Media Literacy : Evidence from the Pandemic

Abstract

As COVID-19 pandemic progressed, media literacy rose out from the shadows of evergreen academic and policymaking debates to finally became a protagonist resilient strategy. Against countless dangers of the digital era, media literacy appears today as a useful umbrella concept pointing at imperative skills for anyone prepared (or not) to navigate the current media environment. From this stance, several international organizations place media literacy on the spotlight when calling for urgent worldwide measures against other global epidemics such as: infodemic, fakenews, disinformation; post-truth, radicalization or hatespeech; cyberterrorism, trollying, digital bullying, surveillance or invasion of privacy; buying and selling of personal data; narcissism and addiction to social media; anxiety, depression or self-harm, and the list could go on and on. This paper presents a systemic evidence review of quantitative empirical research conducted during the peak of the global pandemic uncovering multiple understandings, key obstacles and conceptual adjustments needed before considering media literacy a definitive transformative tool.