The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will commemorate Global Media and Information Literacy Week from Oct. 24 to 31. This event has been celebrated annually since 2011, highlighting the need to increase digital media and information literacy. This year’s event explores the theme of how new technologies, including generative artificial intelligence (AI), impact public information distribution.
“Being news literate is challenging in the current media environment, where content is produced, shared, and interpreted by various users inside and outside of journalism and the boundaries are blurred between news and other types of content,” says Ori Tenenboim, assistant professor in the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media at the University of British Columbia.
A complex digital landscape
Tenenboim says that these boundaries between news and other content are blurred on social media as all different types of content may appear on a timeline or in a newsfeed. He further notes that the addition of multiple platforms, applications, and access points for news makes it more difficult for one to become media and information literate.
“Even though young people tend to use social media frequently, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are highly news literate,” says Tenenboim.
He points to the different facets of news literacy, such as recognizing political bias and identifying sponsored posts. In fact, UNESCO’s definition of consumer’s media and information literacy includes not only skills to critically assess news and content, but also understanding digital rights and how to thoughtfully contribute content.
“Research has shown that young people from more vulnerable socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to lack such skills,” Tenenboim adds.
Adding in artificial intelligence
The digital landscape is not only complicated to navigate – it is also everchanging. As technologies like generative AI become commonplace, media literacy skills and user empowerment are all the more important to discern AI from human-made content, according to a 2024 UNESCO policy brief.
“Artificial intelligence could make it more difficult even for experienced news users to identify manipulations and to distinguish between true and false,” Tenenboim says.
The UNESCO policy brief further notes how AI can help expedite content production and increase access to information, but it also poses serious risks of proliferating misinformation and breaches of data privacy. Tenenboim states that we are now seeing the risks of generative AI unfold in the context of elections around the world as well as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
“I think that more could be done to help news users to critically assess content they are exposed to,” Tenenboim adds.
Media literacy policies in practice
With many players involved in news consumption, from large media corporations to independent digital journalists, and various communication filters, such as sponsored content, navigating today’s information environment is complicated. While resources educating digital media consumers do exist, Tenenboim emphasizes that this media literacy responsibility is also shared with both news producers and digital platforms.
“News outlets could be more transparent about sources on which they rely and the news production process, including by explicitly acknowledging what they don’t know and based on what different factual claims are made,” he adds.
To navigate AI and media content, both traditional newsrooms and digital platforms are developing policies and practices. To support its digital literacy initiatives, UNESCO is also offering tools to help consumers discern AI in their everyday media and information content.
“Digital platforms may further experiment with ways to label manipulated content or claims that have been debunked by reliable actors,” Tenenboim says.
For more information on UNESCO’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week, see https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/celebrating-global-media-and-information-literacy-week-2024
For more information on the UNESCO policy brief, see https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000388547.locale=en
