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It is often assumed that media literacy serves to protect and uphold democratic practice and that media literate citizens are the best safeguards for democracy. However, little attention is paid to defining this practice and its relationship to ongoing inequities within democratic societies. In this essay, we argue media literacy operates from three core assumptions; media literacy creates knowledgeable individuals, empowers communities, and encourages democratic participation. The first assumption draws out an individual's skills and critical thinking in media literacy practices. The second assumption focuses on the community aspect of media literacy, specifically which communities are best served by media literacy and why. Finally, the connection between media literacy and democratic practices is evaluated to understand how the democratic ideals of equity and justice are situated within the existing literature. Through an exploration of these assumptions, this essay provokes a discussion into the assumptions that media literacy scholarship and practice addresses to highlight some of the gaps in constructing impactful practice that centers on equity and social justice.

Cyberbullying is a major health concern for today's youth and a pervasive stressor for adolescents and their families. This study offers qualitative insights into how parents perceive their children's technology use and engagement in cyberbullying based on gender. Eight focus groups were conducted with 48 parents of adolescents ages 10-17. Findings indicated parents perceived their children overuse technology and lack awareness of what cyberbullying is. Specific to gender, parents suggested their daughters use technology for social connection, and parents were more concerned about their daughter's technology use than their son's, which they believed was related to specific interests. In response to cyberbullying scenarios, parents encouraged females but not males to socialize with peers. This is the first qualitative study to obtain an in-depth understanding of the ways in which parents perceive and socialize their children in regard to technology use and cyberbullying scenarios. These results may help school systems, school psychologists, researchers, and parents gain awareness of the gender-stereotypical socialization process that unfolds in parental monitoring of technology use and cyberbullying situations. We conclude by offering suggestions for how school systems and personnel might intervene.

Measuring news media literacy is important in order for it to thrive in a variety of educational and civic contexts. This research builds on existing measures of news media literacy and two new scales are presented that measure self-perceived media literacy (SPML) and perceptions of the value of media literacy (VML). Research with a larger sample of college undergraduate students and a smaller sample of adults enabled the validation of these measures. Results confirm the value of conceptualizing news media literacy using the theoretical subcomponents of authors & audiences, messages & meaning, and representation & realities. The VML scale, in particular, proved especially consequential in predicting knowledge about and attitudes towards the media.

Developing news media literacy skills is recognized as an important part of becoming an informed citizen, but not enough research examines how growth in media literacy differs by individual characteristics. Using a panel study of undergraduate students, we examine which predispositions predict growth in news media literacy beliefs over the semester. We then test whether growth in news media literacy leads individuals to more highly value and engage in heterogeneous political discussion, a critical part of a functioning democracy. Our results suggest some individuals experience more growth in news media literacy, and that growth contributes to democratic attitudes and behaviors.

Background: Schools are often held responsible for preventing or addressing cyberbullying, yet little is known about school administrator perceptions of cyberbullying and the challenges they face in addressing this public health issue. Aims: The goal of this study is to examine school administrators' perceptions of the facilitators of cyberbullying and barriers to primary and secondary prevention strategies. Method: Public school administrators (N = 36) participated in in-depth interviews about bullying and discussed their experiences with cyberbullying and their perceptions of cyberbullying facilitators and barriers to prevention. Results: Three main themes arose from the analysis: (1) cyberbullying as a major challenge; (2) facilitators of cyberbullying and barriers to preventive action, including parents and technology; and (3) prevention efforts, including unclear jurisdiction for action, primary versus secondary prevention efforts, and technology attributes that facilitate school response to bullying. Discussion: Although administrators perceive cyberbullying as a major challenge facing their schools, they are often unsure about appropriate primary and secondary prevention efforts. Relationships with parents and police complicate response and prevention as schools attempt to navigate unclear jurisdiction. Additionally, technology presents a challenge to schools because it is seen as an enabler of cyberbullying, a facilitator of prevention, and a necessary part of education efforts. Conclusion: Lack of research on prevention strategies, parents' knowledge and attitudes, and confusion about responsibility for addressing cyberbullying are barriers to action. Findings suggest administrators could benefit from additional clarity on which strategies are most effective for primary prevention of cyberbullying, and that prevention strategies should proactively involve parents to promote effective collaboration with schools.

In this study, we test the effectiveness of a short news media literacy message with audiences who differ in their media literacy education. We manipulate whether individuals are exposed to a news media literacy public service announcement (PSA) immediately before viewing a political program among two groups: students enrolled in media education courses versus students in a non-media course. Findings suggest that the ability of media literacy messages to influence students' processing of the subsequent political program is conditioned by their preexisting media literacy education. This study provides insights for considering how classroom and non-classroom media literacy interventions can work together to improve media literacy.

