The world is constantly changing and we need to keep our eyes open for the upcoming opportunities and challenges. It’s essential for media literacy professionals to consider various perspectives to understand the complex issues at hand.  

Digitalising societies, strengthening democracy and other current developments are not straightforward, nor are the answers easy to find. However, our individual and professional backgrounds can offer us a ground that help us to identify key solutions for a sustainable future. This exploration can be done by coming together, opening up our perspectives, listening others, discussing and learning together. Viewed from different angles, even a complex phenomenon can seem clear.  

Media literacy reflections -education series invites you to get to know different experts, hear from their insights and reflect their questions. The aim is to brings out new and interesting ideas while helping you to build connections with concepts, fields, communities, societal surroundings, inspire new thinking and open up new perspectives. 

Welcome along! 

Media Literacy Key Concepts: the Australian Experience

Tanya Notley is Associate Professor in Communication at the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and a member of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) at Western Sydney University. Her research focuses on media literacy, digital inclusion and media justice. She leads the Platform for Civic Media Literacy at ICS and is Deputy Chair of the Australian Media Literacy Alliance.

Tanya’s is currently leading a new research project that that collaborates with public cultural institutions to increase adult media literacy to address misinformation and she is a Chief Investigator on a project focused on advancing digital inclusion in low-income households (led by Michael Dezuanni at QUT). Tanya also leads two longitudinal national surveys: one focused on young people’s news media engagement and another on adult media literacy.

We need democratic alternatives to the fight against fake news

Johan Farkas is a PhD student in Media and Communication Studies at Malmö University, Sweden. His research explores political struggles around disinformation, fake news, racism, journalism, and digital media. Farkas has written more than 15 peer-reviewed publications, featuring in journals such as New Media & Society, Journalism Studies, and Critical Discourse Studies. His debut book is called Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy: Mapping the Politics of Falsehood (co-authored with Jannick Schou). The book presents a detailed analysis of contemporary discourses around fake news and post-truth, offering both a trenchant critique and call for more inclusive forms of democracy.

Media literacy transformations in times of war: insights from Ukraine's national project Filter

Valeria Kovtun is the founder and head of Filter, the first national media literacy project launched in Ukraine and coordinated by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy. She has also worked as a media consultant for international organizations such as UNDP, OSCE, and IREX. Valeria has a journalistic background, having worked with BBC Reel in London, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague and a number of news organisations in Kyiv. She was also selected as one of the RAF fellows at the United Nations in New York. Valeria is a Chevening scholar and holds an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Exploring Media Literacy in Latin America: An Overview of Educomunicación from Peru

Julio-César Mateus is an Associate Professor and researcher at the University of Lima. Ph.D. in Communication (Cum Laude) from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. His research focuses on the intersection of media theories, digital cultures, and media education. He is the editor of Contratexto journal and coordinates the Communication, Education, and Culture (CEC) research group at the University of Lima. He serves as a strategic advisor for educational projects at the Telefónica Movistar Foundation. He has authored the books Media Education: Emergence and Urgency of a Pending Learning (Lima: University of Lima, 2022), Media Education in Latin America (London: Routledge, 2019), and MayéuTIC@: 28 Questions to Hack the School (Lima: Telefónica Foundation, 2019), as well as numerous articles in various indexed international scientific journals. In 2022, he was a visiting researcher at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), funded by the Young Professors and Researchers from Latin American Universities scholarship granted by the Coimbra Group of Universities.

Digital transformation & Young people – Why should we care?

Dr Alicja Pawluczuk a digital inclusion thinker, doer & artivist – passionate about meaningful digital inequalities and digital justice research and practice. Her research as well as educational and artisitc practice work are grounded in democratic, participatory, experimental, and interactive methodologies (both online and offline). The key areas of her expertise and interest include digital inequalities, digital youth work, invisible disabilty, and meaningful community engagement. Dr Alicja Pawluczuk aims to cultivate authenticity, tolerance for ambiguity, critical thinking, and empathy in her work.

Website: www.alicjapawluczuk.com

Visual design: Sofia Grönberg

Media literacy reflections is an open platform. You can suggest new topics and content themes or even share your own expertise if you are interested. Feel free to contact media education team.