Media and Information Literacy Repository – South Asia

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

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

Warning signs for the health of the American democracy abound. These challenges have multiple manifestations and multiple roots, but media and the Internet, more broadly, are implicated in prominent ways. Schools, the institutions charged with educating current and future generations, have a role to play in supporting the preparation of an informed citizenry. This study examines the extent to which state level legislation supports the provision of civically oriented media literacy education. To do so, we first identify several critically needed media literacy education dimensions and then examine how well existing legislation from all 50 states responds to these identified needs. Findings reveal that not only is there an overall dearth of K-12 media literacy policy, but definitions and corresponding resources remain sparse and varied. For schools to fulfill their role of providing young people with the knowledge, skills, and commitments to participate and promote a vibrant and informed democracy, this study concludes that more must be done to support media literacy education within state level policy.

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

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

Digital media, deeply embedded in the daily lives of young Brazilians, plays a crucial role in shaping identities, defining social roles, and fostering new forms of sociability. These platforms can positively contribute to the personal and social development of young people by encouraging interaction and the exchange of experiences. However, this same dynamic also creates an environment conducive to the proliferation of phenomena such as cyberbullying, a form of intimidation and psychological violence that occurs in virtual settings. In light of this scenario, this article investigates responses to cyberbullying, particularly among children and adolescents, who are especially vulnerable to such practices. It advances a discussion that integrates digital literacy with the application of current legislation on the topic as a potential approach to enhancing awareness and strengthening young people’s capacity to act when facing abusive situations in the digital environment.

This study investigated whether the Advertising-In-Education (hereafter AIE) program would influence the growth of creativity in elementary school students. AIE has been discussed by advertising scholars and used in some schools in South Korea since its inception approximately 10 years ago; yet, empirical research to prove its effect on education is rare. A field experiment using a pilot AIE program was implemented with third and fourth graders at two local elementary schools for 12 weeks. To measure the degree and significance of improvement in students' creative ability and creative personality, a series of pretests and posttests were administered using creativity measuring instruments. Results indicate that the AIE program has been effective in enhancing both creative ability and creative personality of elementary school students. Based on these results, several important implications were discussed and some directions for further research were suggested.

In spite of the enormous power that women wield in themarketplace, the role of women in advertisements is not commensuratewith women as a powerful group. Studies demonstrate a gender bias inadvertising, such that, despite their buying power, women are portrayedin stereotypical roles. This manuscript discusses ways that women aredepicted in magazine advertisements and the effect of these marketingstrategies on society. Also included is a discussion on ways that consum-ers can mitigate these influences. The article closes with a case exampleusing Narrative Therapy and media literacy.

American youth live in a world saturated with popular media constructs that not only sway them into purchasing and consuming, but also influence how they experience and learn about the world. Widely disseminated media constructs such as advertisements and TV commercials often serve as ideological sites that shape children’s perceptions of reality as they formulate attitudes, beliefs, and values. Indeed, Americans immerse themselves in a media-infused culture of consumption manufactured and controlled by mega corporations.

Subvertising, traditionally linked to counterculture and anti-consumption, is utilized in education to reveal the manipulative strategies of corporate messaging to students. Classroom use of cut-and-paste methods deconstructs advertisement messages, fostering an understanding of how needs and desires are constructed through appropriation, incorporation, and transformation tactics. This research aims to comprehend fully the implementation and impact of subvertising workshops in educational settings by analyzing six scholarly articles on applied workshops. The data, sourced from a previous scoping review on subvertising, enabled a comprehensive evaluation of methodologies and effective techniques. The study compares these cases to the ten key steps proposed by Grigoryan and King (2008) and concludes with six key steps for conducting a subvertising workshop, particularly emphasizing the cut-and-paste technique’s role in promoting analytical reflection. Findings suggest that subvertising is effective in engaging students, enhancing their critical thinking skills, and motivating them towards critical consumption.

