Media & information literacy and fact-checking

Research and reports about the effectiveness of donor and foundation-supported media literacy and fact-checking programmes to address disinformation.

Please note that this resource page focuses on the effectiveness of donor and foundation-supported programmes to support the sustainability and viability of journalism.

It does not attempt to summarise the wealth of material on the sustainability of journalism.

Digital News Report 2022 (June, 2022)

Reuters- NIC NEWMAN, RICHARD FLETCHER, CRAIG T. ROBERTSON, KIRSTEN EDDY, RASMUS KLEIS NIELSEN

"While a break-out group of primarily ipmarket news publishers across the world report record digital subscription numbers and growing revenues, more broadly, we find that interest in news and overall news consumption has declined considerably in many countries while trust has fallen back almost everywhere – though it mostly remains higher than before the Coronavirus crisis began. We’re also seeing news fatigue setting in – not just around COVID-19 but around politics and a range of other subjects – with the number of people actively avoiding news increasing markedly."

The full report is available here.

Depth and breadth: How news organisations navigate trade-offs around building trust in news (Dec. 2021)

Reuters Institute and Oxford University - Dr Benjamin Toff, Dr Sumitra Badrinathan, Dr Camila Mont'Alverne, Dr Amy Ross Arguedas, Dr Richard Fletcher, and Prof. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

Depth and breadth: How news organisations navigate trade-offs around building trust in newsReuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

Royal Society cautions against censorship of scientific misinformation online (Jan. 19 2022)

The Royal Society

Royal Society cautions against censorship of scientific misinformation online | Royal Societyroyalsociety

Spotting hoaxes: How young people in Africa use cues to spot misinformation online (June 2021)

Nieman Labs - CHIKEZIE E. UZUEGBUNAM, DANI MADRID-MORALES, EMEKA UMEJEI, ETSE SIKANKU, GREGORY GONDWE, HERMAN WASSERMAN, KHULEKANI NDLOVU & MELISSA TULLY

Spotting hoaxes: How young people in Africa use cues to spot misinformation onlineNieman Lab

Some college students surveyed showed substantial media literacy — but being able to recognize a fake story didn’t always deter them from sharing it. [...] Researchers know a fair deal about “fake news” in the global North, but much less about what is happening in the global South — particularly in Africa.

What Keeps Fact-Checking Organizations up at Night (March 2021)

Center for Media Data and Society - ROBERT NEMETH & MARIUS DRAGOMIR

What Keeps Fact-Checking Organizations up at Night | CMDScmds.ceu.edu

A survey among 30 fact-checking groups worldwide found that the most important impact-related challenges to their work are "reaching their audience, using social media effectively, gaining credibility, and achieving an impact".

MIL INDEX Study - Africa (Oct. 2020)

DW Akademie

Introducing the MIL INDEX StudyDeutsche Welle

Overall, the results illustrate that digital transformation is taking hold on the African continent, especially in urban settings – and yet it is a two-tiered transformation. While roughly two thirds of 15-to-25-year-olds in countries like Ghana and Kenya access the Internet on a weekly basis, this only holds true for around one third of Burkina Faso's youth. Africa's youth is challenged by this new media and information environment. Many experience disinformation, cyberbullying or hate speech on a daily basis. In Uganda, for instance, sexual harassment online has reached alarming proportions. And in Burkina Faso, youth do not feel represented in the media, tend to hold their voice back and withdraw into the private sphere. These findings hold important implications for MIL activities as well as policy considerations when it comes to youth and media.

• Active but uncritical: Media and Information Literacy amongst Ghana’s youth

• Critical but disconnected: Media and Information Literacy amongst Burkina Faso’s youth

• Critical but less creative: Media and Information Literacy amongst Kenya’s youth

• Yearning for digital but not always media literate: Media and Information Literacy amongst Namibia’s youth

• Digital natives with limited reflection: Media and Information Literacy amongst Côte d’Ivoire’s youth

• Digital, but reserved: Media and Information Literacy amongst Uganda’s youth

MIL INDEX MethodologyDeutsche Welle

Russian Propaganda Hits Its Mark (Oct. 2020)

RAND Corporation - TODD C. HELMUS, JAMES V. MARRONE, MAREK N. POSARD & DANIELLE SCHLAND

Facebook Users May Spread Russian Propaganda Less Often If They Know Its SourceRANDCorporation

In an effort to determine the impact of the disinformation campaign on voters, the RAND Corporation, in partnership with IREX, conducted the first study to use a randomized control trial to understand the effect media literacy messaging could have on social media users. With short, social media–sized media literacy content, RAND tested how using various interventions and revealing the source of the content changed audience reactions.

The report, Russian Propaganda Hits Its Mark: Experimentally Testing the Impact of Russian Propaganda and Counterinterventions, utilized media literacy messages developed as part of IREX’s Learn to Discern (L2D) approach and revealed the following three important findings about the way propaganda influences audiences and the role of media literacy in countering disinformation in the United States.

• Kremlin propaganda evokes emotional responses.

• Exposure to media literacy can shift the behaviours of hard-to-reach groups.

• Labeling has a positive effect on reducing the probability of liking/sharing in partisan audiences.

It is encouraging that IREX’s approach to media literacy may offer users potential emotional awareness and emotional regulation tools to resist the urge to react to—and spread—Kremlin-sponsored disinformation. Further research is needed to understand more about specific types of media literacy messages, the audiences they best influence, and the effects of different levels of exposure.

(Source: Randomized control trial finds IREX's media literacy messages to be effective in reducing engagement with disinformation - Oct. 2020)

EDUCATION

Teaching Citizenship Issue 51: Information Disorder (2020)

Association for Citizenship Teaching

ResourcesAssociation for Citizenship Teaching

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