analyzing multiple types of media, students created their own VoiceThread using spoken word in order to share their own messages of perseverance. It was incredibly powerful to hear their messages.

For most respondents, the notion of enabling their students to share personal stories using multimedia tools meant that they were integrating critical media pedagogy into their teaching practice. Traditionally, personal and experiential knowledge as a form of literacy is not often valued; thus, it is a critical pedagogical orientation to encourage students to recreate media texts that reflect their intersecting realities and challenge the pervasive dominant ideologies. Students’ personal histories become scholarly pursuits when digital storytelling encompasses media production skills taught through a critical media literacy (CML) framework. Vasquez (2017) asserts, “students learn best when what they are learning has importance in their lives, using the topics, issues, and questions that they raise should therefore be an important part of creating the classroom curriculum” (p. 8). A middle school math and technology teacher commented about incorporating CML into her master’s inquiry project:

The project we ultimately created was a digital storytelling project, in which students interviewed their parents or someone they admire and created some sort of media project around that story to tell counter-narratives to the dominant story told in media about people of color.

Guiding students to create counternarratives can be an empowering instructional strategy that nurtures their personal realities and supports their voice. Considering the context of urban education, it becomes particularly important for low-income students and students of color, who have been historically denied the power to be heard, to engage in their learning as empowered subjects through creating digital counter-narratives.

Politics of Representation

A major difference between critical media literacy (CML) and the more common media literacy practiced in the United States is the rigorous examination of the politics of representation; an analysis of how historically disenfranchised social groups are represented in media ( Funk et al., 2016 ). Many of the respondents discussed analyzing issues related to representations of different identities with their students. A high school visual arts teacher reported that through “using current events in the media, students created headline news with people of color perspective.” The majority of the responses highlighted engaging in discussions related to gender and a few responses about race. One elementary teacher noted:

My grade level did a Critical Media Literacy unit and after it was over, a week later, a student showed me a box of Chips Ahoy cookies and said that it was made to be sold to boys and girls. She compared it to a rainbow pop tarts box made for girls and a basketball cereal box made for boys that we had discussed during the CML unit.

A high school social science teacher reported:

My 11th and 12th grade Sociology class created representation boards. Each group was assigned an identity (‘white male,’ ‘Asian male,’ ‘black female,’ etc.). When each group was done, we compared the images and discussed the similarities between representations of race and gender. It really opened their eyes.

The politics of representation explores the complexities and intersections of identity markers, such as ethnicity, culture, gender, class, sexual orientation, religion, and ableism. Several candidates alluded to the intersectionality between race and gender in their responses, mostly engaging their students in discussions related to the unequal representation and socialization of gender roles. They also noted that discussing stereotypical gender roles challenged their students’ internalized notions of gender. Responses such as the following highlight the shift in their students’ perspectives about gender: An elementary teacher wrote, “We’ve had some successful discussions around gender stereotypes and I’ve heard the language change in the classroom and students be more thoughtful about others’ choices.” Another elementary teacher reported, “My students showed greater acceptance. After teaching a lesson invoking gender all my male students felt accepted to choose any color paper—the favorite was pink for the rest of the year.”

Making Critical Connections

In response to the open-ended questions, an array of items was mentioned that demonstrate critical engagement, from teaching about racism and whitewashing, to numerous examples of analyzing gender and sexism, as well as projects on environmental justice and climate change at all grade levels. Some respondents discussed their transformative practice through the way their students analyzed and created media to make critical connections between historical and current events.

A high school social science teacher stated, “I had students create videos explaining the situation in Ukraine and relating it to the Cold War. In United States history, I often had students look at political cartoons and think about current examples of imperialism and how they’re represented in media.” Similarly, another social science teacher described a memorable moment of teaching critical media literacy (CML) as: “When students could make the connection between yellow journalism in Spanish-American War and media sensationalism during the War on Terror.” An elementary school teacher wrote:

My students began to think critically about history after showing them the spoken word poem ‘History Textbooks,’ which talked about world history being American Propaganda. Through this poem, they began questioning: who gets to write history and whose stories are told? It was a really powerful lesson we returned to over and over again throughout my course.

Analyzing media texts by acknowledging their historical continuity is vital because marginalization and exploitation are historically bound. Discovering these historical connections helps teachers and students learn how dominance and ideology are perpetuated, transcending time and space. Bridging the gap between the past and the present enables students to identify the common thread of hegemony across various spheres of social life. This instructional approach of CML promotes critical thinking with a social justice emphasis.

Another topic on which respondents commented was using CML to teach about environmental issues, especially the climate crisis. This is an important area for CML, since so many media messages about climate change distort the scientific evidence and mislead the public ( Beach et al., 2017 ; Share & Beach, 2022 ). A high school science teacher reported, “My class analyzed the politics behind climate change denial and how climate change is represented in the media. It was very easy for my students to see the connection between the message and its creators.” Exploring the connection between media ownership and media messages, another high school science teacher commented that a memorable moment was having a “discussion with students about where they were getting their information about environmental issues, and talking about who owns and controls Univision.”

In addition to becoming more aware, being engaged in critical analysis and creating counternarratives, some respondents noted that their students had engaged in political, environmental, and social media activism. A high school science teacher mentioned:

My class was looking at environmental justice and one student took that information and used it for an English project she was working on and that project transformed into a petition to the city council to plant more trees as her contribution to offsetting pollution in the inner city.

Another science teacher reported about how his “students created social media campaigns to raise awareness about animals affected by climate change. Different groups created the ‘Puffin Dance’ and #peekatmypika to help their campaigns get going.” A kindergarten teacher wrote about her students creating a video with opinion posters for change they shared with their school community.

Activism can be enacted in multiple ways; some efforts are more explicit, like petitions and protests, while others are more subtle, such as creating alternative media. Teacher responses reflect their students’ activism related to social, environmental, and political issues materialized through local and issue-specific efforts.

In analyzing the responses, we found many encouraging and hopeful comments about how critical media literacy (CML) has helped teachers rethink their pedagogy and increase student engagement. However, the responses also highlight challenges for implementing CML, such as limited resources, support, and clarity about how to integrate it into the curriculum. An elementary teacher wrote about the scarcity of technology at the school and how that “makes it difficult to do anything around critical media.” From the answers to Question 7 (incorporating CML into my teaching is difficult), secondary teachers reported more difficulty teaching CML (35% VF/F) than elementary teachers (26% VF/F). This is another place where the potential for CML in the lower grades surfaced, since they seem to have less difficulty incorporating it than secondary teachers. The design of most elementary classrooms, which requires the same teacher to cover all subject matter to the same group of students throughout the day, opens the potential for integrating CML pedagogy through thematic teaching, project-based learning, or problem-posing pedagogy.

A first-year middle school social science teacher shared wanting to use more CML, but had little departmental and administrative support. An elementary teacher shared about an administrator who “is reluctant to have me teach how to be critical of all media.” Three responses focused on wanting more resources, instructional strategies, and school-appropriate material in order to be able to implement CML in their classrooms. These qualitative statements of lack of support can be seen in the quantitative responses to Question 10 in which respondents rated the statement: “I feel supported by people at my school when teaching critical media literacy”: 36% VF/F, 24% occasionally, 18% rarely, 6% never felt supported, and 17% not applicable.

The group that shared the most challenges for implementing CML consisted of five teachers who taught secondary math and science. Their qualitative responses broadly discussed the difficulty of integrating CML into their content and finding only limited application. One of these responses from a high school math teacher mentioned:

I remember how when I was in the [CML] class, it seemed all over the place. I was unable to fully find the purpose of the class and how we can use it in a math class. In a traditional math class, such as Pre-Calculus or Calculus, it was rather difficult to find ways to incorporate the idea of CML.

This same person also commented that once he began teaching statistics, he was able to find ways to integrate CML. Of the 34 math teachers who answered Question 7, 59% of them reported that incorporating CML into their teaching was difficult VF/F. This is about double the VF/F responses from the other subjects.

A high school math teacher saw the value in teaching students CML but limited its application to challenging students’ misinformation about math and who is or is not a mathematician:

Critical Media Literacy is pretty important for students, especially in an age where they’re exposed to various forms of media, a lot of which is very skewed in one way or the other, and usually takes a reductionist viewpoint of the issues it addresses. I try to use CML to help students understand the misinformation about mathematics, the nature of mathematics, and challenge stereotypes of who is or isn’t a mathematician (examples: Not all mathematicians are white or Asian, there are Latino and African/African American mathematicians, there are mathematicians from faith backgrounds, mathematics isn’t just about calculations, etc.).

Two additional respondents also acknowledged the benefits of CML but felt challenged by the additional work needed to integrate it into the curriculum. A high school science teacher shared:

When I took the Critical Media Literacy class, it felt like it was more geared towards the humanities and not necessarily for the sciences. While it would be great to come up with lessons that connect chemistry and critical media literacy, it is immensely time-consuming when I can’t find other people to brainstorm with.

Another secondary science teacher also felt CML was important but struggled to find ways to integrate it into the classroom:

It was a great shared learning space and I got a ton of inspiration from taking the class; however, it has been difficult to use CML when direct instruction does focus on the explanation of scientific concepts. That’s not to say it is impossible, it just does take one more step of planning and student buy in.

Researchers in Canada found that after teaching CML concepts and skills in a Language Arts methods course, their preservice teachers felt enthusiastic about teaching media literacy, but challenged when designing CML lessons ( Robertson & Hughes, 2011 , p. 51). Robertson and Hughes (2011) list five reasons why teaching CML was so challenging for their students: (1) when these preservice teachers were K-12 students, most did not experience CML lessons; (2) the majority of their mentor teachers did not teach CML or know much about it; (3) critical analysis practices are not easy; (4) few resources are available; and (5) some schools have little technology and technical support. These are many of the same challenges that our teachers reported.

Intent and Importance of Incorporating Critical Media Literacy

Numerous teachers wrote about how meaningful, vital, transformative, and important this class was for them. A high school science teacher shared that the critical media literacy (CML) class, “was transformative! I’m still working on ways to fully integrate what I learned, but I have had my students creating media ever since.” A middle school English teacher commented about how the CML class “gave us techniques, projects, lessons that we can incorporate in our classrooms. Teaching students how to be critical of information related through the media is highly important because student[s] gain that critical awareness necessary for a technology-based society!”

A desire to bring more CML into the classroom surfaced throughout many of the qualitative responses. When asked to indicate any additional comments, 16 out of 64 respondents (25%) expressed their intention to integrate concepts related to media literacy or CML. A high school math teacher who wrote about having students create ads to represent data in graphs stated, “I wish I could incorporate more. I’ll keep trying.” A kindergarten teacher commented, “I wish I had more time to engage my students in this topic. As I grow in experience and expertise, I incorporate it more and more. Teaching in urban areas is a challenge but I do find the ideas of the course to be valuable in the classroom.”

The data and voices of these teachers raise practical, theoretical, and policy implications for future work in supporting teachers in adopting a pedagogical approach that can ignite engagement, make learning relevant, and deepen critical thinking with media, technology, and all information. In order for this to happen, teacher education programs need to address some of the challenges and limitations highlighted in the study.

The teachers surveyed reported challenges for implementing critical media literacy (CML) such as limited access to resources, lack of support, and a struggle to understand how to integrate it into the curriculum. This was especially evident for the math and science teachers. CML courses need to help teachers in all content areas rethink the silo approach to separate subject matter instruction and recognize the ways literacy is used in all areas and how information is connected to students’ lives through issues of power, privilege, and pleasure. To help teachers integrate CML into the curriculum, it is important for them to see content and grade-level examples while also receiving ongoing support and resources.

