Media literacy for everyone

We live in an age when spreading misinformation online can be a career, AI deep fakes drive the rise of identity fraud, and celebrity crypto scandals are a familiar story. 

Media literacy has never been more important. 

Despite this, media literacy as a ‘thing’ has struggled to make cut-through in education, policy and public awareness. 

We define it as ‘the ability to access and critically evaluate different media and environments, protect personal information, participate positively and responsibly, and to identify and respond to negative content and behaviour’.

OK, it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but its principles couldn’t be more relevant for children, young people and families. 

This is where Parent Zone Programmes come in.

We know digital family life is complicated. So to make quality media literacy programmes for families at scale, the concepts must be clear, the benefits obvious, and the activities simple enough to fit into messy family life. 

More often than not, parents are the first responders when children run into problems online. Building good media literacy skills can help shift the focus from cure to prevention. 

Our Everyday Digital programme, created with funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), is an evidence based programme with measurable impact. 

Through our research and practice, we know that parents want simple, proven, easy solutions. Everyday Digital responds with self guided information for parents and training for professionals.  We share ideas for parents to try at home with their kids - making media literacy fun and engaging. Watch the video to see what we mean. 

Research and practice underpins our programme development. It also highlights where more evidence is needed.
 

Our work supported by the Nuffield Foundation explores what digital media literacy interventions for Early Years children (ages 0-5) currently exist. 

Through this, we are also looking to understand what support parents and educators need, so that they can help young children develop the foundations for digital media literacy. 

The final report outlines our findings, and will shape the development of our media literacy support for families with children in the youngest age group.

Inclusive and collaborative

Our Talk:Tech programme supports young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) to have conversations about the online world. Developed in collaboration with young people, parents, teachers, and specialists, it offers a range of visual and spoken resources.