To build resilience to disinformation and promote critical thinking, we recommend:
- Improving teacher training: Developing comprehensive professional development programmes focused on media and data literacy.
- Curriculum Integration: Embeding digital literacy in all subjects to ensure that students develop these skills throughout their education.
- Resource Development: Creating and disseminating high-quality resources that teachers can use to teach media literacy.
- Focusing on disadvantages groups: Since young people with a lower educational degree significantly underperform on the subject of MIL, they would require additional efforts and specially designed approachable materials.
- Taking into account local differences: Students and teachers living in the East and West of Germany appear to face different challenges, and require a different approach.
- Recognizing the political aspect: Experts underline the link between MIL and political education, as well as the susceptibility of persons with a low MIL skill to disinformation and antidemocratic narratives.
- Collaboration: Fostering partnerships between schools, NGOs and technology companies to leverage diverse expertise and resources.
- Policy support: Advocate for policies that prioritise media and digital literacy as essential components of the education system.
These efforts will help equip young people with the skills they need to navigate the digital world safely and critically, supporting informed and rational decision-making.
