Australian Media Literacy Research Symposium

Date: Tuesday April 13 2021

TIme: 10.45am—15:30pm  (AEST)

Registration: register here for Sydney(opens in a new window), Brisbane(opens in a new window) or Canberra(opens in a new window)

Download the full program(opens in a new window)

Our lives are now so saturated with information and media that the ability to use media effectively is a pre-requisite for full participation in society.

Media literacy refers to people’s ability to critically engage with information and media in all aspects of their life. At the heart of this critical engagement is the ability to critique media and information as well as media technologies and business models. This includes knowing the way these produce, challenge and subvert relationships, representations and power.

We conducted the first national media literacy survey of adult Australians and found that although most people believe that media literacy is critical to many aspects of their life, many have no access to support when they need it.

This symposium includes synchronous events in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra. Each event features a panel discussion with researchers and practitioners about the state of media literacy in Australia. Key findings from our research will follow the panel discussion.

We hope that these events will help to build momentum and support collaboration to ensure that media literacy research can inform policy and practice at a time when media literacy is now on the Australia policy agenda.

The event speakers will discuss how media literacy research can help to address key challenges we face in Australian society including the widespread online circulation of misinformation, social and racial inequality, and a lack of trust in our democratic systems.

Symposium organisers:

• Dr Tanya Notley(opens in a new window), Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
• Professor Sora Park(opens in a new window), News and Media Research Center, University of Canberra
• Professor Michael Dezuanni(opens in a new window), Digital Media Research Center (DMRC), Queensland University of Technology

Funding and Support

_{This event is part of the Media Literacy in Australia research project, which is administered by Western Sydney University. Initial support for this research project was made possible through a grant from Facebook received by the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), a partner on the project.}

Event locations