EDMO Guidelines for Effective Media Literacy Initiatives (poster)

This set of principles and guidelines for effective media literacy initiatives has been developed by EDMO’s Working Group on Guidelines for Effective Media Literacy Initiatives with input from the EDMO Hubs and other practitioners and experts during a consultation process which included a public workshop and an open call for written feedback. Its goal is to increase the effectiveness of media literacy initiatives across Europe by developing guidelines that new and existing practitioners can consult. This is crucial to EDMO’s wider mission, since better media literacy is likely to increase the public’s resilience to online mis- and disinformation. For the purposes of this work, we based our definition of media literacy on that of the European Commission’s Media Literacy Expert Group: media literacy is an umbrella expression that includes all the technical, cognitive, social, civic and creative capacities that allow a person to access, have a critical understanding of the media and interact and engage with it. These guidelines have been designed for use by anyone involved in the development of media literacy initiatives – civil society, educators, policy makers, those in the media or tech industries. In an area as complex and diverse as media literacy, there can be no one-size-fits-all approach. Media literacy initiatives – such as training courses, published lesson plans or other resources, online games, or campaigns – vary considerably in scope, size, duration and focus. As a result, not all of these guidelines will be relevant to all projects. It is entirely up to the user to select the most appropriate advice for their initiative.