On 15 of July 2021, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport published its Online Media Literacy Strategy. The Online Harms White Paper is committed to developing an Online Media Literacy Strategy ahead of the implementation of the online harms regulator.
Over 170 organisations are currently involved in delivering media literacy education in the UK. The Media Literacy Strategy sets out the government’s multi-year plan to bring coordination to the media literacy landscape. It also outlines a Media Literacy Framework of best practice principles to inform the content and delivery of media literacy education.
The areas covered by the framework are:
- Data and privacy
- Online environment
- Information consumption
- Online consequences
- Online engagement
The strategy also identifies six key challenges faced by the media literacy sector:
- Evaluation
- Funding
- Hard-to-reach audiences
- Vulnerable users
- Building audience resilience to disinformation
- Coordination
The government will publish an annual Media Literacy Action Plan outlining the initiatives to be delivered that forthcoming year. These initiatives will take action against the identified challenges and respond to the changing needs of the media literacy sector.
The first action plan will cover the 21/22 Financial Year and has been published alongside this strategy.