A report published by the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee has called for urgent action to improve media literacy among both children and adults.
The report makes clear that media literacy must now be embedded across the national curriculum, since schools are central to delivering media literacy education to children and young people.
Key recommendations:
- Embed media literacy across the national curriculum: The ongoing curriculum and assessment review should be used to embed effective media literacy education across the curriculum in schools, with teaching starting from the early years phase. The Committee also calls for initial teacher training and continuous professional development to be updated to incorporate media literacy, to ensure teachers feel better equipped to deliver lessons on this vital
- Raise public awareness and target new support for adults: A new public awareness campaign with simple messaging is needed to boost understanding of the importance of media literacy. This must be accompanied by clear signposting to further resources, sustained year-long media literacy activity, and support for local delivery partners such as libraries.
- Address the leadership vacuum on media literacy: The Government must appoint a specific senior minister to lead delivery across Whitehall by coordinating cross-departmental activity within education, public services and local government.
- Demand more from platforms: Tech companies should be subject to a new levy to fund sustainable, independent media literacy initiatives. Further to this, Ofcom should set out minimum standards for platforms’ on-platform media literacy activity and use its wider powers to understand how effective these activities are.