A large part of the media landscape surrounding us consists of advertising. Therefore, skills for critically coping with advertising are indispensable. Students need to develop such skills for evaluating messages and facts from advertisements. They also need to learn about the mechanisms behind how advertisements are created and used to influence the public. Today, advertising for many products has a strong scientific component. However, learning with and about advertising does not play a prominent role in school science education. To date, advertising is almost exclusively discussed and evaluated within the humanities and social sciences, especially language education. The scientific components of advertising are not taken into account in these subjects. Engaged science teachers might prove to be the key to innovation when it comes to media education in the science classroom. This study explores both the opinions of German science teachers on the importance of scientific media literacy and their attitudes to implementing teaching units covering advertising in their science classes. Semistructured interviews with 12 secondary science teachers were conducted and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Two main types of teachers were identified, who have completely different views towards learning with and about advertising in science education.

Active measures are being taken to stimulate the growth of the creative economy at the state level in many countries. Therefore, the integration of the media literacy into public communication about the cultural and creative industries development becomes urgent. That will help the society not only to navigate the extensive information flow of various practices supporting the culture sphere and stimulating the creative production, but also to effect consciously on public policy in these areas. The research purpose is to regard how the creative industries image is transforming due to the media literacy of the social media audience, and with which of the existing creative economy development concepts (policies) this image correlates. The research results were obtained by using the monitoring and the content analysis of materials about the creative and the cultural industries from YouTube, Telegram and VKontakte. The author also carried out the statistical accounting of the various forms of media literacy among the Russian-speaking audience in the social media thematic channels and communities. As a result, the rating of the most popular creative activities was formed. The quantitative data presented in the article clearly demonstrate that the Russian-speaking audience of the social media thematic channels and communities consciously differentiates and selects the content about such creative industries as development of computer games and digital products, production of modern music, marketing, advertising and PR, industrial and environmental design. The research confirms that the cultural industries image is rapidly transforms into the creative industries image under the media literacy influence, and the "CreaTech" idea prevailing in its base combines itself the creative skills, innovations and digital technologies. Thus, due to the media literacy, the demand for the more active discussion about the role of creative work and education in creative professions between the state and the society is forming.

Despite efforts to address equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the film and television workforce, marginalized groups remain underrepre sented. This article introduces a communicative intersectionality theoretical framework to analyze the EDI-focused advocacy of social move ment organizations (SMOs) in these industries. Drawing from feminist studies, social movement studies, critical strategic communication, and critical public relations (PR), this framework integrates political intersectionality and communicative framing, examining SMOs’ coalition- building, strategic communication advocacy, and online collecting actions framing. Highlighting critical praxis, the article considers how SMOs navigate intersecting social identities and systemic inequities through collaborative initiatives like Time’s Up UK and Raising Films. By emphasiz ing difference-in-sameness, this article reveals how communicative intersectionality illuminates inclusive, personal storytelling of workers’ experiences, industry reform, and systemic change. This framework bridges the gap between theory and practice, offering actionable insights into addressing EDI issues in screen industries and providing a foundation for future research on intersectional injustices and advocacy.

This study examined the effectiveness of the implementation of a small-scale critical media literacy curriculum unit focused on gender stereotypes, especially as they pertain to occupations. The research question was whether students exposed to the critical media literacy (CML) curriculum were more likely than students not exposed to believe: that women experience discrimination in the workplace; that the media constructs stereotypical messages about women and men, especially regarding occupations; and that the media influences people’s thinking. Participants were students in 5 seventh grade classes, who were exposed to a 4-workshop curriculum, and students in 5 eighth grades classes, who were not. Methods included a 14-question pre-post survey and interviews with 4 students before and after implementation of the CML unit. Quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that the CML unit was generally successful at increasing the seventh graders’ understanding of target issues.

The effects of media stereotyping on both individuals and society has been a topic pursued by media scholars for decades. However, this area of inquiry often struggled to address widespread skepticism and a “step-child-like” attitude from both the media industry and its observers. Those skeptical of the area resisted viewing media as forming a significant part of the landscape influen cing our personal, social, and political interactions. To address these critics, media stereotype scholars conducted numerous content analyses to provide strong evidence that the media regularly stereotype women and people of color. However, fewer studies addressed the effects of these images or advanced theory designed to explain the impact of such portrayals on audience members.

