MLM Conference

Media Literacy Matters

During Belgium’s EU presidency, Media Literacy Matters brought the many aspects of digital and media literacy into the European spotlight. This European digital and media literacy conference took place from February 27th to March 1st, 2024, in Brussels. More specifically, the conference provided opportunities to:

• meet and connect with professionals involved in digital and media literacy initiatives, policy and research from around the EU and from all policy levels,

• showcase and exchange digital and media literacy initiatives, tools, projects and practices that can be integrated in one’s own work or policy,

• strengthen European cooperation on digital and media literacy.

The conference involved 399 professionals from 43 countries who came together during 4 days and who had the opportunity to participate in 49 enriching sessions that focussed on a variety of different media literacy topics, all of which could be categorised within three broader themes:

• From disinformation to critical trust: when digital and media literacy works.

• From schools and children to digital and media literacy for all.

• Moving forward: from future technology challenges to the future of digital and media literacy.

Media Literacy Matters was organised under the auspices of the Belgian presidency of the Council of the European Union 2024 as part of the European digital and media literacy conference week.

Conference highlights

Opening evening Tuesday February 27th, 2024

From policy to digital and media literacy: becoming competent in a digital world

Opening evening Tuesday February 27th, 2024

Bart Temmerman

Bart opened the conference with a reflection on the complex media world we live in, that is demanding new efforts from policy makers. In particular, he focused on the three thematic priorities of the Belgian presidency of the European Commission: media innovation,

the media freedom act, and the regulation for media influencers. He reiterated that media literacy is key for citizens in today’s society, as it is a democratic pillar that strengthens our democracies.

Opening evening Tuesday February 27th, 2024

Ellen Pack

Ellen from Common Sense Media, talked about the proliferation of digital media in a young person’s life in 2024, drawing on the changes that have happened throughout her own life and her family. For young people today, the smartphone is a constant companion that affects all aspects of life, including their social life and mental health –erasing the distinction between the digital world and real life. This situation is giving young people - on the plus side - a truly global world view, where they are socially conscious and ready to act, creating a generation that has a lot of self-awareness. Negatively, the pervasive smartphone also creates many distressing situations (e.g. comparison culture). This has lead to - in the words of US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthythe “public health crisis of our time”, a heartbreaking youth mental health crisis.

Ellen elaborated on the Common Sense Media (CSM) approach to support young people, their parents, teachers and educators on how to get prepared for this new media-rich world, where attention is the scarce natural resource. This approach consisted of three themes:

• acknowledge the complexity that technology is both good and bad;

• address top concerns;

• Take a whole-community approach. She talked about how they aimed to build youth agency in their activities, acknowledging their role as Chief Technology Officers in their family and community. She announced the upcoming release of a study (in collaboration with London School of Economics) that

She called for a systems approach to media literacy education, drawing the analogy with how our societies dealt with the tobacco industry in the 1950s-1960s. A systems approach would mean many interventions driven by all stakeholders globally, from many corners – all of us. She ended on some positive notes saying there is a lot of momentum and progress, and more awareness on privacy, family, and the limits of technology – where increasingly technology companies are being held accountable. A last challenge to tackle for our young people is to see how we can make “kicking the algorithmic habit” cool, so that they can make sure that the tools are working for them and not against them.

Benjamin Dalle Benjamin reflected on the differences between the European and American context, where in the EU, the legislator has taken more active roles in regulating media in society. He also emphasised the importance of civil society in media literacy education in Europe, for example, through the well-established youth work networks and sports associations. He celebrated the 10 year existence of Mediawijs in Flanders, which helps people arm themselves against misinformation and disinformation.

Day 01 Wednesday February 28th, 2024

From disinformation to critical trust: when digital and media literacy works

Day 01 Wednesday February 28th, 2024

Krisztina Stump

The first full conference day zoomed in on the state of misinformation and disinformation in Europe and globally, kicking off with a keynote by Krisztina Stump who walked the audience through the European Commission’s 7 initiatives to support media literacy in the context of the upcoming elections.

These include relevant legislative initiatives, a code of practice on disinformation, draft DSA guidelines for election integrity aimed at very large platforms, networks such as EDMO, the Media Literacy Expert Group and dedicated funding from the Creative Europe Programme.

Day 01 Wednesday February 28th, 2024

Melisa Basol

Melisa reflected on the psychological aspects of disinformation, and how we can invest our interventions to build psychological resilience. Starting from the post-truth era (disappearance of a shared truth, and opinions and facts are equally valued), she questioned the general approaches taken to disinformation, such as technical mitigation to slow down (or delay) the

spread of disinformation, inoculation and prebunking (where people get alerted to look out for disinformation as well as insight into techniques of disinformation). Considering that recent research shows that the mere presence of AI-generated content online is making people consider online news less trustworthy, she asked if our efforts need to be redirected towards working in a post-trust era, and how we

Magnus Hjort

Magnus from the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency, started with some enlightening statistics on the state of democracy in the world today, where most people now live in autocracies. Focusing on Sweden, he showed how misinformation and disinformation have become rife in online media attacking Swedish civil society. He elaborated on their approach of long-term building of resilience, and preparing Swedish psychological defence for war, as well as operational activities and international cooperation.

