A new ‘Media Literacy Action Plan’ has been published by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and the Department for Education, setting out the Government’s plans to strengthen media literacy over the next three years.

We have discussed media literacy on numerous occasions in the past, most notably here in the context of the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee urging the launch of a Government-wide initiative to meet the “mounting scale of the challenge” posed by phenomena such as misinformation and disinformation.

The Action Plan heeds those calls, setting out steps that will be taken across governmental departments to improve media literacy, centred on four priority areas:

1. Building awareness of media literacy and supporting access to trusted information. This includes, for example, exploring options to “ensure the accessibility and availability of trusted information sources online, alongside wider work to support reach of news sources”, supporting local journalism, and helping people to identify fraud.

2. Preparing children and young people for the digital future. The Government will strengthen media literacy education in the National Curriculum, concentrating on matters such as misogyny and counter-terrorism online, as well as the challenges posed by deepfakes and AI.

3. Boosting local initiatives to support people facing barriers to participation. Working with local government bodies, the Government will help develop “practical tools and training that strengthen local authorities’ capability to respond swiftly and confidently to harmful online information and digital threats”.

4. Ensuring a coherent approach across government and supporting cross-sector coordination. Addressing the point raised by the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee, policymakers from various departments will work with Ofcom to “build media literacy into a wide range of policies and programmes”.

The Action Plan is accompanied by a timetable for implementing these measures over the next three years.

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