This paper develops the concept of Media Literacy applied to audiovisual products in primary school children, with the aim of achieving our students a greater knowledge and critical attitude towards the incorporation of media in their lives, working traditional and digital media. The process of creating audiovisual products that we have developed in a school of the Community of Madrid, acquires a new dimension to work within the framework of the theory of multiple intelligences of Howard Gardner, and will allow us to observe how different intelligences are affected through the development and understanding ofaudiovisual works (Gardner, 2015). We will assess how the student, in addition to obtaining a better understanding of the media phenomenon and an acquisition of audiovisual and digital skills, benefits from the participation strategy and collaborative learning to improve certain skills related to several of the aforementioned author intelligences.

This article argues that we need to understand media as spaces where minorities increasingly communicate interests, make claims and mobilize identities. With a focus on diasporic groups, the article looks at the multi-spatial character of communication and mobilization and its consequences for expression and communication of cultural and political belonging. Diasporic groups represent some of the most significant minorities across European nation-states. While living in – and in many cases being citizens of – European nation-states, they also sustain political and cultural connections across boundaries, largely through the media. This article argues that diasporic minority groups use the media in complex ways that feed back into their sense of cultural and political belonging. Only if we examine the diverse and complex ways in which minorities use the media to make sense of the world around them, can we begin to understand the wider significance of media and communications for minorities’ cultural and political representation and belonging

This study aims to investigate the effect of media literacy education on junior high school students’ creative thinking. The research used a quasi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test control group design. The study sample included all firstgrade students from high schools in the city of Tehran. The population of this cluster used the random sampling method in the second section. In this study, in order to measure students’ creativity, the Abedi creativity questionnaire was used. Therefore, in the study, both the groups (experimental and control) were administered the pre-test. The media literacy lesson plan had eight training sessions for the experimental group, but for the control group there was no enforcement training. Immediately after training, media literacy was tested. After running the tests for both groups, analysis of covariance was used to analyse the data. The results showed that creative thinking and media literacy education and its dimensions (originality, fluency, flexibility and expandability) had a significant positive impact on students and could also help develop essential skills in them.

In today’s “liquid modern world” where everything is transitory and perishable and consumerism has become a social product in itself accelerating the cyclic reposition of worn goods and services, nourished by a fear of dropping out of “the social circulation” of esteem and human networks a growing number of critical societal actors have started to demand a more responsible approach for commercial communication, requiring more complete, accurate and truthful information about brands and corporations. Consumers, consumer organizations, communication scholars and media, among others, are willing to become part of the co-creation of brand information and stories, moving the focus from disinformation to information, responding to the demands for a more responsible commercial world, aligned with the emerging concept of responsible research and innovation (RRI). New interactive ways of advertising and the blurring of boundaries between advertising and entertainment also contribute to creating a challenging scenario for future advertising professionals who need to re-define their way of informing and communicating not only with consumers but all other societal stakeholders. The purpose of this article is to explain how including advertising literacy and education in the curricula of university level communication studies and applying innovating teaching methodology can efficiently respond to at least part of these new societal demands, emphasizing the “right impacts and values” of advertising by future communicators.

The financial motivation to earn advertising revenue by spreading misinformation has been widely conjectured to be among the main reasons misinformation continues to be prevalent online. Research aimed at reducing the spread of misinformation has so far focused on user-level interventions with little emphasis on how the supply of misinformation can itself be countered. In this work, we show how online misinformation is largely financially sustained via advertising, examine how financing misinformation affects the advertisers and ad platforms involved and outline ways of reducing the financing of misinformation. First, we find that advertising on misinformation outlets is pervasive for companies across several industries and is amplified by digital ad platforms that automatically distribute companies’ ads across the web. Using an information provision survey experiment, we show that people decrease their demand for a company’s products or services upon learning about its role in monetizing misinformation via online ads. To shed light on why misinformation continues to be monetized despite the potential backlash for the advertisers involved, we survey decision-makers at companies. We find that most decision-makers are unaware of their companies’ ads appearing on misinformation websites but have a strong preference to avoid appearing on such websites. Moreover, those uncertain and about their role in financing misinformation increase their demand for a platform-based solution to reduce monetizing misinformation upon learning about how platforms amplify ad placement on misinformation websites. We identify low-cost, scalable information-based interventions that digital platforms could implement to reduce the financial incentive to misinform and counter the supply of misinformation online.

