By Chloé Pété, Project Officer (Digital and Media Literacy), Media & Learning Association, Belgium.
At a time when public discourse, political engagement, and even our everyday relationships unfold largely online, media literacy has evolved from a classroom concern into a societal necessity. The 2025 edition of the MLA4MedLit Online Conference, held on Friday, 17 October, explored this reality under the theme “Building Societal Resilience through Digital and Media Literacy for Everyone.”
Organised ahead of UNESCO’s Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week, the MLA4MedLit is the Media & Learning Association’s annual online event dedicated to exploring emerging priorities in digital and media literacy. The Media & Learning Association (MLA), an international, not-for-profit association founded in 2012 to promote the innovative use of media in education. Previous editions focused on teacher education, best practices, and shared standards. In 2025, the conference took a broader, more urgent perspective: how media literacy can strengthen democracy, foster civic participation, and empower people of all ages to navigate the increasingly complex information landscape.
Why media literacy matters—now more than ever
As digital platforms shape how we access information, participate in public debate, and exercise our rights, media literacy has become a pillar of digital citizenship. It’s no longer just about how we teach young people to critically assess online content: it’s about ensuring everyone, from students to seniors, can confidently and responsibly engage with the media environment that frames our societies.
This year’s one-day online event brought together a truly diverse group: educators, researchers, policy-makers, civil society actors, media professionals, fact-checkers and private sector representatives. Inspired by the Council of Europe’s European Year of Digital Citizenship Education, the programme explored three key dimensions of digital and media literacy:
- Being online – Understanding how communication and interaction function in digital spaces.
- Well-being online – Protecting mental and physical health while fostering digital balance and safety.
- Rights online – Knowing and asserting one’s rights, respecting others, and acting ethically and responsibly.
Through keynote talks, case-based sessions, and panel discussions, participants tackled issues like misinformation and disinformation, online polarisation, social media regulation, toxic digital cultures, and the rise of AI-driven communication tools.
Planning and organisation
As of January 2025, an Advisory Committee on Digital and Media Literacy (AdCom DML) was established to support the Media & Learning Association in advancing its work in the field. Among its various tasks, the AdCom DML was specifically set up to help organise the MLA4MedLit conference, from defining the theme and topics to suggesting speakers and formats. Comprising around 10–14 experts from different organisations, the AdCom DML worked closely with MLA staff to shape the conference theme, select speakers, and refine the programme.
Five members of the AdCom DML also took part directly in the programme as speakers and moderators. The result: 345 registrations from 50 countries, with 240 participants connected live, alongside 17 speakers and MLA support staff. [See Conference report]
Conference highlights
The conference opened with welcoming remarks from Chloé Pété, Project Officer at MLA, followed by a keynote session exploring how extensive and effective media literacy currently is.
Skúli Bragi Geirdal (Head of the Icelandic Safer Internet Centre) presented findings from the Nordic Media Literacy Survey, conducted across Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. First initiated by the Swedish Media Council in 2019, the 2025 survey reached 12,744 respondents representing approximately 30 million individuals across the Nordic region. Conducted in February and analysed in April, the results were largely positive—showing encouraging trends in media awareness and critical thinking.
Irene Christensson (Senior Analyst, Swedish Psychological Defence Agency) followed with insights into the agency’s mission and the concept of psychological defence, and how societies can strengthen their resilience against information manipulation. She also defined FIMI (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference), a growing challenge in the information space, and presented a range of resources and initiatives developed by the agency to counter such threats and build public awareness. The session was moderated by Andy Demeulenaere (Coordinator, Mediawijs, Belgium).
The conference featured two case study sessions titled “Here Is How We Do It” (Parts 1 & 2), where practitioners and researchers showcased innovative initiatives from Europe and beyond.
In Part 1,
- Kari Kivinen (Member of the OECD and Code.org AI Literacy Expert Group) presented the upcoming AI Literacy Framework, jointly developed by the OECD, the European Commission, and Code.org, for primary and secondary education. Organised around Knowledge, Attitudes, and Skills, it focuses on Engaging with AI, Creating with AI, Designing AI, and Managing AI, and will be finalised in early 2026.
- Chiara Antonelli (Project Officer, European Schoolnet) introduced Digi.Well, a whole-school approach to digital well-being. She presented the project’s objectives, scoping report, and practical tools, offering schools strategies to foster healthy, balanced, and safe digital environments.
- Michael Dezuanni (Professor, Queensland University of Technology) explored Australia’s social media ban and alternatives developed by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. His “Children’s Internet” project seeks to move beyond restrictive approaches by promoting media engagement that is constructive, inclusive, and empowering.
In Part 2,
- Ruslana Korenchuk (Head of Diia.Education, Ukraine) presented the Diia.Education platform, part of the Ministry of Digital Transformation. Widely adopted across Ukraine, the platform connects users to public services and provides certificates in digital skills, cyber resilience, and media literacy, helping individuals gain employability and civic empowerment.
- Hugo Besançon (Deputy Director, SQUARE, France) shared SQUARE’s work with young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Their 2022–2025 impact assessment revealed that 60% of participants distrust social media information yet rely on it as their main news source. Their workshops fostering critical thinking led to tangible improvements: conspiracy thinking dropped from 66.6% to 50%, and 74% of young adults reported being more open to diverse perspectives.
- Ela Evliyaoglu (Visiting Fellow at the European University Institute, Italy) concluded with “A New Level in Human Connection: AI Companions.” She explored who uses AI companions, why they turn to them (for emotional support, availability, or social practice), and the potential risks of dependency, emphasising the importance of balanced, informed use.
Panel discussion: where do we go from here?
The day concluded with a panel discussion on lessons learned and the future of media literacy, moderated by Sally Reynolds (Co-founder, AtiT, Belgium). Anna Tsiarta (Educational Technology Department Officer, Cyprus Pedagogical Institute) opened the session by delivering a rapporteur’s summary, providing a concise synthesis of the day’s discussions and key insights drawn from across the sessions. This was followed by closing reflections from Nolan Higdon (Faculty Lecturer, University of California, United States) and Julian McDougall (Professor in Media and Education, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom). The panel tackled key themes such as the measurement of media literacy initiatives, distrust in researchers, limited research budgets in the field, and the militarisation of media literacy. The conference concluded with final remarks, reinforcing its central message: that media literacy is essential for democratic resilience and informed digital citizenship.
Feedback
Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive. Out of 64 submitted surveys, the conference received an average score of 4.72 out of 5 for overall satisfaction, and 3.81 out of 5 for participants’ likelihood to apply what they learned. Comments highlighted both the quality of the speakers and the diversity of perspectives: “The range of international expert perspectives was fantastic.”; “I really liked the link between frameworks, evidence, and real-world examples.”; “Perfectly organised, engaging, and thought-provoking.”
All presentations and recordings from the MLA4MedLit 2025 conference will be available on the Media & Learning website and YouTube channel.
As MLA’s Project Officer Chloé Pété summarised:
“The 2025 MLA4MedLit conference reminded us that media literacy is not just about skills and competencies, it’s a process and it’s about shaping the kind of society we want to live in.”