One way to support teachers in various subject matter is to create groups or projects modeled after the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) or the Center X professional development projects. 4 The SHEG is a research and development group that provides free online resources and lesson plans for history teachers to support students in developing historical thinking skills. In a similar way, the Center X projects provide resources, lesson ideas, and professional development to support working teachers and administrators, while also creating curriculum, providing trainings, and engaging in research. The creation of a CML project or research and development group could provide ongoing professional development for new and experienced teachers in order to sustain CML implementation and support the growth of CML as an important field of investigation.

In-service teachers in our survey reported higher rates of integration of CML, perhaps because experienced teachers have figured out issues of classroom management, lesson planning, and how to balance work and life expectations. As a result, they are better situated to build and expand their curricula and teaching practices to bring CML into their classrooms. While creating a site modeled after the SHEG or Center X projects will require a significant investment of time and money, a more immediate and economical way to provide support for preservice teachers could be through integrating CML across various teacher preparation courses, especially in methods classes. This integration would require working with teacher educators to explore the CML theoretical framework and co-construct new practices and curricula for integrating these ideas throughout different content areas.

Despite the challenges reported by our teachers, the data also suggest promising possibilities for CML. While we do not claim causality between their teaching and the CML course, the data provide a window into how our preservice and in-service teachers have supported critical engagement with the information, entertainment, and social media embedded in the lives of students.

The similarities between elementary and secondary teachers suggest that CML can be just as appropriate for lower grades as it is commonly assumed to be for older students. The work in critical literacy by Comber (2013) and Vasquez (2014) offers support for the notion that young children can engage deeply in critical thinking and social justice education. The elementary teachers in our study demonstrate these ideas through the work they have done to engage their young students with media analysis and critical media production from kindergarten on up. While some teachers reported deep levels of critical analysis more often than others, many expressed their belief in the importance of CML and their desire to teach about social justice. Vasquez (2017) reminds us that critical literacy should not be a topic to teach: “Instead it should be looked on as a lens, frame, or perspective for teaching throughout the day, across the curriculum, and perhaps beyond. What this means is that critical literacy involves having a critical perspective or way of being” (p. 8). Developing social justice educators who internalize a critical way of looking at the world and questioning systems of power is the project for which CML provides a pragmatic framework and pedagogy.

It is impressive to see the majority of teachers reporting that using CML encourages critical thinking, something more important than ever in the age of fake news and alternative facts. There is hope in the teachers’ voices as they describe the activities they have been doing with their students, the successes they have encountered, and the challenges they have struggled to overcome. The comments about their intentions to teach CML and the importance they attribute to teaching these concepts provide encouragement for teacher educators to embrace CML. More than anything, the data demonstrate the potential for teaching CML in elementary and secondary settings with preservice and in-service teachers and in all content areas, even though some are more challenging than others. The use of media and technology offers opportunities for teachers to build on students’ prior knowledge, create a bridge to connect the outside world with school learning, and provide the raw material to examine everyday experiences of power, marginalization, and resistance.

Simply integrating media into the curriculum is not enough to develop critical literacies given the changing and multiple literacies associated with new digital information and communication technologies and practices. In the contemporary moment, there is a pressing pedagogical need to navigate the increasingly consequential artificial intelligence (AI) systems that collect, collate, process, predict and disseminate information determined by algorithms. Data from the survey suggest that our teachers are teaching more with media than critically analyzing it. Further studies are needed in order to better understand how to develop teachers’ CML frameworks and support more implementation.

Preparing educators to teach CML is not easy, and unfortunately, few institutes of higher education are attempting the challenge. However, it is possible, and in fact, it can be highly rewarding. By listening to the voices of teachers who have taken a CML course, we see the potential. As one high school science teacher commented, “CML changed me, changed my teaching, continues to change my students.”

While information communication technologies are integrating into all aspects of our lives, we are also witnessing increasing divisions between the haves and have nots, out-of-control climate change, and the weaponization of information and media. In order to create a socially just democratic society and sustainable planet, we must have people who can critically read and write the word and the world ( Freire & Macedo, 1987 ). The need for CML has never been greater. A high school English teacher wrote, “there is no literacy without media literacy. There is not critical pedagogy without critical media literacy.” It is our hope that this article serves as a resource to continue exploring the potential that CML offers to transform students, schools, and society.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the following educators who helped us design and teach this critical media literacy course: Shani Byard, Peter Carlson, Steven Funk, Antero Garcia, Mark Gomez, Clifford Lee, Elexia Reyes-McGovern, and Martin Romero. We are grateful to Megan Franke for her guidance with the creation of the survey. We also appreciate the assistance of Jarod Kawasaki, Jose-Felipe Martinez, and Brandon McMillan with helping to organize the survey data.

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1. The UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Curriculum can be found at the following location.

2. These can be found at the Center for Media Literacy website .

3. See The UCLA Library Critical Media Literacy Research Guide .

4. The Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) and the Center X site is at UCLA CENTER X PREPARES & SUPPORTS EDUCATORS .

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The effect of media literacy on effective learning outcomes in online learning

• Published: 27 September 2022
• Volume 28 , pages 3605–3624, ( 2023 )

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• Quoc Hoa Tran-Duong   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3184-5260 1  

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Nowadays, online learning is already ubiquitous in the education of most countries and is one of the fastest-growing trends in the use of educational technology. However, despite literature on the effectiveness of online learning, little is known about the influence of student media literacy on effective learning outcomes in online learning. The present study tried to fill this research gap by exploring the effect of the four-factor construct of media literacy on effective learning outcomes that were measured by focusing on how students perceived their overall learning outcomes in online learning. Data were collected in a sample of 421 undergraduate students from 32 universities in Vietnam. The results of the structural equation modeling indicated that except for functional prosumption, the remaining three factors of media literacy (functional consumption, critical consumption, and critical prosumption) had significant positive effects on perceived learning outcomes. Critical prosumption was found to be the most powerful significant influence on student learning outcomes in the online learning environment. The findings provide some significant practical implications for stakeholders in setting up strategic plans for increasing the effectiveness of online classes.

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1 Introduction

The settings for teaching and learning environments are changing at an ever-increasing pace along with the dizzying change in technology. Nowadays, online learning is already ubiquitous in the education of most countries and is one of the fastest-growing trends in the use of educational technology (Bates, 2015 ; Wei & Chou, 2020 ). Online learning makes learning more flexible (Baber, 2020 ; Castro & Tumibay, 2021 ) and it is also a viable alternative to traditional classes that are sometimes unable to be present due to force majeure, such as the Covid-19 pandemic (Xhelili et al., 2021 ). There are many advantages of online learning, especially in a time of modern technology development like today (Baber, 2020 ). Some advantages of online learning have been discussed in the literature, such as improving access to education programs, improving educational effectiveness, and reducing costs in education and training (Dumford & Miller, 2018 ; Panigrahi et al., 2018 ; Perna et al., 2014 ). The studies that have compared the effectiveness of online learning with face-to-face learning have been done in a not-so-small number of places. Their results confirmed that online learning delivered results that were not inferior to, or even better than, traditional methods (Bernard et al., 2014 ; Lockman & Schirmer, 2020 ). On the contrary, however, some concerns about the reduction of online learner engagement and issues related to the progress of content delivery of online classes have also been mentioned in previous studies (Alshamrani, 2019 ; Truell, 2012 ).

Obviously, although online learning is trending and increasingly popular in the age of innovative technology, there was evidence that it was associated with much higher rates of effective erosion than traditional learning (Zacharis, 2011 ). A number of studies have shown that it is not excluded that there may be certain types of students who can not successfully study in an online environment (Baber, 2020 ; Boyd, 2004 ; Zacharis, 2011 ). The success or failure of online learning which is often considered in terms of student learning outcomes (Alqurashi, 2019 ; Joksimović et al., 2015 ; Lim & Richardson, 2021 ; Yang et al., 2016 ) or student satisfaction (Jiang et al., 2021 ; Joo et al., 2011 ; Kuo et al., 2014 ; Rodriguez, 2015 ; Roh, 2015 ) in many studies has been confirmed to be influenced by several factors. Various factors that have been found to have a diverse impact on the effectiveness of online learning have been reported in many previous studies (Dumford & Miller, 2018 ; Eom & Ashill, 2016 ; Kang & Tami, 2013 ), and student media literacy could be one of them. Overall, there is evidence that students who can do better and be more successful in an online learning environment tend to be richer in media skills (Alqurashi, 2019 ; Oh & Lim, 2005 ). However, dispersion and heterogeneity in the construct of media literacy and its impact on the effectiveness of online classes have still been commonly found in existing studies.

Nowadays, educational institutions have been offering more opportunities to take online programs (Alqurashi, 2019 ) because the number of students participating in online learning yearly is on the rise (Lim & Richardson, 2021 ). The dramatic increase in the number of online programs in educational institutions has also led to the emergence of numerous studies exploring the factors that have a significant impact on online learning outcomes. However, despite literature on the effectiveness of online learning, little is known about the influence of student media literacy on effective learning outcomes in online learning. In the literature, tests of factors that affect learning outcomes in the online learning environment have mainly focused on a number of typical constructs, such as demographic characteristics (Cai et al., 2017 ; Rizvi et al., 2019 ; Wang et al., 2013 ; Yu, 2021 ), social presence (Hostetter & Busch, 2013 ; Joksimović et al., 2015 ; Richardson et al., 2017 ; Yang et al., 2016 ), online interaction (Kang et al., 2009 ; Kang & Tami, 2013 ; Moore, 2014 ), self-regulation (Broadbent & Poon, 2015 ; Cho et al., 2017 ; Kara et al., 2021 ), self-efficacy (Alqurashi, 2019 ; Bradley et al., 2019 ; Joo et al., 2013 ; Papasratorn & Wangpipatwong, 2006 ; Shea & Bidjerano, 2010 ), task value (Joo et al., 2013 ; Lee et al., 2020 ), etc. In addition, even though there have been many previous studies highlighting the importance of student media literacy in the online learning environment (Crosby, 2019 ; Hidayat, 2021 ; Kahne et al., 2012 ; Ugurhan et al., 2020 ), the studies that examined the effect of media literacy on effective learning outcomes, especially the impact of the four-factor structure of media literacy on effective learning outcomes, have received limited empirical attention. With the spread of online learning, an analysis of the relationship between students' media literacy and their effective learning outcomes will provide stakeholders with vital information to set up strategic plans for increasing the effectiveness of online programs. In this light, the purpose of this study was to explore the associations between students’ media literacy and their effective learning outcomes that were measured by focusing on how students perceived their overall learning outcomes in online learning. The present study can help educational administrators in developing a better context for ways in which the student experience with online learning environment might be improved.

2 Theoretical framework

2.1 media literacy.

Media literacy is a concept and encompasses a range of critical skills needed for living and working in the mediated and participatory cultures of the twenty-first century (Koc & Barut, 2016 ). Several theoretical perspectives on media literacy could be found in the existing literature (Datu et al., 2021 ). While contemporary models have focused on operationalizing media literacy (Koltay, 2011 ; Livingstone, 2014 ), others have focused on the social skills required to consume and produce media contents (Chen et al., 2011 ; Pfaff-Rüdiger & Riesmeyer, 2016 ).

