Welcome to the MLI Monthly Update!
Have something you want to share with the membership? Tell us about it by emailing us at info@medialiteracyireland.ie. We are particularly interested in including your resources in our new resources section of the MLI website.
The content in this newsletter is a collection of media literacy related news and information from a wide range of sources and inclusion does not imply the endorsement of Media Literacy Ireland.
This Month in Media Literacy
May was a busy month for the media literacy community with a focus on the growing challenge of disinformation. The annual Disinformation Forum, hosted by EDMO Ireland and Media Literacy Ireland, took place in Europe House in Dublin on 11 May, and EDMO Ireland launched its report on Disinformation Impacts on the Charity and Voluntary Sectorat this event. Disinformation was also the focus of the recent call for submissions for funding by Coimisiún na Meán and the successful recipients have now been announced. A further funding opportunity in this area has launched this month, with the Royal Irish Academy inviting applications for the new Disinformation Research Grant. Read on for further details of all these initiatives, along with information on many other media literacy developments, reports and upcoming events.
Announcements
Coimisiún na Meán awards media literacy funding
Coimisiún na Meán has announced the media literacy projects that will receive funding under the Media Literacy / Countering Disinformation Call for Submissions for Funding 2026. This call was launched on 10 March to support initiatives that help people better understand and respond to online mis- and disinformation.
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EDMO Ireland and Media Literacy Ireland host the annual Disinformation Forum
The MLI-EDMO Ireland Disinformation Forum provides a means for stakeholders to share insights, strengthen partnerships and contribute meaningfully to countering disinformation through media literacy. Each Disinformation Forum is designed around the needs of a specific sector. The most recent MLI-EDMO Ireland Disinformation Forum took place on 11 May and focused on the Community and Voluntary sector.
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Joint Oireachtas Committee report makes media literacy recommendation
On 13 May, the Joint Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport published its report on the regulation of online platforms and supports to improve online safety and participation. The report sets out ten key recommendations aimed at strengthening protections for children and adults online, improving platform accountability, and supporting safer and more informed participation in the digital space. Recommendation 8 is focused on building and resourcing a National Media and Digital Literacy Infrastructure with specific reference to Media Literacy Ireland. MLI provided evidence to this Committee earlier in the year, including a written submission.
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Webwise Safer Internet Day Award Winners 2026
Webwise has announced the award winners for Safer Internet Day (SID) 2026, which saw a record-breaking 200,000+ participants across Ireland. This year’s theme was AI Aware – Safe, Smart and in Control and initiatives covered a wide range of important issues, including cyberbullying, image sharing, privacy, online wellbeing and digital rights. The SID Awards celebrate the creativity and dedication of students and schools who champion safer, more responsible, and empowering uses of the internet and digital technologies.
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The ARENAS Learning Platform
When trying to empower people with the skills to spot misinformation, a challenge can be identifying a false narrative rather than a false fact. The ARENAS Learning Platform has been developed to address this problem. The ARENAS Learning Platform is a free, openly accessible digital library developed as part of the ARENAS project, a four-year EU Horizon Europe research programme examining extremist narratives, with 12 participating partners from 9 European countries.
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Immunising the next generation: How teachers can build student resilience against disinformation
Disinformation, misinformation and manipulation are flooding the information space, and although young people are active users of social media, they often lack the skills to critically assess the content that they encounter. The Immune 2 Infodemic project, an EU-funded initiative, proposes a solution based on inoculation theory: pre-emptive protection against manipulation. Designed for secondary-school teachers, a Teacher’s Package offers free educational materials aimed at increasing knowledge, enhancing skills and creating attitudinal change.
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Applications open now for The Close-Up Summer Residency
The Close-Up Summer Residency is a week-long filmmaking programme for emerging creatives from ethnically diverse backgrounds to develop and pitch original short film ideas. The 2026 residency will take place 28 June–3 July at The Deerstone Eco Hideaway in Wicklow, and free places will be offered to ten emerging filmmakers aged 18 and over. The deadline for applications is 1 June.
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Why media literacy matters in Ireland’s energy transition
At the recent SolarPower Summit in Brussels, policymakers, communications professionals and industry representatives explored how misinformation is increasingly shaping public conversations around solar energy, battery storage and the wider energy transition across Europe. Solar Ireland has pointed to the value of assessing sources and context when reading or sharing energy-related content online.
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Calls to the Media Literacy Community
Applications open for new Royal Irish Academy Disinformation Research Grant
The Royal Irish Academy is inviting applications for the new Disinformation Research Grant, supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. The scheme will support nuanced, collaborative research on different aspects of disinformation, involving research across multiple disciplines and networks. Applications are invited for amounts from €20,000 to €30,000 and the deadline for submissions is 24 June.
