Is media literacy dead? Challenging conversations for these digital times

The joy of meeting like-minded thinkers and researchers was palpable as a small group of media literacy education scholars from Belgium, Switzerland, South Korea, the United States, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and Sydney met in August for the Media Literacy within the Dynamics of Everyday Life Symposium hosted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child at Queensland University of Technology. Warmly welcomed and convened by Professor Michael Dezuanni and Dr Amanda Levido our discussions centred around the challenges of defining media literacy in the current digital age, which often gets blurred together with broader categories of digital literacy, information literacy, education for digital citizenship and cyber safety programs. Is it media literacy, information literacy or digital literacy? Should it be defined under the broader umbrella term defined by UNESCO as media information literacy? In fact, it became evident that the term ‘literacy’ has become a highly politicised term, but do we actually know what it means?

On that, political rhetoric has often declared media literacy to be the panacea for modern society’s latest media panics, which today includes the distrust of news accuracy, awareness of disinformation, data mining and surveillance, algorithmic culture and the impact of artificial intelligence on society. Further discourse at the symposium discussed the inefficiency of such simplistic claims and how they can water down the impact that media literacy initiatives can make, especially when there is a desire to include all forms of communication into one umbrella literacy.

Subsequently, the need for further research in media literacy and media education was identified in Dezuanni’s introduction, which highlighted key under researched areas as generative AI and media literacy, social media and algorithms, data literacies, younger children and media literacy, media literacy in the home and parent’s media literacies, teacher and pre-service teacher media literacies, and relationality and media literacy. Whilst a number of significant media literacy projects undertaken in Australia were outlined such as the Australian Media Literacy Alliance and a range of current projects being undertaken through the Centre, it was apparent that there is still much to be done on a global scale.

In closing, the themes distilled from the symposium were summarised in a framework presented by Professor Julian Sefton-Green from Deakin University which could serve to guide our research in this contested field. The framework centred around the concept of ‘mutating media and metamorphosis of affordances’, which was then intersected by the main themes explored at the symposium: learning media literacy, media literacy in the school and curriculum (acknowledging its specific contexts in different places) and the norms, regulations, public discourses and commercial interests operating within this ecosystem. The intention was to appreciate the unique contexts of each of the elements, whilst focussing on the impact of their interactions as a framework for research.

In my personal response to the symposium, the discussions prompted a deep reflection of my assumptions of the concept of media literacy. In addition, there were a few takeaways that stayed with me. I was reminded that finding solutions to the lack of trust online is problematic because of its complexity and that it is difficult to measure. I was challenged by research highlighting the digital expertise of young learners in the digital space and what educators can learn from that expertise. Equally I was fascinated by the concept of temporality in relation to digital device use in the home by children at various times of the day and how this now defines our domestic experience, and then reflected on how this parallelled the world of legacy television time slotting before streaming services gave viewers agency over their engagement. 

I was delighted to be invited to be a part of these thought-provoking conversations, which helped me gain more perspective of media education and media literacy beyond the lens of curriculum and formal schooling. I was reminded that as the emerging digital landscape continues to permeate society in powerful and immersive ways, that research has shown that effective media literacy is needed throughout all stages of life prior to and beyond the classroom, and that the media education and media literacy needs for these sub-cultural groups are different. The relationship between these aspects are important areas of research and I look forward to engaging in new research endeavours to explore some of these topics with this inspiring and welcoming community of media literacy educators.

Resources: 

UNESCO. (2022). About Media and Information Literacy (Vol. 2022). UNESCO Publishing. https://www.unesco.org/en/communication-information/media-information-literacy/about