Along with the changing media environment, there have been many changes in the way media literacy characteristics are described. Instead of focusing solely on how conventional media are approached, recent studies increasingly emphasize the social affordability of new media (Lee et al., 2015 ). The first attempt to conceptualize new media literacy (NML) in related literature was made by Chen et al. ( 2011 ). The authors proposed a theoretical model to unpack the notion of NML based on rethinking the concept of media literacy and decoding the technical and socio-cultural characteristics of new media. In this model, NML consisted of four components namely functional consuming, functional prosuming, critical consuming, and critical prosuming. The components of NML are delivered along two continuums: from consuming to prosuming media literacy and from functional to critical media literacy. Consuming media literacy refers to the capacity to access media messages and proficiency in the use of media while prosuming media literacy, on top of consuming skills, refers to the capacity to produce media content (Chen et al., 2011 ).

Towards the goal of refining the theoretical framework developed by Chen et al. ( 2011 ), Lin et al. ( 2013 ) provided a more comprehensive explanation and division of NML in response to the new era of media engagement. Same as Chen et al. ( 2011 ), Lin et al. ( 2013 ) kept a four-factor construct of NML but they proposed ten fine-grained indicators to reflect these four factors of media literacy (Fig.  1 ).

A refined framework of new media literacy (Lin et al., 2013 , p.163)

In the framework of new media literacy refined by Lin et al. ( 2013 ): (i) Functional consuming is reflected by consuming skill and understanding indicators. Focusing on the ability to access, gather information and use different modalities of media, the consuming skill refers to technical skills necessary to consume media contents. Understanding indicator refers to the ability to grasp the meaning of the media contents at a literal level; (ii) Critical consuming is reflected through three indicators: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Unlike understanding, analysis indicator refers to the ability to deconstruct media contents through the perception of authorship, format, and audience. The synthesis indicator refers to the ability to remix and reconstruct media contents by integrating individual perspectives. Evaluation indicator that is considered to be of much higher importance than analysis and synthesis includes the ability to question, criticize, and challenge the reliability and credibility of media contents; (iii) Functional prosuming is reflected through three indicators: prosuming skill, distribution, and production. Prosuming skills refer to a set of technical skills (e.g., setting up an online communication account, using software, programming) required for the creation of media artifacts. The distribution indicator focuses on the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information at hand to others on media platforms. The production indicator involves abilities to duplicate, rearrange, or combine media contents into different formats; (iv) Critical prosuming that is considered the most complex and crucial media literacy (Koc & Barut, 2016 ) is reflected by participation and creation indicators. The participation indicator requires more criticality from individuals, it refers to individuals’ abilities to participate in constant engagement, bi-lateral interaction, and criticism in new media environments. This indicator also requires individuals to own social skills for communicating and collaborating on new media platforms. Emphasizing individual initiative rather than bi-lateral interaction, creation indicator refers to abilities to create original media content with considerable attention to embedding or combining socio-cultural values and ideological issues.

Based on the theoretical framework of Lin et al. ( 2013 ) explained earlier, Koc and Barut ( 2016 ) developed and validated a comprehensive scale for measuring new media literacy called new media literacy scale (NMLS). The NMLS consists of 35 items that were measured by multiple Likert type distributed in four factors: Functional consumption, Critical consumption, Functional consumption, and Critical consumption. With a further emphasis on the measurement aspects of digital media content production and criticism, the tool can be used to measure individuals' new media competencies. At the time of its appearance, the scale developed by Koc and Barut ( 2016 ) promises to advance studies on NML from the conceptual level to the empirical one.

The present study adopted the four-factor model of new media literacy (NML) which was developed by Lin et al. ( 2013 ) and the new media literacy scale (NMLS) which was developed by Koc and Barut ( 2016 ) to explore the associations between students’ media literacy and their effective learning outcome.

2.2 Effective learning outcomes in online learning

In online learning, effective learning outcomes can be evaluated from several aspects (Yang et al., 2016 ) or framed in different measures. When examining the impact of student interactions in online learning environments on student learning outcomes, Ekwunife-Orakwue and Teng ( 2014 ) measured learning performance in terms of learners' subjective and objective learning outcomes. These two components of learning performance were also found in the study conducted by Yang et al. ( 2016 ). In both of these works, the subjective learning outcomes were assessed by the learner's performance and their satisfaction while the objective learning outcomes were assessed on the results from the process assessment which was carried out throughout the learner's component activities (Ekwunife-Orakwue & Teng, 2014 ; Yang et al., 2016 ). Also carrying out research related to measuring student learning outcomes in online learning, Eom and Ashill ( 2016 ) looked at assessing student learning outcomes on three dimensions placed in the comparison between online learning and face-to-face learning, including the academic quality of online learning, the amount of information gained from online and the quality of the learning experience in online learning. Taking another approach, variables of online learning performance in the study of Rockinson-Szapkiw et al. ( 2016 ) was considered including both the scores obtained from the blackboard grade book and the perceived learning outcomes. Aspects of effective learning outcomes in online learning environments are indeed a dense jungle in the existing literature.

In the literature, traditional learning outcomes and perceived learning outcomes are two terms that are often mentioned when referring to student learning outcomes in the online learning environment. There are many researchers who have chosen traditional learning outcomes, such as the final grade or grade point average, as a variable for student learning outcomes in studies related to online learning (Bernard et al., 2004 ; Hao, 2016 ; Lu et al., 2003 ; Wei & Chou, 2020 ). In addition, with an emphasis on traditional learning outcomes, some researchers have even criticized the construct of perceived learning outcomes as not being as valid or critical as traditional learning outcomes when comparing the construct of these two variables (Richardson et al., 2017 ). However, this view will also be easily shaken when entangled with a measuring tape that has to be pulled out to compare learning outcomes across disciplines and across instructors. In this case, perceived learning outcomes may be a better measure than traditional learning outcomes measures. The argument that traditional measures can be problematic in cross-comparison cases has been reported by some previous researchers (Arbaugh, 2005 ; Richardson et al., 2010 , 2017 ; Rovai et al., 2009 ). Obviously, sometimes perceived learning outcomes are the more appropriate measure for a particular research context, and they can be an accurate representation of what students have achieved from online learning programs where complex involvement of different components is present. In addition, student self-report data also has the potential to provide useful information as learning outcomes perceived by students can also reveal their satisfaction (De Hei et al., 2018 ).

Research evidence suggested that self-reports of learning, or perceived learning, can be a valid measure of learning (Alqurashi, 2019 ; Kang & Tami, 2013 ; Lim & Richardson, 2021 ; Waheed et al., 2016 ). Rockinson-Szapkiw et al. ( 2016 ) showed that perceived learning outcomes are a significant predictor of students’ final course grades. Furthermore, as being adults with considerable educational experience, college students can accurately estimate the quantity and quality of what they learn and thus their estimates are at least as good as teacher-provided subjective scores in classes or on tests (Richmond et al., 1987 ; Rovai et al., 2009 ). In this study, effective learning outcomes in online learning were measured by focusing on how students perceived their overall learning outcomes as a form of self-report style questionnaire. In online learning, perceived learning outcomes that could be defined as learners’ self-report judgments about their learning (Kara et al., 2021 ) consist of several aspects: (i) Sense of reaching understanding and new insights; (ii) Experiences and feelings during the learning process; (iii) Extent to which the learner enjoys interpersonal learning-related interactions (Baturay, 2011 ; Blau et al., 2020 ; Rockinson-Szapkiw et al., 2016 ).

3 Research questions

This study aims to explore the effect of media literacy on effective learning outcomes in online learning (Fig.  2 ). The four factors (functional consumption, critical consumption, functional prosumption, and critical prosumption) in the model of Lin et al. ( 2013 ) were adopted as the construct of media literacy, while effective learning outcomes were measured by focusing on student perceived learning outcomes in online learning. Therefore, the research questions of this study were as follows:

RQ1. How does students’ functional consumption (FC) predict their perceived learning outcomes (PLO)?

RQ2. How does students’ critical consumption (CC) predict their perceived learning outcomes (PLO)?

RQ3. How does students’ functional prosumption (FP) predict their perceived learning outcomes (PLO)?

RQ4. How does students’ critical prosumption (CP) predict their perceived learning outcomes (PLO)?

Proposed research framework

4 Methodology

4.1 participants and procedures.

In this study, the participants were 421 undergraduate students from 32 universities in Vietnam. The demographics of the participants are shown in Table 1 . According to Table 1 , of the 421 participants, 165 (39.2%) were male, and 256 (60.8%) were female, 22 (5.2%) were freshmen, 190 (45.1%) were sophomores, 126 (29.9%) were juniors, and 83 (19.7%) were seniors. The proportion of participants from public universities (65.8%) was approximately twice as many as those from private universities (34.2%). 158 (37.5%) participants had absolutely no previous experience related to online learning, 263 (62.5%) participants had experienced with other online courses before falling into a forced situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The data collection was conducted at a time when all educational institutions in Vietnam were lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic (the end of December 2021). This is the most appropriate time to collect data related to the present research topic in Vietnam as all universities were involved in online classes. The data utilized for this study was gathered through an online survey, which was administered to participants, and participation was voluntary. The questionnaire was built through Google forms, and then an electronic link to the questionnaire was circulated to participants. Participants knew that they were entitled to withdrawal at any time before submitting the questionnaire and they indicated their consent to participation by completing and submitting the questionnaire. Initially, the questionnaire was only sent online to students at a Vietnamese university. Then, the snowball-sampling method was adopted to enlarge the sample, which means those previously identified participants were requested to refer to other suitable participants. Therefore, the participants were students of different disciplines such as education, engineering, physical sciences, etc. They were also from both public and private universities. The questionnaire was made public for 2 weeks after which response data were collected and analyzed. During the 2 weeks of data collection, a total of 438 questionnaires were collected, out of which 17 responses were not included due to their invalidity. Finally, 421 questionnaires were utilized for analysis data.

4.2 Measures

Except for the demographic information of respondents, the questionnaire included the constructs of NML and perceived learning outcomes. All measures were adopted from existing instruments with good validity and reliability based on earlier studies. However, some minor modifications to the descriptions of items in these instruments were also made to fit the current research context.

4.2.1 Media literacy

The Vietnamese version of the new media literacy scale (NMLS) that was developed by Koc and Barut ( 2016 ) was used to measure participants’ degree of functional consumption, critical consumption, functional prosumption, and critical prosumption. This scale includes four factors with 35 items, in which functional consumption includes 7 items, critical consumption includes 11 items, functional prosumption includes 7 items, and critical prosumption includes 10 items. Items were rated using a 5-point Likert scale, on which value 1 referred to “strongly disagree” and value 5 corresponded to “strongly agree”.

4.2.2 Perceived learning outcomes

Student perceived learning outcomes were measured by adapting the CAP perceived learning scale that was developed by Rovai et al. ( 2009 ). This scale assesses student perceived learning on three domains (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) with nine items (nine CAP perceived learning scale items). In addition, an item that was adapted from the perceived learning scale of Eom and Ashill ( 2016 ) was also added to the questionnaire. This item was “I feel that the knowledge I gained from online classes was as good as face-to-face classes”. On a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 0 (not at all) to 6 (very much so), participants chose a response that best reflected their experiences with the online learning.

4.3 Data analysis

First, to examine the construct validity and internal reliability of the instrument for the particular context of this study, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted. EFA was analyzed through a principal component analysis (PCA) with a promax rotation. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of sphericity to verify whether the sample was appropriate for such analysis. To ensure consistency and validity, the items with a factor loading smaller than 0.50 or with many cross-loadings would be removed during the EFA (Hair et al., 2010 ).