The foundations of psychological defence lay in

• a free and independent media,

• a well-informed and well-educated population and

• a society built on trust between people and in authorities. He quipped that “psychological defence loves media literacy” as it lies at the foundation of these three pillars. Ending his talk, he reminded us that “The future is in our hands – The future is unwritten” borrowing words from Joe Strummer.

Day 02 Thursday February 29th, 2024

From schools and children to digital and media literacy for all

Day 02 Thursday February 29th, 2024

Patrick Verniers

The second full conference day focused on media literacy education where Patrick Verniers shared his journey through media literacy, as wel as his five golden nuggets to share with future generations. He talked about media being a ‘pharmakon’, a remedy but also a poison – which needed to be handled thoughtfully. He also drew attention to the importance of involving the voice of practitioners in media literacy education, as our institutions alone cannot change the situation – we need the cathedral as well as the people in the square and the back alleys.

He contextualised the recent growing focus on evaluation, stating that shortterm impact measurement without the involvement of practice will not help us reach our goals. He reminisced about the long history of conferences within the media literacy education community, showing in real terms the progress he has witnessed. Finally, he positioned media literacy as the contemporary form of political education, with at its heart citizenship.

Day 02 Thursday February 29th, 2024

Brian O’Neill

Brian started his talk with a provoking question: is media literacy a response to ongoing problems in the infosphere, or a societal good in its own right (that is close to the purpose of education, where people can grow into their own)?

He questioned the focus on critical media literacy skills that transfers to the individual the problems and responsibilities that should be solved on a

societal level. He therefore called on the community to seek out engagement with digital active citizenship and connecting their work with the large body of the knowledge on democratic education. He introduced a foundational framework for competences for democratic culture, created by the Council of Europe, as well as called attention to the initiative of 2025 as the EU year for Digital Citizenship Education.

Renee Hobbs and Bert Pieters

In their duo-keynote, Renee Hobbs and Bert Pieters, looked for what has worked well in media literacy education across tumultuous media years. A first topic was that of dialogue and the idea of classrooms being dialogic spaces. However, many teachers are fearful of creating this type of environment, where students can take the word 70% of the time. Media artefacts could be the start of dialogue and discussion, but how do teachers decide to choose media artefacts for classrooms? Another topic

was that of the process of meaningmaking, based on all types of content (text, images, video) – where the focus is not so much on truth or falsehood, but rather on critical reflection on what the message is trying to convey and how it could be perceived. How do you deal with teachers or students who refuse to engage in dialogue? Renee and Bert closed with a hopeful message that “only love can cure hate” and invited us to reflect on the the intricate role that media plays in supporting sense of belonging in tribes and established worldviews.

Day 03 Friday March 1st, 2024

Moving forward: from future technology challenges to the future of digital and media literacy

Day 03 Friday March 1st, 2024

Dries Depoorter

The final conference day invited a view into the future of media literacy with Dries Depoorter starting off the day with a lively showcase of art pieces that play with media, technology and media literacy, drawing attention to the complex media interactions in which we are engaged.

Day 03 Friday March 1st, 2024

Lee Edwards

Lee presented a study on the system in which media literacy education takes place, refocusing the attention towards the interactions between organisations and actions. Identifying several systemic problems such as the lack of convening spaces for the sector of media literacy as well as the overloaded educational systems,

she posed that we need to think differently by considering the quality of the ecosystem as a whole. She called for acknowledgement of the important role that every stakeholder in the system plays, as well as advocating for a long-term approach to create systemic changes.

Sonia Livingstone

Sonia focused on the work of the working groups under EDMO, that brings together the small, underfunded organisations that have sustained media literacy in many countries. Specifically, she introduced the guidance that has been drafted by the working group and is open for public consultation.

Day 03 Friday March 1st, 2024

The conference closed with some reflections for the future. Igor, Maria, Nicoleta and Andy emphasised the importance of networks and networking to achieve progress. They also reflected on the fact that we view media literacy as a destination, but do not talk as much about the road towards this destination.

Especially, as a literacy, it needs an ongoing approach. They spotlighted the lack of attention to media literacy in games in this community, and also alerted the audience to the need for more teacher training: teachers are fearful to teach media education and negotiation of meaning.

Presentations available online

Many of the presentations given, along with supplementary materials, conference impressions and photos, are available on www.medialiteracymatters.eu.

Partners

Digital Media Observatory