Rethinking Media Literacy 2025

4 This phase largely relates to cultural norms, awareness and perceptions of accountability at the individual and collective levels. These factors create the soil in which disinformation will either thrive or struggle to take root, independent of any specific trend. Interventions must address psychosocial dynamics and barriers to accessing credible information across demographics and contexts. While critical thinking and rational analysis are foundational to media literacy, they are not sufficient on their own. Emotions, intuition and social identity play a powerful role in shaping how individuals engage with information. Also important is the role information plays in people’s lives and how this is shaped by their experiences, including the theme of inequity. The core objective is to build resilience against disinformation in all its guises, embedding the means to navigate our information space in more deliberative and discerning ways. 4.1 Pre-creation (initiation or impulse)The disinformation life cycle Disinformation does not exist in a vacuum, and counter-efforts must be initiated before it achieves mass engagement or causes observable harm. Tackling this issue at scale requires a broader view of the supply chain: what drives deceptive behaviour, which tools are used to produce and proliferate such content and how does it enter the mainstream in public life? The model considers five key stages in the disinformation life cycle from a “supply” and “demand” and marketplace perspective: pre-creation, content creation, distribution, consumption and post-consumption. Supply Increase accountability for those who engage in the spread of disinformation. Highlight the downsides of such activity; for example, via campaigns showing how prior offenders incurred legal, financial, professional or personal costs. Profile where disinformation networks have been successfully exposed and held to account. In parallel, humanize the impact of disinformation through victim testimony. Demand Increase literacy about how information ecosystems function, including the business model for online platforms and the potential benefits or pitfalls of a “personalized web”. Generate interest in fact-based journalism by showing how stories are produced, including the ethical standards and oversight applied to legacy media. In tandem, legacy media should strengthen partnerships with the influencers who have become primary conveyers of news to online audiences. Support people to explore their pre-existing biases and how these may be exploited by disinformers. Expose the mechanics and common traits of disinformation and bring to life its concrete harms. Rethinking Media Literacy: A New Ecosystem Model for Information Integrity 17