Second, CFA was applied to validate the factors to be extracted EFA and examine the fit of the measurement model. The fitness model in CFA was evaluated by the comparative fit index (CFI), the goodness of fit index (GFI), the normed fit index (NFI), the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) and the chi-square/degree of freedom ( χ 2 / df ). In addition, to examine the discriminant and convergent validity of the independent variables and dependent variables, composite reliability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE), the square root of the AVE (SQRTAVE) were also examined.

Finally, to answer four research questions, a structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the hypothetical structural model was employed. The SEM was chosen because it was the most suitable approach to examine the strength of relationships among latent constructs (Kline, 2015 ).

5.1 Measurement model

To examine the validity and reliability of the instrument in this study, the factorability of the 45 items was examined by using EFA. However, one item loaded smaller than 0.50 (CC11: I manage to fend myself from the risks and consequences caused by media contents). Therefore, the EFA was repeated after omitting this item. The results were presented in Table 2 . According to the results in Table 2 , the factor loadings of the 44 items were all above 0.50, ranging from 0.694 to 0.864, which indicated the adequacy of all the items in the instrument. The KMO measure of sampling adequacy was well above the accepted level of 0.50 (KMO = 0.977) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity (χ2 = 12,688.592, df = 946, p < 0.001) suggested the measures for the constructs are interdependent (Hair et al., 2010 ). In addition, according to the results in Table 2 , a two-factor construct on 10 items of perceived learning outcomes was also confirmed. They were labeled as Perceived learning outcomes – Affective (PLOa) and Perceived learning outcomes – Cognitive & Psychomotor (PLOcp). PLOa included 3 items: PLO4 (I have changed my attitudes about the course subject matter as a result of the online classes), PLO6 (I feel more self-reliant as the result of the content learned in the online classes), and PLO9 (I feel that I am a more sophisticated thinker as a result of the online classes). PLOcp included the remaining 7 items.

Regarding the fit of the measurement model, the results from the CFA (see Table 2 ) confirmed that the measurement model had suitable reliability and validity ( χ 2 / df  = 1.137 < 2.00; CFI = 0.990 > 0.90; GFI = 0.903 > 0.90; NFI = 0.923 > 0.90; TLI = 0.989 > 0.90; RMSEA = 0.018 < 0.08) (Hair et al., 2010 ). Moreover, AVEs of all constructs ranged from 0.521 to 0.635 (above 0.50), CRs of all constructs ranged from 0.831 to 0.938 (above 0.70) (see Table 2 ), and the square roots of the AVEs of all constructs were greater than the correlations between constructs (see Table 3 ) which showed that the measurement model had good discriminant and convergent validity (Hair et al., 2010 ; Schumacker & Lomax, 2015 ).

5.2 Structural model

To answer research questions, a SEM was employed to examine the relationships between constructs. The results showed that a good fit was achieved in the structural model, the indices matched the data well ( χ 2 / df  = 1.167 < 2.00; CFI = 0.988 > 0.90; GFI = 0.901 > 0.90; NFI = 0.921 > 0.90; TLI = 0.987 > 0.90; RMSEA = 0.020 < 0.08). The path coefficients of the structural model were shown in Table 4 and Fig.  3 .

The structural model with standardized estimates

The results indicated that functional consumption and critical prosumption had significant positive effects on perceived learning outcomes, including both perceived learning outcomes – cognitive & psychomotor and perceived learning outcomes – affective. Critical consumption had a significant positive effect on perceived learning outcomes – cognitive & psychomotor, but had no significant positive effect on perceived learning outcomes – affective. In addition, the results also revealed that the path coefficient between functional prosumption and perceived learning outcomes, including both perceived learning outcomes – cognitive & psychomotor and perceived learning outcomes – affective, was not statistically significant. Hence, functional prosumption did not have a significant positive effect on perceived learning outcomes.

6 Discussion

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of media literacy on effective learning outcomes that were measured by focusing on how students perceived their overall learning outcomes in online learning. Overall, except for functional prosumption, the remaining three factors of media literacy (functional consumption, critical consumption, and critical prosumption) had significant positive effects on perceived learning outcomes. Critical prosumption was found to be the most powerful significant influence on perceived learning outcomes, including both perceived learning outcomes – cognitive & psychomotor and perceived learning outcomes – affective. An effect with simultaneous two paths that were similar to the paths of the critical prosumption on perceived learning outcomes was also found for the functional consumption. In the case of the critical consumption, a significant positive effect was found only on perceived learning outcomes – cognitive & psychomotor but not on perceived learning outcomes – affective. The findings provide the following implications.

While functional prosumption which is represented by prosuming skill, distribution, and production indicators (Lin et al., 2013 ) did not have a significant positive effect on perceived learning outcomes, critical prosumption that is represented by participation and creation indicators (Lin et al., 2013 ) was revealed as the most powerful significant predictor of perceived learning outcomes in the online learning environment. This result implies that students with a higher level of abilities to participate interactively, critically in media environments, and abilities to create media contents, especially with a critical understanding of embedded socio-cultural values and ideology issues, are predicted to have higher learning outcomes in online classes. This finding of the present study complemented the fund of knowledge about the role of critical prosumption in online learning and also supported for a stream of research in media literacy that concentrates on strengthening critical skills (Buckingham, 2015 ; Feuerstein, 2012 ; Pfaff-Rüdiger & Riesmeyer, 2016 ; Pfaff-Rüdiger et al., 2012 ) and non-cognitive skills such as collaboration and communication (Eshet-Alkalai, 2012 ; Martens & Hobbs, 2015 ; Rogow, 2011 ). Regarding functional prosumption, although basic technology skills are necessary for students' learning activities to run smoothly in an online environment (Alqurashi, 2019 ; Jan, 2015 ; Zainab et al., 2017 ) and were considered as a significant predictor of student engagement (Pellas, 2014 ; Sun & Rueda, 2012 ), the present study demonstrated that it is not a significant predictor of student learning outcomes in online learning, in contrast with reports of Joo et al. ( 2000 ), Lim et al. ( 2007 ), and Wang et al. ( 2008 ). This showed that students nowadays have more exposure and access to cutting-edge technology, and they become more confident in performing learning activities in a technological environment, and as a result, mere technology skills are becoming less predictive of student learning outcomes in online learning (Alqurashi, 2019 ). The results suggest that for an effective online learning environment, students should be supported and given the opportunity to engage critically and actively in new media platforms as well as create original media content that conveys their own socio-cultural values and ideologies (Koc & Barut, 2016 ). School education should put more focus on skills for creating and critiquing media contents with a critical understanding of embedded socio-cultural values and ideology issues than on mere skills for producing and disseminating pure media contents. In addition, critical prosuming literacy requires individuals to possess social skills to achieve digital communication and collaboration with others (Koc & Barut, 2016 ; Lin et al., 2013 ), so good strategies for developing social skills in the digital environment are also an issue that needs to be paid more attention to by educational administrators.

All in all, functional consumption that is represented by consuming skill and understanding indicators and critical consumption that is identified by the analysis, synthesis, evaluation indicators (Lin et al., 2013 ) were also revealed as a significant predictor of learning outcomes in online learning environment although a significant positive effect of critical consumption was found only on perceived learning outcomes – cognitive & psychomotor but not on perceived learning outcomes – affective. Students who are predicted to have higher learning outcomes in online learning have a higher level of abilities to gather information, grasp the meaning of the media contents, deconstruct media messages, remix and reconstruct media contents by integrating their own viewpoints, and criticize, challenge the credibility of media contents. This indicates that to be successful in the online learning environment, students must have critical thinking and decision-making skills, as well as the ability to evaluate media contents to seek out that which is appropriate and accurate (Tang & Wei, 2013 ). This finding complements the reports of Zhu et al. ( 2011 ), Tang and Wei ( 2013 ), and Shen ( 2018 ) who found the positive effect of competencies in information seeking on students' academic performance. Improving and developing students' functional and critical consumption literacy to increase learning outcomes in online learning is an obvious direction to take for educators and educational administrators, however, a mirror view implies that instructional designs in online learning must aim to catch up and fill as much as possible students' functional and critical consumption literacy should also be taken into account. A bottom principle is to pay attention in this case, no matter what type of instruction is offered, it should be designed for tailoring itself to students' interests, putting them in a suitable territory in which they can pick down appropriate and accurate media contents by their struggles (Tang & Wei, 2013 ). It is important to provide enduring access to the media contents students use to build understanding (Humrickhouse, 2021 ). Regarding an interesting finding that showed that the critical consumption had a significant positive effect on perceived learning outcomes – cognitive but not on perceived learning outcomes – affective, this study speculates that there could be the influence of the diverse disciplines of participants on their critical consumption, and it made the aforementioned difference. Note that this speculation is not synonymous with excluding influence of the discipline on the remaining constructs of media literacy in the present model. Nevertheless, this speculation was not formally investigated in this study, so future research is needed to fully understand why difference in perceived learning outcomes was found when placing a binocular on critical consumption of media literacy.

There are several limitations to this study. First, although the characteristics of the participants and sample size in this study were considered appropriate from a research perspective, inadequate control over the students across disciplines as well as the distribution of university locations may make the results not fully representative of students across disciplines and other locals. Students from diverse disciplines of universities that are spread across purposefully-selected locations could be invited to participate in order to achieve better generalization. Second, in this study, effective learning outcomes in online learning were measured focusing on how students perceived their overall learning outcomes as a form of self-report style questionnaire, which may weaken the reliability of the results. Future research may consider the combination of perceived learning outcomes and traditional learning outcomes for the variable of effective learning outcomes in the model of the present study. In addition, similar to learning outcomes, student satisfaction has also been considered as an indicator of the quality and effectiveness of online learning. Hence, future research could replicate and adapt the present model with the addition of the student satisfaction variable for a further understanding of the effect of media literacy on online learning.

7 Conclusion

This study was conducted to gain an understanding of the relationship between students’ media literacy and their effective learning outcomes. The four factors (functional consumption, critical consumption, functional prosumption, and critical prosumption) in the model of new media literacy were adopted as the construct of media literacy while effective learning outcomes were measured focusing on student perceived learning outcomes in online learning. Evidence for the significant positive impact of functional consumption, critical consumption, and critical prosumption on effective learning outcomes in online environment was found whereas similar evidence was not found for functional prosumption. The present study enriched the understanding of factors that play an important role in academic performance in the online learning environment. In addition to the theoretical contributions, this study provides some significant practical implications for stakeholders in setting up strategic plans for increasing the effectiveness of online classes in the context of the growing number of online programs in higher education. This study also contributes meaningful information that can help administrators in developing a better context for ways in which the student experience might be improved in the online learning environment.

Data availability

The datasets analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Appendix 1 The survey criteria

Media literacy (Koc & Barut, 2016 )

FC1. I know how to use searching tools to get information needed in the media.

FC2. I am good at catching up with the changes in the media.

FC3. It is easy for me to make use of various media environments to reach information.

FC4. I realize explicit and implicit media messages.

FC5. I notice media contents containing mobbing and violence.

FC6. I understand political, economical, and social dimensions of media contents.

FC7. I perceive different opinions and thoughts in the media.

CC1. I can distinguish different functions of media (communication, entertainment, etc.)

CC2. I am able to determine whether or not media contents have commercial messages.

CC3. I manage to classify media messages based on their producers, types, purposes, and so on.

