Advancing the News Media Literacy of Young Australians

Three young people hold up worksheets which read ‘Media Literacy is’. They have completed the worksheets with the words ‘Important’, ‘To’ and ‘Us’.

This project responds to changes in the production, experience and consumption of news media by young Australians. In our recent research, we have identified several barriers that prevent news media literacy from being developed in the home and in schools in a meaningful and effective way. This project will document, analyse and address some of these barriers. In this way it will respond to emerging questions regarding the changing role of news in relation to active citizenship and democracy, and the challenge of ‘fake news’ or disinformation. It will achieve this by:

Contributing to the design, implementation and evaluation of a new major semi-permanent exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra, to be launched in 2019
Developing a media literacy framework for the digital age to support the design of news engagement and learning materials
engaging young Australians and school teachers as co-designers of the Museum’s news exhibition content and news literacy learning resources and activities.

Researchers:

Dr Tanya Notley (ICS)
Associate Professor Michael Dezuanni (Queensland University of Technology)
Ms Edwina Jans (Museum of Australian Democracy)
Mr Michael Evans (Museum of Australian Democracy)

Funding: Western Sydney University Research Partnerships Program: Museum of Australian Democracy; Google Australia

Period: 2018- 2020.

Our recent research: News and Australian Children, How Young People Access, Perceive and are Affected by the News Opens in a new window

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The Institute for Culture and Society is located in Parramatta, “the place where the eel sets down” in Dharug language,
along the north bank of the Parramatta River. It sits on the traditional lands and waters of the Burramattagal people of the Dharug Nation,
who have been stewards and caretakers of these territories since time immemorial, in what today is referred to as Greater Western Sydney,
one of the most diverse cultural communities in the world and home to the largest number of Indigenous Australians in the country.
The Institute for Culture and Society acknowledges the Dharug, Eora, Dharawal (also referred to as Tharawal)
and Wiradjuri peoples as traditional custodians and Indigenous knowledge-holders, whose storytelling serve
as historical record, a form of teaching and learning, a way to care for Country,
and an expression of Indigenous culture and identity.