Abstract:

The paper focuses on the crucial contribution of education to build societal resilience to fake news and online disinformation. One of the main lines of defense against this major challenge for modern democracies is to inoculate the audience against disinformation narratives though media and information literacy interventions. The paper addresses the topic from a theoretical and conceptual perspective, and the method employed is literature review. The aim of the study is threefold.

Firstly, to discuss, from an audience-centric perspective, what types of vulnerabilities to online disinformation can be solved through media and information literacy. More specifically, we map the ways in which the online media ecosystem makes audiences more prone to believe and share online disinformation. We argue that helping the public become more aware of their own vulnerability in this regard should be one of the main objectives of media education. The second objective is to discuss the concept of resilience to disinformation and to address the factors that make some societies more resilient than others – among which, education. Lastly, by turning to concrete examples and empirical research available in the literature, we aim to highlight the contribution and efficiency of media and information literacy interventions for building resilience to disinformation.

The review of the main theoretical perspectives on the relationship between resilience to disinformation and media literacy will lead to the following results: an understanding of the specific role of media and information literacy within broader societal efforts to build resilience to online disinformation; an overview of the efficiency and contribution of media and information literacy to building resilience; insights for educators on the objectives and design of media and information literacy interventions. Educators, trainers, librarians and other professionals interested in the topic can identify priorities in designing their own media and information literacy projects and interventions. The paper is particularly useful for professionals in countries where media and information literacy is still an emerging field.

Keywords:

Media literacy, online disinformation, resilience.