CC4. I can compare news and information across different media environments.

CC5. I can combine media messages with my own opinions.

CC6. I consider media rating symbols to choose which media contents to use.

CC7. It is easy for me to make decision about the accuracy of media messages.

CC8. I am able to analyze positive and negative effects of media contents on individuals.

CC9. I can evaluate media in terms of legal and ethical rules (copyright, human rights, etc.)

CC10. I can assess media in terms of credibility, reliability, objectivity and currency.

CC11. I manage to fend myself from the risks and consequences caused by media contents.

FP1. It is easy for me to create user accounts and profiles in media environments.

FP2. I can use hardware necessary for developing media contents (text, image, video, etc.)

FP3. I am able to use software necessary for developing media contents (text, image, video, etc.)

FP4. I can use basic operating tools (button, hyperlinks, file transfer, etc.) in the media.

FP5. I am good at sharing digital media contents and messages on the Internet.

FP6. I can make contribution or comments to media contents shared by others.

FP7. I am able to rate or review media contents based on my personal interests and liking.

CP1. I manage to influence others’ opinions by participating to social media environments.

CP2. I can make contribution to media by reviewing current matters from different perspectives (social, economical, ideological, etc.)

CP3. I am able to collaborate and interact with diverse media users towards a common purpose.

CP4. It is easy for me to construct online identity consistent with real personal characteristics.

CP5. I can make discussions and comments to inform or direct people in the media.

CP6. I am skilled at designing media contents that reflect critical thinking of certain matters.

CP7. I am good at producing opposite or alternative media contents.

CP8. I produce media contents respectful to people’s different ideas and private lives.

CP9. It is important for me to create media contents that comply with legal and ethical rules.

CP10. I am able to develop original visual and textual media contents (video clips, web pages, etc.)

Perceived learning outcomes (Eom & Ashill, 2016 ; Rovai et al., 2009 )

PLO1. I can organize course material into a logical structure.

PLO2. I cannot produce a course study guide for future students.

PLO3. I am able to use skills learned in the online classes to practice outside of class.

PLO4. I have changed my attitudes about the course subject matter as a result of the online classes.

PLO5. I can intelligently critique the texts used in the online classes.

PLO6. I feel more self-reliant as the result of the content learned in the online classes.

PLO7. I have not expanded my skills as a result of the online classes.

PLO8. I can demonstrate to others the skills learned in the online classes.

PLO9. I feel that I am a more sophisticated thinker as a result of the online classes.

PLO10. I feel that the knowledge I gained from online classes was as good as face-to-face classes.

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Tran-Duong, Q.H. The effect of media literacy on effective learning outcomes in online learning. Educ Inf Technol 28 , 3605–3624 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11313-z

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Impact of media literacy education on knowledge and behavioral intention of adolescents in dealing with media messages according to Stages of Change

Narjes geraee.

1 Department of health education and promotion, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran;

MOHAMMAD HOSSEIN KAVEH

Davod shojaeizadeh.

2 Department of health education and promotion, School of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran;

HAMID REZA TABATABAEE

3 Department of epidemiology, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Introduction : Mass media influence the health behaviors of adolescents. Evidence shows that traditional strategies such as censorship or limitation are no longer efficient; therefore, teaching media literacy is the best way to protect adolescents from harmful effects. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the effects of a media literacy training program on knowledge and behavioral intention of a sample of female students according to the stages of change in dealing with media messages.

Methods : The study was conducted based on a pre-test and post-test control group design. Some 198 female students including 101 in the intervention group and 97 in the control group participated in this study. The educational program was run using interactive teaching-learning techniques. Data collection was performed using a validated and reliable self-administered questionnaire in three phases including a pre-test, post-test, 1 and post-test, 2. The research data was analyzed through SPSS statistical software, version 14 using both descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results : The results of the study showed a significant increase (p=0.001) in the intervention group’s knowledge mean scores after the training program. On the other hand, the difference was not significant in the control group (p=0.200). A considerable percentage of the participants, in the intervention and control groups, were in pre contemplation and contemplation stages in the pre-test (64 and 61, respectively). After the intervention, however, a significant improvement (p=0.001) was observed in the intervention group’s stages of change compared to that in the control group. The distribution of the control group students regarding the stages of change was similar to that in the pre-test.

Conclusion : The study findings revealed that the planned education programs are efficient to improve the adolescents’ knowledge and behavioral intention in dealing with mass media messages.

Introduction

The main feature of the 21st century is media-saturated culture and provision and ease of access to different types of media for everybody, particularly children and adolescents ( 1 - 4 ).

In general, mass media are the result of the people’s need to satisfy such requirements as gaining news and information, entertainment, and socialization. However, the media are not the mirror of reality and their content is not always complete, accurate, and unbiased ( 5 , 6 ).

Nowadays, in addition to consuming the old media, such as TV, children and adolescents also spend a lot of time on new types of media ( 7 , 8 ). Thus, concerns for the adolescents are increasing in this regard. Some issues related to these concerns include the effect of the media on violence, violent behaviors, and crimes ( 9 , 10 ), sexual relationships ( 11 ), educational performance ( 12 ), body image ( 13 ), diet, increasing prevalence of obesity and being involved in sedentary activities ( 14 ), drug abuse and smoking ( 15 ), alcohol abuse ( 16 ), food preferences ( 17 ), and change in the conversational language structure ( 5 ).

Some media authorities believe that such problems can be solved through limitation and censorship. However, censorship and limitation are not desirable responses to the concerns about the mass media and their effects on the children and adolescents ( 18 ).

General health specialists have also made use of various strategies for adjusting the effects of the media on health. Up to now, such approaches as regulation of the media contents, limitation of the children’s media consumption, and social marketing, have been utilized to address the problem ( 7 ).

Since government laws and regulations and changing the media contents are not appropriate strategies for monitoring media consumption and, at the same time, reduction of the adolescents’ exposure to the media is not always practical, parents feel concerned about their children’s media utilization, because children mostly use the media at home. Therefore, parents’ role, as well as the children’s perception, should be taken into account in directing children’s media consumption ( 19 - 21 ). Nevertheless, studies have shown that in the Iranian society, parents do not highly interfere in their children’s watching TV and using computer games, Internet, and other media ( 22 ). Thus, cognitive and motivational backgrounds should be created in the adolescents so that they react toward the media content as well as function spontaneously. One of the important ways to achieve this aim is training the children and adolescents on media literacy.

Many organizations, such as American Academy of Pediatrics, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of National Drug Control Policy, UNESCO, European Commission, and European Parliament and a lot of media organizations, such as Center for Media Literacy (CML), Association for Media Literacy (AML), and National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), have strong statements regarding media literacy ( 8 , 21 ).

Media literacy is defined as the “ability to understand, analyze, evaluate, and create media messages”. Media literacy training increases the individuals’ doubt about the media content ( 23 ). After all, existence of the individuals with high media literacy leads to increase in the media quality because such individuals require more realistic messages of higher quality ( 5 ).

Evidence shows that the interventions which have been based on the theoretical concepts are more effective in comparison to those which have been based on behavior. Moreover, considerable effectiveness of the interventions requires new methodologies and state of the art in order to repeat and develop findings ( 24 ).

Up to now, various change theories have been developed, providing frameworks for interventions to help people gain positive healthy behaviors. Overall, individual beliefs and purposes are the main elements of two main theories on changes in health-oriented behaviors: Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Transtheoretical Model (TTM) ( 25 ).

Transtheoretical model has been defined as a framework which aims to direct the content and scheduling of the designed interventions for improving and facilitating healthy behaviors ( 24 ).

In general, transtheoretical model consists of four constructs: 1- stages of change: temporal readiness for behavior modification, 2- decisional balance: relative importance of perceived advantages and disadvantages of change, 3- situational self-efficacy: trust in the individual capability for behavioral change in positive social and emotional situations, and 4- processes of change: behavioral and experimental strategies people employ in order to improve through the stages ( 26 , 27 ).

“Stages of change” is the main construct of the transtheoretical model. This model considers behavioral changes as a process rather than a dichotomous phenomenon ( 28 ). “Stages of change” is an important construct because it is the representative of time dimension. In the past, behavioral change was considered as a separate event; for instance, quitting smoking, alcohol, or overeating ( 26 ). On the other hand, the transtheoretical model assumes change as a dynamic phenomenon which is created over time and due to movement through several distinct stages. Besides, the individuals should make multiple attempts for behavior change in order to achieve complete success ( 26 , 29 , 30 ).

As mentioned above, in the stages of change model, individuals should move through several stages in order to change their behavior. Each stage is a distinct point in the individuals’ readiness for change and it is assumed that they should do a set of activities in a certain period of time in order to move on to the next stage ( 25 ).

In spite of the increasing trend of growth of the mass media in Iran, unfortunately no attempts have been made in this regard. Considering this gap, performing educational, as well as research activities, seems to be essential in our country. Therefore, the present study aims to describe the mean score of knowledge and the distribution of behavioral intention of a sample of Iranian female students in exposure to media messages, regarding the stages of change before and after receiving media literacy training.

As media literacy training has not been executed in Iran up to now, this study was conducted as a pilot study, using a randomized, controlled, and educational trial design. The study participants included 198 female students in four state secondary schools in Shiraz, Iran. The students were selected through random sampling. After all, a sample of 198 students was determined for the study with 101 in the intervention and 97 in the control group.

The study data were collected, using a questionnaire which was completed by both groups in three phases including before, immediately and one month after the training program. The content validity of the questionnaire was approved, using the ideas of 5 experts of the field. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: the first including the Knowledge questions with 7 case-based, essay-type, open-ended questions which were calculated using the analytical scoring method. The overall scores ranged from 0 to 5. Twenty percent of questionnaires were randomly selected and the knowledge construct was scored by two independent raters, and 78 percent agreement was achieved between raters. In this study, knowledge implied the ability to remember the information about the effects of media messages and different possible reactions toward them, the techniques utilized in creating the media messages, surface and hidden meanings of the messages and different possible interpretations. The students’ stages of change were assessed by describing a correct situation regarding appropriately and critically dealing with media messages, and posing a question about the conformity of the students’ present behavior to that situation. In this way, the students who mentioned that they had not even thought about it were categorized in the “pre contemplation” group, while those who stated that they had thought about the situation but had not done anything about it were classified in the “contemplation” group. In addition, the students who said that they had talked to the informed individuals and had planned to do something were put in the “preparation” category. Finally, the students who claimed that they had acted properly for almost one month were classified in the “act” category and those who stated that they had acted properly for more than 6 months were categorized in the “maintenance” group.

The training program was conducted in 3 sessions using active teaching/learning methods and the students were also provided with booklets.

Since most of the students in both groups, after the initial analyses, were found to be in the pre contemplation stage, the training strategies were focused on increasing the students’ awareness of the media on the adolescents’ health, different possible reactions toward the media, correct reaction to the media, and the outcomes of having active, critical reactions to the media messages in the students’ present and future lives.

Statistical Analysis

The collected data were analyzed through SPSS statistical software, version 14. As K-S Test showed that the distribution of the data was not normal, non-parametric tests such as Mann Whitney and Friedman were used.

The students of the two groups were similar regarding age, sex, and kind of school. The pre-test analyses revealed no significant difference between the two groups regarding knowledge score (p=0.2). The mean score of students’ knowledge in the intervention group, being 0.67±0.42 in the pre-test, increased to 3.15±1.13 in the first post-test. Their mean score of knowledge was 2.87±0.89 in the second post-test. The mean score of knowledge in the control group remained relatively the same through the three phases. Using Freidman and Wilcoxon test, we found that the changes in knowledge mean scores within and between the study groups were statistically significant (p=0.001) (Table.1).