Childhood obesity is a global health concern. And a number of studies have indicated that food promotions affect children’s food attitudes, preferences, and food choices for foods high in fat and sugar, which potentially impacts children’s body weight development. This review showcases how children are affected by food promotions, why companies even target children with their promotional efforts, and what makes children so susceptible to promotion of unhealthy food. In addition, this review discusses how regulations, parental styles, and individual media literacy skills can help to contain the potential detrimental effects of food promotions on children’s health. The recent findings indicate that children are affected by food promotions in their preference for unhealthy food and beverages in selection tasks shortly conducted after exposure. Furthermore, results indicate significant effects of food marketing, including enhanced attitudes, preferences, and increased consumption of marketed (predominantly unhealthy) foods connected with a wide range of marketing strategies. Children are particularly vulnerable to promotional efforts and react to it strongly due to their still developing cognitive and social skills as well as their lack in inhibitory control. This review proposes an applied focus that discusses pathways for regulators, parents, and educators. In the light of the discussed results, a large number of studies on food promotion indicate that there is need to react. In all these measures, however, it is of relevance to consider children’s developmental stages to effectively counteract and respond to the potential detrimental effects of food promotions on children’s long-term weight development.

As part of a larger project to integrate advertising literacy into school curriculum, this research evaluates the effectiveness of an initial three-hour advertising literacy classroom intervention among eight- and nine-year-olds. The field experiment (a pretest/posttest, control/experimental group design) was implemented in 10 third grade classes in a three-week time period in three high-poverty schools in the United States. Low advertising literacy occurred at baseline. Evaluation results indicated significant increases in intervention students' understanding of the message creator, the selling intent, persuasive strategy, and target audience. Recommendations for curriculum development, refinement, and implementation for a wider audience are discussed.

To examine the potential effectiveness of media literacy education in the context of well-established personality factors, a survey of 472young adults, focused on the issue of alcohol marketing messages, examined how individual differences in personality associate withconstructs representing aspects of media literacy. The results showed that need for cognition predicted social expectancies and wishful identification with media portrayals in alcohol advertising only through critical thinking about media sources and media content, which are foci of media literacy education. Need for affect did not associate with increased or diminished levels of critical thinking. Critical thinking about sources and messages affected skepticism, represented by expectancies through wishful identification, consistent with the message interpretation process model. The results support the view that critical thinking about media sources is an important precursor to critical thinking about media messages. The results also suggest that critical thinking about media (i.e., media literacy) reflects more thanpersonality characteristics and can affect wishful identification with role models observed in media, which appears to be a key influenceon decision making. This adds support to the view that media literacy education can improve decision making across personality types regarding alcohol use by decreasing the potential influence of alcohol marketing messages.

In 2007, the British media regulator Office of Communications (Ofcom) began to implement new restrictions on the television advertising of food and drink products to children, as part of the government’s broader attempts to combat child obesity. This is the second of two linked articles that explore the issues at stake in these developments, and their broader implications for the study of media and cultural policy. This article focuses primarily on the ways in which the figure of the child consumer was conceptualised both in the research that informed these developments and in the policy debates that ensued. It explores the assumptions that were made by the contending parties in the debate about children’s competence as consumers, and specifically as users of television advertising. This analysis is set within a broader account of the role and function of the notion of ‘media literacy’ in contemporary debates about regulatory policy.

This editorial introduces the thematic issue titled Inclusive Media Literacy Education for Diverse Societies. We start by intro ducing our aims for developing a more open and inviting approach to media education. We argue for a media education that acknowledges a variety of voices, and that provides skills and recognition for everyone, irrespective of their social class, status, gender identification, sexuality, race, ability, and other variables. The articles in this issue address the role of media literacy education in relation to questions of in‐ and exclusion, social justice, voice, and listening. The issue covers a variety of critical, non‐Western perspectives needed to challenge dominant regimes of representation. The editorial is enriched by the artist Neetje’s illustrations of the workshop that preceded the publication of this thematic issue.