This study explores the role of political information seeking on social media and perceived exposure to misinformation in influencing online political engagement. A survey investigation of three Sub-Saharan African countries (Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa) suggests that both information seeking and perceived exposure to misinformation are positively associated with online political engagement. We find that younger citizens are more actively engaged in online political activities. However, we also find that perceived exposure to misinformation has varying effects on political engagement across age groups. More frequent perceived exposure to misinformation is found to be a mobilizer for online political engagement for the older population. We conclude with a discussion of how social media may facilitate greater engagement for the older population. Still, the mobilizing role of misinformation exposure raises concerns about the consequences of such political engagement. Theoretical implications for political engagement research, in general and in the countries under study, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid spread of misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased calls for news literacy to help mitigate endorsement of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and other falsehoods. In two cross-sectional online surveys conducted in October 2020 (N = 1,502) and July 2021 (N = 1,330), this study examines relationships between news literacy, COVID-19 misinformation, conspiratorial thinking, and political orientation in the United States. The results show that individuals with higher levels of news literacy were more likely to reject COVID-19 misinformation and conspiratorial thinking, but also that news literacy matters more for individuals with liberal political views than conservative political views and is unevenly distributed across the study population with age, race, political orientation, and news diet as significant predictors of news literacy. Results suggest that improved news literacy could be part of a strategy to equip individuals to reject health misinformation, but varied approaches will be necessary to engage with disparate groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines fact-checking of the misinformation about COVID-19 circulating in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020. It uses thematic textual analysis to understand the geographic scope, sources, and themes of hundreds of hoaxes from across Sub-Saharan Africa indexed in the #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance database. In addition, it explores a subset of debunked items from Nigeria to demonstrate efforts to go beyond traditional fact-checking to educate audiences about public health and media literacy, using strategies that are consistent with inoculation theory. Findings show that misinformation about "cures" and politics were major themes of COVID-19 falsehoods circulating in Sub-Saharan Africa during the first year of the pandemic. In addition to correcting false information, fact-checkers in Nigeria regularly provided public health and media literacy information in their fact-checks. Fact-checkers may epitomize a new type of journalistic actor well-suited to the chaotic world of social media and viral misinformation, as they offer both direct refutations of false information and tactics for audiences to engage in their own critical assessment of news and information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given concerns about the persuasive power of video misinformation on social media for health topics, we test two techniques – exposure to a news literacy video and user corrections – to limit the effects on misperceptions. An online sample of American adults from August of 2019 was randomly assigned to view two simulated Facebook videos. The first video manipulated the presence of news literacy concepts. The second video either promoted sunscreen use or made inaccurate claims regarding its dangers; scrolling comments either debunked or did not address the sunscreen misinformation in the video. Our results demonstrate that video misinformation heightened beliefs in sunscreen myths and reduced acceptance of sunscreen facts and intentions to wear sunscreen compared to a promotional video. Real-time user corrections were partially successful in reducing the effects of the misinformation video on beliefs but not intentions. Additionally, exposure to a news literacy video did not inoculate people to the misinformation. We discuss the implications of these findings for best practices regarding correcting video misinformation on health topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extending previous research, we test two solutions for addressing misinformation by pairing news literacy (NL) messages with corrective responses to health misinformation shared on Twitter. Importantly, we consider a range of outcomes, including not just credibility or misperceptions, but also feelings of news literacy and support for its value. Using an experiment, we find that user corrections of a meme containing false information reduced credibility assessments of the misinformation post and misperceptions but seeing misinformation also produced lower perceptions of personal news literacy and its value for society, regardless of whether it is corrected or not. Exposure to an NL message did not enhance the effectiveness of these corrective responses nor boost NL attitudes and may have generated cynicism. We discuss the challenges of designing NL messages for social media that achieve the wide range of goals news literacy interventions aspire to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in news literacy inside and outside the academy has grown alongside related concerns about the quality of news and information available. Attempts to fully define, explicate and operationalize news literacy, however, are scattered. Drawing on literature across journalism and mass communication, we propose a definition of news literacy that combines knowledge of news production, distribution and consumption with skills that help audiences assert control over their relationship with news. We propose that knowledge and skills should be conceptualized across five domains: context, creation, content, circulation and consumption. This explication offers a clear, concise and cohesive path for research about news literacy, especially empirical testing to evaluate news literacy and its effectiveness in contributing to relevant behaviours. This framework also offers a consistent, yet flexible, approach to measuring news literacy across diverse contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a dual-imaging technique combining laser speckle contrast imaging and spectral-domain Doppler optical coherence tomography to enable quantitative characterization of local cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes in rat cortex in response to drug stimulus (e.g., cocaine) at high spatiotemporal resolutions. To examine the utility of this new technique, animal experiments were performed to study the influences of anesthetic regimes (e.g., isoflurane, [alpha]-chloralose) on the pharmadynamic effects of acute cocaine challenge. The results showed that cocaine-evoked CBF patterns (e.g., increases in [alpha]-chloralose and decreases in isoflurane regimes) were quantitatively characterized, thus rendering it a potentially useful tool for imaging studies of brain functions. OCIS codes: 170.2655, 170.3340, 170.4500, 110.6150.

A number of solutions have been proposed to address concerns about misinformation online, including encouraging experts to engage in corrections of misinformation being shared and improving media literacy among the American public. This study combines these approaches to examine whether news literacy (NL) messages on social media enhance the effectiveness of expert correction of misinformation on Twitter. Two experiments suggest that expert organizations can successfully correct misinformation on social media across two controversial issues with a single tweet. However, three different NL messages did not improve the effectiveness of expert corrections. We discuss the difficulties of crafting NL messages that break through the clutter on social media and suggest guidelines for organizations attempting to address misinformation online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]