Knowledge mean scores in the groups before and after the training program

The results of Chi-square test showed no significant difference (χ 2 =0.78, df=3, p=0.8) between the two groups regarding their frequency distribution according to their intentional behavior status based on the stages of change. Most of the students in both groups were in the pre contemplation stage (64.35% in the intervention and 62.88% in the control group) and a small number of students were in the maintenance stage (2.97% in the intervention and 2.06% in the control group).

After the intervention, 62.37% and 12.87% of the intervention group students were in the preparation and action stages in the first post-test, and 56.43 and 9.90 in the second post-test, respectively. In the control group, on the other hand, the frequency distribution of the students regarding the stages of change in the post-tests were similar to the pre-test and more than half of the students were still in the pre contemplation stage

The statistical analysis showed significant improvement of the intervention group students regarding the stages of change (p=0.001). However, no significant difference was observed in the frequency distribution of the control group students regarding the stages of change before and after the intervention ( Table 2 ).

Frequency distribution of the students regarding the stages of change before and after the educational intervention

* Statistical test was performed after merging the two last groups (action & maintenance)

The present study investigated the effectiveness of a training program based on the “stages of change” construct of the transtheoretical model, designed in order to improve the knowledge and behavioral intention of the students in exposure to media messages. The study findings revealed the effectiveness of the training program in improving the intervention group students for having an active, critical reaction toward the media messages.

Knowledge is often considered as a prerequisite and predisposing factor to behavioral change. Knowledge is considered as an essential attribute of behavior, and higher rates of knowledge are correlated with higher rates of positive behavior.

Evidence, on the other hand, shows the efficacy of planned educational interventions in knowledge enhancement to facilitate acquiring desired behaviors ( 31 ).

The low levels of students’ knowledge about media literacy, as detected in the pre-test phase of this study, imply the lack of related educational programs in our country and students’ need for such essential programs.

Therefore, the significant increase in knowledge mean score of the intervention group in both phases after the training program is in favor of the efficacy of such programs in improving students’ knowledge about media.

This finding is in line with a large number of studies about media literacy trainings. For instance, Kupersmidt and Scull concluded that even a one-day workshop on media literacy education was effective on the participants’ knowledge of media literacy ( 2 ).

According to the study results concerning the stages of change, a considerable percentage of the participants were in precontemplation and contemplation stages regarding having an active reaction in exposure to media messages in the pre-test. After the intervention, however, a significant improvement was observed in the intervention group’s stages of change in comparison to that in the control group.

Kupersmidt and Scull performed a study and showed a significant reduction in the behavioral intention for alcohol and tobacco abuse in the students who had participated in media literacy training program ( 32 ).

Furthermore, based on the studies by TQ, Tein et al. (2010) and Kupersmidt et al. (2011) to evaluate the adolescents’ media literacy and its relationship with smoking, alcohol abuse, and their future vulnerability, having media literacy was accompanied by less drug and alcohol abuse ( 33 , 34 ).

“Stages of change” construct of the transtheoretical model is based on the assumption that training can improve the individuals’ development through the stages. In this model, each stage represents how much the training has been accepted by the individuals and how effective it has been ( 35 ). Moreover, the participants should perform appropriate tasks at the right time in order to move on to the next stage. This implies that the individuals need special strategies, called the processes of change, in each stage ( 36 ).

According to this model, the individuals in the pre contemplation stage need information about the dangers of their present behavior, while those in the following stages require practical recommendations regarding how to change their behavior ( 35 ). Thus, processes such as awareness increasing should be applied in order to help the individuals move from the pre contemplation to the contemplation stage ( 26 ).

The findings of the current study showed that using awareness increasing strategies regarding daily media consumption, negative effects of the media, and different possible reactions toward them led to a significant improvement in the intervention group students’ development from pre contemplation to contemplation and preparation stages.

It has been assumed that moving through the stages is related to the factors associated with each particular behavior. Therefore, identification and measurement of the effective factors in moving through the stages, including motivation for change, self-confidence, self-efficacy, and social support, can also be beneficial in designing more influential interventions ( 37 ).

In conclusion, the low levels of students’ knowledge about media literacy and their distributions at precontemplation and contemplation stages at pre-test, showed the lack of any sufficient educational programs in Iranian schools. This study revealed the adolescents' need for a theory-based Media Literacy education program.

Ethical aspects of the study

As there was no obligation to mention the name on the questionnaires, and students were assured that their responses will be confidential and also the data were analyzed collectively, therefore there was no need to fill the consent form.

Acknowledgment

This manuscript was extracted from the thesis of the first author (grant No. 6354).The authors therefore thank the vice-chancellery of research and technology at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran, for the financial support. We also acknowledge the sincere contribution of administrators, teachers, and specially students who participated in this study.

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

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Media Literacy and Media Education Research Methods

DOI link for Media Literacy and Media Education Research Methods

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This handbook interrogates the foundations of media literacy and media education research from a methodological standpoint. It provides a detailed, illustrated overview of key methods used in the study of media literacy and media education. Further, it reveals the diversity of this research field and organizes this diversity by using three categories of investigation: media practices, educational initiatives, and prescriptive discourses.

The book offers valuable reference points and tools for exploring the range of research methods used to study media literacy and media education and how these methods connect to epistemological stances, theoretical frameworks, and research questions. It serves as a guide for researchers who wish to position themselves, reflect on the methods they use or are considering using, and compare and contrast them against alternative or complementary approaches. After reading this book, readers will be better able to identify and define the objects of study in media literacy and media education research, the preferred ways of conducting investigations, the phenomena, issues, and dimensions that these are likely to bring to light, and the knowledge that they generate.

This comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the field of media literacy education research methods will be of great interest to scholars and students of education studies, media studies, media literacy, cognitive science, and communication studies.

Chapter 2 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at https://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 International license.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter | 19  pages, introduction, part 1 | 95  pages, media practices, chapter 1 | 22  pages, documenting media practices to define media literacy competence, chapter 2 | 17  pages, studying the media education practices of young children at home, chapter 3 | 18  pages, participatory action research and media literacy, chapter 4 | 17  pages, observing literacy practices in the “third space”, chapter 5 | 19  pages, researching media literacy practices using both critical and posthuman inquiry, part 2 | 103  pages, educational initiatives, chapter 6 | 22  pages, methodological considerations in researching teachers' views and practices of media literacy, chapter 7 | 20  pages, a research methodology aimed at analyzing teaching practices in relation to the development of digital skills in a university setting, chapter 8 | 20  pages, design-based research into the co-creation of teaching activities for the theoretical refinement of a multimodal media literacy competency model, chapter 9 | 19  pages, quantitative methods for assessing media literacy in evaluations of health promotion intervention programs using media literacy education, chapter 10 | 20  pages, issues of pedagogy, alignment, and context in assessing measures of media literacy, part 3 | 103  pages, prescriptive discourses, chapter 11 | 18  pages, analyzing public policies on media education: from modalization to modeling of official discourses, chapter 12 | 22  pages, analyzing school curricula, training programs, and learning material, chapter 13 | 25  pages, quick-scan analysis as a method to analyze and compare media literacy frameworks, chapter 14 | 17  pages, critical discourse studies for research on media and information literacy projects, chapter 15 | 19  pages, rethinking media education policy research and advocacy.

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Spotlight on Media Literacy

The Education Week Spotlight on Media Literacy is a collection of articles hand-picked by our editors for their insights on how to guide students when navigating questionable mental health advice online, strategies to spot AI manipulation, how to help bilingual students be media literate in multiple languages, how media literacy has evolved in schools, and more.

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The Conversation: What Is the Connection Between Social Media Use and Vaccine Hesitancy?

Media literacy can help you tell the dfference between real and false news.

• by UC Davis Researchers
• November 04, 2022

By Muhammad E. Rasul , University of California, Davis ; Jaeho Cho , University of California, Davis , and Saifuddin Ahmed , Nanyang Technological University

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

People who consume a lot of news on social media are more likely to be skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines and also more hesitant about getting vaccinated, according to our newly published research . But we found that social media users with higher levels of news literacy have more confidence in COVID-19 shots.

Other research has found that heavy reliance on social media exposed individuals to misinformation related to COVID-19 , especially on the efficacy of vaccines.

In the thick of the pandemic in 2020, we measured how skeptical social media users were about the development of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine and how likely they would be to get the shot if it were available.

We also assessed participants’ news literacy by asking nine questions that tested how much they knew about how journalism works – for example, identifying which outlets did their own reporting as opposed to aggregating news, and which publications were for-profit. You can take the quiz to .

In our study, participants with low levels of news literacy, which meant correctly answering only three of the nine questions on average, were more likely to be vaccine hesitant than those with moderate (four to six correct answers) or high (seven or more correct answers) levels of news literacy.

We infer that mis- and disinformation about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines that spreads via social media transforms into vaccine hesitancy, especially among people who are less savvy about distinguishing real from false news. Our conclusion fits with other researchers’ finding that enhancing media literacy is an effective intervention against misinformation.

Why it matters

During the pandemic, people relied heavily on social media for recreation, stress reduction and coronavirus-related news.

For instance, a 2021 report by Pew Research Center found about half of Americans relied on social media for news about COVID-19 . As a result, social media users were exposed to misinformation about the coronavirus at the same time skepticism of scientists and public health institutions related to COVID-19 was on the rise. Health misinformation on social media can also lead people to develop false beliefs about public health interventions such as vaccines.

Despite the mass availability of vaccines in the United States, only 49% of the population had completed the primary COVID-19 series and gotten a booster shot as of Oct. 19, 2022. A March 2022 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found unvaccinated people were 12 times more likely to be hospitalized than those who were vaccinated.

Vaccination helps mitigate the harmful effects of COVID-19. Anything that erodes confidence in the shot matters for public health.

What other research is being done

One important line of work investigates who is likely to be susceptible to COVID-19 misinformation. For instance, one 2020 study found that heavy users of social media who are also politically conservative are more likely to be susceptible to misinformation related to COVID-19 than those who are not conservative.

Myth busting via infographics. World Health Organization

Researchers have also tested ways to reduce COVID-19 misconceptions. In one instance, the World Health Organization designed and publicized shareable infographics debunking various coronavirus myths. A study showed exposure to infographics lowered belief in the particular COVID-19 myth being targeted. The effect was the same whether the graphic was shared by the World Health Organization or by an anonymous Facebook user.

How we do our work

Our study relied on online survey data collected in the U.S. at two different times – once in late September 2020 and then four weeks later, just before the U.S. presidential election. Our initial sample of 2,000 participants was selected to closely match the entire U.S. population in age, gender distribution and political affiliation. Participants were rated high, moderate or low for both COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and media literacy based on our questionnaire.

Muhammad E. Rasul , Doctoral Student and Provost's Research Fellow, University of California, Davis ; Jaeho Cho , Professor of Communication, University of California, Davis , and Saifuddin Ahmed , Assistant Professor of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

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Related: Has Social Media Discourse Affected People's Hesitancy to Get Vaccinated Against COVID?

