Media Literacy

Empowering the Digital Citizen: A new chapter in Media Literacy from Flanders

2 weeks ago
5 min read

Mediawijs, the Flemish Knowledge Centre for Digital and Media Literacy, has released a new publication titled Empowering the Digital Citizen. Since its foundation in 2013 by the Flemish Minister for Media, Mediawijs has worked to help people in Flanders and Brussels engage with digital technology and media in an active, creative, and critical way. The centre supports digital inclusion, coordinates research, and develops campaigns and tools to ensure citizens can participate fully in today’s digital society.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary, Mediawijs decided to bring together all the knowledge, insights, and research they had gathered over the years. Led by the academic director Leo Van Audenhove, together with advisory committee president Michel Walrave, academics Leen d’Haenens and Eva Lievens, and colleagues Hadewijch Vanwynsberghe and Davy Nijs, they have collected a decade of Flemish work on digital and media literacy in one free eBook. It offers a wide-ranging look at how people in Flanders engage with digital media, organised into four clear themes covering the many aspects of digital life.

It has a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, it looks back at how the political and technological context has changed over the last 10 to 15 years and how the use of digital technologies and media by children, young people and adults has evolved. On the other hand, it provides insights into current debates in the field of digital and media literacy. What are the needs of different audiences such as children, socio-economically vulnerable groups, people with disabilities or even influencers? What evolving forms of literacy do we need in our fully digitalised society? What are the key challenges in relation to practices such as sexting, cyberbullying, exploring (fake) news and (dis)information, online gaming and dating? Flemish researchers contribute to these international debates with excellent research, while taking into account the specificities of our small region.

Chapters and their content:

The first part, Changing Realities, looks at how media use in Flanders has evolved over the last 15 years. It includes insights from long-term studies such as the imec.digimeter and Apenstaartjaren, showing how people have shifted from traditional media to complex, multi-platform media use. It also explores how media policy in the region has changed during this time.

  • 15 Years of imec.digimeter: The Transformation from Traditional to Cross-Media Users in Flanders (Kristin Van Damme, Floor Denecker, Lieven De Marez)
  • 15 Years of Ape(n)staartjaren: How ‘Studying Young People’s Changing Digital Ways’ Changed (Hadewijch Vanwynsberghe, Andy Demeulanaere)
  • 15 Years of Media Literacy Policy: Policy Discourse of Four Flemish Coalition Governments (Leo Van Audenhove, Andy Demeulenaere, Lotte Vermeire, Lemonie De Moortel)

The second part, Specific Audiences and Groups, focuses on different communities and how they engage with media. It includes chapters on children’s rights, people with disabilities, unaccompanied refugee minors, and the growing influence of social media personalities on young people’s mental wellbeing.

In Forms of Literacies, the third part, researchers explore how new challenges demand new skills. This section includes chapters on advertising, news, social media, data, privacy, and even scientific literacy – each examined through the lens of current technologies and social developments.

The final section, Themes in Media Literacy, covers some of the more difficult or sensitive areas of digital interaction. Topics include sexting, cyberbullying, online gaming and gambling, and dating apps. Each chapter outlines the risks and discusses how media literacy can help people, especially young users, navigate these online environments more safely.

What makes this publication stand out is the close link between the researchers and Mediawijs. Many of the chapters were written by experts who have worked closely with the organisation for years, ensuring the findings are both grounded in academic work and relevant for practice.

The book is the result of a long-standing partnership between Mediawijs and a wide group of organisations. These include socio-cultural organisations like LINC vzw and MAKS vzw; youth-focused media groups such as Mediaraven vzw and Chase vzw; adult education organisations like VOCVO vzw; and several universities and research centres from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Ghent University, KU Leuven, and the University of Antwerp. All of this is coordinated through the strategic research institute IMEC vzw.

Together, these partners have made Flanders a key contributor to digital and media literacy across Europe. Empowering the Digital Citizen is both a celebration of this work and a useful resource for anyone interested in understanding today’s digital challenges.

The full book is available online and free to access.

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