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100 Best Media Topics For Research Writing

We know you need the best media topics for your next papers. Otherwise, why would you be reading this blog post? The good news is that you have picked the best place to look for topics. Our experienced writers have put together a list of the best media topics for high school and college students. Furthermore, we work hard to keep the list fresh. This means that these ideas will be most likely original. They will work great in 2023 because the list of media essay topics is updated periodically.

The Importance of Great Media Topics

You are probably wondering why we are putting so much emphasis on getting you the best media topics to write about. There are several reasons for it, but we will only tell you about 3 of them:

• Your professor will greatly appreciate your willingness to dedicate the time and effort to finding excellent topics . Trust us, professors know how to make the difference between students based solely on the topics they choose for their papers.
• It is much easier to write essays if you choose good media essays topics . A topic you know something about is the best choice. Also, a good topic enables you to quickly find plenty of information on the Internet. Following this advice you’ll easily write your literature review and the following components of your paper.
• By choosing a great topic, your essay will immediately stand out from all the rest . Your professor is surely bored of reading papers written about the same things over and over again. An interesting idea will entice him to award you at least some bonus points.

Mass Media Topics

Mass media is something of great importance in modern times, so why not write your papers on some mass media topics? Here are some great examples:

• The effect of mass media on psychological health
• Mass media and emotional health
• Mass media addiction in the US
• The role of mass media in politics
• The First Amendment in mass media
• Promoting sexuality in mass media

Media Research Topics

Did your professor ask of you to write a research paper? No problem, we have some excellent media research topics in our list. Check them out below:

• Discuss children media
• Violence in mass media in the US
• Video games in the media
• Controversial topics in the media in Europe
• Discuss post-truth in the media
• Media regulations in China

Media Analysis Essay Topics for Presentation

Would you like to write a media analysis paper for a presentation? It’s not difficult to do, if you pick the right media analysis essay topics for presentation. Here are some excellent ideas:

• Is the media creating events or reacting to them?
• Media and public relations links
• Discuss 3 major types of media
• The use of media in education (one of the most interesting mass media research paper topics)
• Influence of virtual reality on the media (one of the best media analysis essay topics)
• Discuss journalism ethics

Media Research Paper Topics for High School

Are you a high school student looking for some awesome topic for his next research paper on media? Here are some excellent examples of media research paper topics for high school:

• Major innovations in 21st century media
• Compare mainstream media in India and China
• What makes an outlet a reliable source?
• Advertisements in media
• Benefits of mass media for society
• Compare traditional media with mass media

Mass Media Research Topics

If you need to write a research paper and want to talk about something in mass media, we have some very nice ideas right here. Check out our mass media research topics:

• The right of expression in mass media
• Journalism in mass media
• Compare TV, film and radio
• Mass media in democracy
• The war against terror in mass media
• Discuss the rise of mobile media

Media Research Topics for College Students

College students who are looking to research topics about media should choose something that can bring them a top grade. Here are our best media research topics for college students:

• Influences of technology on media
• Latest innovations in media
• Discuss media censorship in China (a recommended media related topic)
• What is media propaganda?
• Mass media and its preemptive effects

Complex Media Related Research Topics

Do you want to try your hand at some difficult topics? If you want to impress your professor, we advise you to select one of these complex media related research topics:

• Mass media violating civil rights
• Does media benefit the economy of the US?
• Define media addition and discuss its effects
• Perform a qualitative analysis of 3 media outlets
• Media’s scare strategies: a case study
• Media influencing a rise in violence in the UK

Controversial Media Topics

Why should you be frightened by controversial topics? You are free to write about them, of course. Here are our best and most controversial media topics:

• Exercising the First Amendment in media in the US
• Promoting gun violence in mass media
• Mass media effects on terrorism
• Digital media is destroying traditional media
• Artificial intelligence in mass media
• Media effects on the death penalty in China

Digital Media Topics

Discussing digital media is a very good way to impress your professor. Let’s face it; the digital realm is extremely popular these days. Here are some brand new digital media topics:

• Define and discuss digital media
• Climate change in digital media
• What is mobile media?
• The fate of journalism in the 21st century (one of the best digital media research topics)
• Effects of digital media on politics

Media Analysis Topics

Writing a media analysis essay can be a very difficult task, especially if you don’t have much academic writing experience. Here are some media analysis topics that should make things easier:

• How Trump lost the media war
• Biden’s coverage in mass media in the United States
• Advertising revenue in media outlets
• Analyze screen time
• What are deepfakes and how to spot one?
• The crisis of journalism in the 21st century

Easy Media Related Topics

The perfect choice for times when you simply cannot afford to spend too much time writing your essay, our list easy media related topics is right here:

• Define mass media in the United Kingdom
• Should children watch the news?
• Promoting violence in mass media
• Spreading awareness via media
• Are newspapers still relevant today?
• The very first occurrence of mass media

Research Topics in Media and Communication

Would you like to talk about media and communication? It is not an easy subject to write about, but we can make things easier. Here are the easiest research topics in media and communication:

• Discuss body image in media
• Analyze children’s advertising tactics
• Freedom of speech in the media
• Copyright law in the media
• Define symmetrical dialogue in the media

Media Debate Topics

Are you interested in a media debate? Getting the best topics for 2023 should be your primary concern in this case. We have some very interesting media debate topics right here:

• The impact of public relations on communities
• Location-based advertising in modern media
• Analyze the concept of yellow journalism
• Good news vs bad news in the media
• Discuss the concept of proportionality in media

Brand New Media Topics

Just like you, our writers are interested in writing about the latest topics. Why don’t you pick one of our brand new media topics?

• Is radio still an important part of media?
• Newspapers going bankrupt in 2023
• Sexual content on TV shows
• Politicians’ love for the media
• Is the backing of the media important for a president?

Media Ethics Topics

Discussing ethics in relation to media is a very interesting choice. It can also get you an A+ on your next paper. Here are some exceptional media ethics topics:

• Including graphic images in media
• Depicting terrorism on TV
• Regulating newspapers in Europe
• Celebrity gossip in the media
• The influence of large media corporations

Media Law Topics

Yes, there is such a thing as media law. Would you like to write an essay about it? Here are some great ideas for media law topics:

• Discuss the First Amendment and media
• The responsibilities of journalists
• Journalists in war zones
• Fake news in the media
• Showing unsuitable content to children

Research Topics in Communication and Media Studies

Writing about communication and media studies has the potential to help you get a top grade. Here are our best research topics in communication and media studies:

• Analyze media bias in the United States
• Is digital media addictive?
• Influence of media on religion

Interesting Media Topics

We know, you want the most interesting media topics to write about. Pick one of these and write a paper that will impress your professor:

• State-controlled media in China
• Effects of media coverage on criminal trials
• The power of mass media in 2023

Trending Media Topics

You may not know which topics are trending when it comes to media, but our writers do. Here are the latest trending media topics:

• The war in Afghanistan
• Joe Biden’s rise to power
• The fall of Donald Trump
• Climate change problems
• Global warming in the media

But what if you need more topics or professional help with thesis ? What if you didn’t find the media research topic you were looking for in the list above? While this is highly unlikely, we are prepared to help you. Would you like to talk about media literacy? In case you do, our ENL writers can create a list of the most interesting (and new) media literacy topics you can find. For anything you need, just get in touch with us.

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Critical Media Literacy

Race and racism.

• Critical Media Literacy Research Guide
• Advertising and Consumerism
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• Journalism and News
• Photography and Visual Literacy
• Recursos en Español / Resources in Spanish
• Social Media, Digital Technologies and AI
• Surveillance and Privacy
• Citing Your Sources

Institutes, Museums, Research Groups & More!

The 1619 Project . The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the New York Times. This website contains lots of resources: lesson plans,  articles, podcasts, and photo essays.

Native Knowledge 360 . The National Museum of the American Indian. Resources online for educators.

Perception Institute .  Consortium of researchers, advocates, and strategists who translate cutting-edge mind science research on race, gender, ethnic, and other identities into solutions that reduce bias and discrimination, and promote belonging.

Source:  Race and Ethnicity, from the Critical Media Project . The Critical Media Project provides free media literacy web resources for educators and students, including a large collection of video clips from popular media about age, class, disability, gender, LGBTQ, race & ethnicity, and religion. 

Publications of All Kinds

As a white parent, I solemnly swear to never do this (Sarah Watts, Salon, Oct 9, 2015)

Beauty and danger: The global pursuit of whiter skin (Denise Oliver Velez, Daily Kos, May 1, 2016)

Combining African-Centered and Critical Media Pedagogies: A 21st-Century Approach Toward Liberating the Minds of the Mis-educated in the Digital Age [Dissertation] (Shani Byard, Marymount University, April, 2012)

Critical race media literacy for these urgent times (Tara J. Yosso,  International Journal of Multicultural Education,  2020)

Every Single Word Spoken by a Person of Color in [Mainstream Film Title] (Dylan Marron, Tumblr )

Facebooks Lets Advertisers Exclude Users by Race (Julia Angwin and Terry Parris, Jr., ProPublica, Oct 28, 2016) 

Fifty shades of white: the long fight against racism in romance novels (Lois Beckett, The Guardian, April 4, 2019) 

French masterpieces renamed after Black subjects in new exhibition (Agence France-Presse, The Guardian, March 25, 2019)

Hand-drawn infographics commissioned by W.E.B. Du Bois illuminate how Black Americans lived in the 1900s (Anne Quito, Quartz, February 10, 2017) 

Hip-Hop: A Child Of The Civil Rights Movement (Taymullah Abdur-Rahman, HuffPost, Jan 26, 2016)

How White Terrorism Isn’t Terrorism (Indi Samarajiva, Medium, Dec 28, 2020)

Implicit Bias Test ( Project Implicit , Harvard)

Is Pokémon Go racist? How the app may be redlining communities of color (Allana Skhtar, USA TODAY, Aug 9, 2016)

Machine Bias (Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu, & Lauren Kirchner, ProPublica, May 23, 2016)

Mexico Prevents Indigenous Designs from Being Culturally Appropriated--Again (Krithika Varagur, HuffPost, March 17, 2016)

National Geographic faced up to its racist past. Did it actually get better? (Anna North & Kainaz Amaria,  Vox , May 6, 2021)  

Native Actors Walk Off Set of Adam Sandler Movie After Insults to Women, Elders (Vincent Shilling,  Indian Country Today , April 23, 2015)

On “Taking a Knee” (Kristin Miller, Moyers On Democracy, July 9, 2020)

Race in America ( The Washington Post: Live ). Article series: Systemic racism and police brutality in the U.S. context.  

The Racial Dynamics between Women are Flipped in a Disorienting Photo Series  (Aamna Mohdin,  Quartz, June, 18, 2017; republished via  GetPocket ).

Racial Microaggressions (Kiyun Kim, Tumblr, Dec, 2013)

Reaction GIFs of Black People Are More Problematic Than You Think (Naomi Day, OneZero, Jan 2, 2020) 

Shades of Black ( The Guardian ). Videos, articles, and reports examining colorism.

‘To be able to imagine otherwise:' Community archives and the importance of representation (Michelle Caswell, Alda Allina Migoni, Noah Geraci, & Marika Cifor, The Journal of the Archives and Records Association, 2017)

‘We’re the geeks, the prostitutes:' Asian American actors on Hollywood barriers (Sam Levin, The Guardian, April 11, 2017)

Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy ( Southern Poverty Law Center , Dec 16, 2020). Interactive maps and reports. 

Why Are Mass Killings by White People in the U.S. Almost Never Called Terrorism? (Mark Karlin, Truthout, Sept 18, 2016) 

Why are white people expats when the rest of us are immigrants? (Mawuna Remarque Koutonin, The Guardian , March 13, 2015)

Racial Capitalism & Prison Abolition Zine  ( Oct 15, 2020)

• Media 2070 (" seeks to highlight how the media can serve as a lever for racial justice...to change entrenched media narratives about Black people.")
• Indigeneity (Native American experience in videos from PBS, with Ariel Tweto & Julian NoiseCat)
• << Previous: Photography and Visual Literacy
• Next: Recursos en Español / Resources in Spanish >>

The Atlantic slave trade in two minutes   (Andrew Kahn & Jamelle Bouie,  Slate,  June 25, 2015)

• Slave Voyages Website (Timelapse, videos, maps, original documents, lesson plans, etc. The Trans-Atlantic and Intra-American slave trade databases are the culmination of decades of research by scholars).

Collections: Lessons, Podcasts, Reports, TED Talks, Videos

Celebrating skin tone: The science and poetry of skin color (Katharine Johnson, Rethinking Schools, 2015)

Indigeneity Curriculum ( The Bioneers Indigeneity Program provides discussion guides, curriculum bundles, tool kits, and videos)

Teaching About Race, Racism, and Police Violence ( Teaching Tolerance, 2020). Videos, resources, and texts for k-12 teachers.

Toolkit for “expelling Islamophobia ” ( Teaching Tolerance , Spring, 2017). Teacher resources and lesson plan guides.

Code Sw!tch: Race. In Your Face . ( NPR) . Series challenging the notion of a post-racial society through the lenses of human experiences at the cross-sections of race, ethnicity, and culture. 

Confronting Racism (TED Radio Hour, NPR, 2019). Series confronting systemic racism in America.

Hate in the Homeland ( RevealNews, June 8, 2019, 51:10 mins)

How the ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ Melody Came to Represent Asia (Kat Chow, NPR: The Morning Edition, Aug 28, 2014, 5:00 mins)

Racist Technology (Lori Tharps, My American Melting Pot, Dec 7, 2018, 39 mins)

Robin Kelley, Malkia Cyril, Richard Rothstein: Do Black Lives Matter to Media? (Counterspin, FAIR, Dec 26, 2015, 28 mins)

Seeing White ( Scene On Radio, 2017). Series interrogating and challenging the root causes and manifestations of whiteness in society.

Voices of the Movement ( The Washington Post , updated June 5, 2019). Series examining stories of leaders from the Civil Rights Movement.

Where Did 'White Jesus' Come From?  (Eloise Blondiau, WNYCStudios: On the Media, Oct 2, 2020, 21:31 mins) 

"A Threat To This Day" Jared Ball on the Distortion and Erasure of Black Revolutionaries in Corporate Media (July 10, 2022, Millennials are Killing Capitalism podcast)

Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected Report (Kimberlé Crenshaw, Priscilla Ocen, & Jyoti Nanda, African American Policy Forum/Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, 2015) 

The Hollywood Diversity Report 2020 ( UCLA College of Social Sciences ) * In two parts. You can also download the 6 previous reports .

Guide to changing racist and offensive names on public lands (Feb. 23, 2022, The Wilderness Society).

Reclaiming Native Truths (a national project to dispel America's myths and misconceptions, launched in June 2016)

• Morgan Campbell: Race, sports and telling true stories (Feb 4 2017, 19:41 mins)

RACE: The Power of an Illusion . Video, 3 parts, each under 60 mins, 2003. Available via Kanopy database. Excellent website accompanies this film with lesson plans and resources:  RACE: The Power of an Illusion .

26 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity with Students (Michael Gonchar,  New York Times , March 15, 2017)

Baratunde Thurston: How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time  (TEDTalk, April 2019, 16:42 mins)

The Black Bruins [Spoken Word] (Sy Stokes, Nov 4, 2013, 5:12 mins) 

Caprice Hollins: What White People Can Do to Move Race Conversations Forward (Dec 18, 2020, 15:36 mins)

The Color of the Race Problem is White (Robert Jensen, July 1, 2009, 52:38 mins) 

Don’t Cash Crop on My Cornrows (Amandla Stenberg, Hype Hair Magazine, April 15, 2015, 4:59 mins)

Don't Freak Out About the White Babies (Jay Smooth, May 25, 2012, 4:16 mins) 

Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff, Rashad Robinson, Dr. Bernice King, Anthony D. Romero: The Path to Ending Systemic Racism in the U.S. (June 2020, 1:06 mins)

Edward Said on Orientalism (dir by Sut Jhally, 1998, 40:31 mins)

Ethnic Notions (1987, 59 mins) is the Emmy-winning documentary by Marlon Riggs tracing stereotypes which have fueled US anti-black prejudice. In the Kanopy database .

European Racism ~ A History of African Genocide ~ Fatal Impacts ( BBC, June 3, 2015, 58:58 mins) 

A Girl Like Me (Kiri Davis, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, May 4, 2007, 7:15 mins) 

Historian Reviews Civil Rights Movements in TV & Film, from Selma to Malcom X (Yohuru Williams, VanityFair, April 8, 2021, 25:47 mins.)

Jennifer L. Eberhardt: How Racial Bias Works -- and How to Disrupt It (June 2020, 14:09 mins)

Let Her Learn: Join the Fight to Stop School Pushout ( National Women's Law Center, Jan 10, 2017, 1:03 mins)

On White Privilege (Tim Wise, Challenging Media, February 19, 2008, 9:30 mins)

Pigmentocracy: Real Talk About Fair Skin (Franchesca Ramsey, WNYC, April 7, 2014, 4:51 mins)

Race and Intelligence Special, Science’s Last Taboo ( Supreme Wisdom Educational Center, July 13, 2019, 44:51 mins) 

Racist EZ-Cash (Mark Fiore, Vimeo, 1:26 mins). Cartoon parody.

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People ( Challenging Media , Feb 1, 2007, 5:20 mins)

Tom Burrell’s Resolution Project ( The Resolution Project, Jan 25, 2010, 7:35 mins)

Truth About the Confederacy in the United States (Jeffrey Robinson, ACLU, 1:40 mins)

What So Proudly We Hail: Documentary (Duane Saunders, Jr., 2016, 14:54 mins) 

White Genocide: Fake and Present Danger ( Newsbroke, Dec 22, 2017, 9:45 mins) 

White People ( MTV, July 25, 2012, 41 mins)

Who is Sara Baartman? Every Black Woman Should Know Her Name (Dede Hunt, Sept 7, 2007, 4:56 mins)

Exploring Race with Children

Picture This: Diversity in Children’s Books 2018 Infographic (Huyck, D. & Park Daylen, S., 2019,  Wordpress ).

Kids need to see themselves reflected in media. Here are some recommendations ( NPR Morning Edition , Dec. 26, 2021)

Books by school age level ( Tribal Nations Maps ). Picture books authored by and about Native Americans.

Social Justice Books ( A Teaching for Change Project ). Great selection of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, & educators.

Disney Warns Viewers of Racism in Some Classic Movies with Strengthened Label  (Reese Oxner,  NPR, Oct 16, 2020)

How Cartoons Influence Children About Race (Federico Subervi, HuffPost, Dec 13, 2011)

Middle Passage (Luke Dupuis, Nov 23, 2012, 6:58 mins). Children's picture book on YouTube.

Representation Without Transformation: Can Hollywood Stop Changing Cartoon Characters of Color (Andrew Tejada, TOR, July 14, 2020)

‘The Simpsons’ engenders a firestorm of criticism after dismissing complaints over stereotypes (Doctor RJ, Daily Kos, April 16, 2018)

Unlearning the myths that bind us: Critiquing cartoons and society (Linda Christensen, Rethinking Schools, 2017)

Why do cartoon villains speak in foreign accents? (Isabel Fattal, The Atlantic, Jan 4, 2018)

American Indians in Children's Literature (Provides critical analysis of Indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books).

American Indian Storytelling Differs From the Western Narrative Structure (Dan SaSuWeh Jones (Ponca) School Library Journal , Dec. 15, 2021).

• Palestinian Erasure Starts in Preschool—With Sesame Street’s Endorsement (FAIR, Nora Lester Murad, Sept. 30, 2022).
• Last Updated: Aug 19, 2024 11:50 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.ucla.edu/educ466

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Media and Information Literacy Seminar 2024: The New Digital Frontiers of Information

The UNESCO Chair on Cyberspace and Culture and the University of Tehran are organizing the 2024 Media and Information Literacy Seminar with the main theme of “The New Digital Frontiers of Information” and the subject of “Recognizing and Distinguishing between National and Global Data Demarcations” on Monday, 28 October 2024.

The Seventh Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Seminar commemorates the 13th Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2024 (24 – 31 Oct), highlighting the 14th Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue Conference and the Youth Agenda Forum.

The 2024 MIL Seminar addresses the concept of incorporating MIL for the public good and focuses on how the global community can use Global MIL Week to build MIL as a key to a vision of information as a public good and towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We hope to provide an engaging forum for the participants and uphold the vision that MIL contributes to the public good, and progress towards the objectives of open and pluralistic information systems, promoting sustainable development, inclusion, equality, intercultural dialogue, and safeguarding democracy.

We welcome submissions of scholarly abstracts for oral presentation on all MIL-related topics, particularly the following:

• Limitations on National Proprietary Data and International Data Sharing
• The Border Between Privacy and Public Data
• Demarcation Between National Data and Global Data
• Strengthening the Boundaries of Indigenous Culture and the Dangers of Virtual Space
• National Data Borders as the Most Important National Capital of Countries
• Data Engineering as a Tool to Confront Governments and Nations: New Forms of Soft Warfare
• Artificial Intelligence and the Spread of False Information
• Blockchain and Information Transparency
• Cybersecurity and Protection of National Digital Infrastructure
• Media Literacy and Communication Discourse
• Critical Thinking as a Capacity to Strengthen Virtual Analytical Literacy

 Venue: Hybrid – online and in-person at the Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran

Abstract submission deadline:

The deadline for submitting the abstracts is 22 September.

Abstract preparation:

Concise and informative. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.

2. Author names and affiliations

Please clearly indicate each author's given name(s) and family name(s) and check that all names are accurately spelled. Present the authors' affiliations below the names. (In this format: Name, Department/Center/Faculty/College, Institution, City, Country) Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. You may include your ORCID, and list a secondary affiliation.

3. Corresponding author & presenter

If your paper has multiple authors, clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing, and who will present the paper at the Seminar. Their email should be provided listed.

4. Keywords

Provide four to six keywords representing the main content, and try to avoid general and plural terms and multiple concepts.

5. Biographies

A brief biography of the author(s) in about 30 words (min 20, max 40).

Submission:

All abstracts should be submitted in MS Word files to [email protected] with “MIL Seminar 2024” in the subject line by 22 September 2024.

Presentations and proceedings:

The presentation language can be in either English or Persian. Although the seminar only accepts abstracts, the authors are encouraged to submit an English Commentary (1500-4000 words) or an article (6000-9000 words) for consideration for publication in the Journal of Cyberspace Studies’ special issue on MIL. ( https://jcss.ut.ac.ir/ )

Conference secretarial:

UNESCO Chair on Cyberspace and Culture, Faculty of World Studies, Northern Campus of University of Tehran, North Amir Abad, Tehran, Iran

+98 (21) 6111 9291 – +98 (21) 8801 1665

You may direct any queries regarding this event to  [email protected]  with “MIL Seminar 2024” in the subject line.