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Research and Reports
New EDMO Ireland Report on Disinformation Impacts on the Charity and Voluntary Sector
A new EDMO Ireland report by Dr Shane Murphy and Dr Eileen Culloty on Disinformation Impacts on Community and Voluntary Organisations was published as part of the annual Disinformation Forum on 11 May. The report seeks to understand the extent to which the community and voluntary sector encounters disinformation and hostility, the consequences for day-to-day operations, and actions taken or proposed in response.
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EBU Report: Advancing Media Literacy Through Public Service Media
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is stepping up its media literacy work with its Public Service Media (PSM) members. In April 2026, it published its second report, Advancing Media Literacy Through Public Service Media, using survey data from 32 organisations, including TG4. The report highlights the Be Media Smart campaign, which encourages citizens to Stop, Think and Check the accuracy of information they come across, as well as Foghlaim TG4’s collaboration with COGG to deliver Iriseoirí an Lae Amárach, a journalism training programme for students.
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Internet Matters report: Are children safer online?
The UK’s Online Safety Act introduced a range of measures aimed at improving online safety for young users, but questions remain about whether current regulations are sufficiently robust, effectively enforced, and adaptable to an evolving digital landscape. A report by Internet Matters explores the impact of children’s safety protections under the legislation through the experiences of families and offers an early view of how the online landscape is changing and, crucially, where it is not.
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Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report 2026
Ofcom recently published its annual report looking at media use, attitudes and understanding among children and young people aged 6 months to 17 years. The report includes findings on parents’ views about their children’s online and media use and how they monitor and manage their children’s use.
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Children’s Media Lives 2026
Ofcom’s Children’s Media Lives project follows, as far as possible, the same group of 17 children aged 8 to 17 years, conducting filmed interviews each year to learn about their media habits and attitudes. The 2026 report continues to provide insights into the motivations behind media use, the contexts in which it occurs, and the role media plays in the children’s daily lives and domestic circumstances. This research provides a small-scale, rich and detailed qualitative complement to Ofcom’s quantitative surveys of media literacy.
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Ofcom report on persuasive design on online platforms
An Ofcom research report published this month explored the experiences of 40 children aged 8 to 16 years who said they spent more time than they planned to or realised on online platforms. The project considered online persuasive design features and how these could contribute to the time the children spent on gaming, social media and video-sharing platforms. The project also explored what children and their parents would like to see platforms do to support positive time management.
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EDMO Updates
What is EDMO?
The European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) is an EU-wide network of factcheckers, media literacy practitioners, and researchers seeking to build resilience to disinformation. EDMO Ireland is one of 14 hubs that is part-funded by the EU. EDMO Ireland developed the Be Media Smart ‘Workshop-in-a-Box’, works on media literacy research and standards, and co-hosts the annual Disinformation Forum with MLI.
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Updates
EDMO Ireland recently presented new research on the impact of disinformation on the charity and voluntary sector. The research aimed to understand the challenges encountered by the sector, given that it is ideally placed to counter disinformation and deliver media literacy within communities. EDMO researchers provided analysis on the exploitation of the fuel protests by US conspiracy theorists while The Journal has provided new factchecks on health issues. Finally, DCU FuJo is excited to be part of a new Erasmus+ project on media literacy for teachers and to offer a webinar series on multilingual disinformation.
Events
Age Friendly AI: Upcoming events – 17 June and various dates
The Age-Friendly AI training programme, Ireland’s National Artificial Intelligence Literacy Initiative for Older Adults, was officially launched in April and is rolling out in public libraries across Ireland throughout 2026. Funded by Research Ireland, the programme is delivered by researchers from Technological University Dublin and the ADAPT Research Ireland Centre and provides accessible, community-based opportunities for older adults to learn about and experiment with AI technologies. Details on upcoming workshops around Ireland are available here and an online information session will take place on 17 June.
Media & Learning Conference 2026 – 17 and 18 June
The Media & Learning Conference 2026 will be held in Leuven, Belgium. The overall theme for the conference is Co-creating the future of learning, a theme which runs throughout the programme’s 38 different sessions, ranging from workshops and discussions to presentation sessions, demonstrations, networking opportunities and showcases. You can register and view the conference programme here.
IAMCR 2026 Galway – 28 June–2 July
The International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMRC) will host its 2026 conference in Galway 28 June–2 July with the central theme Peripheries and Connections: Media, Communication, and Transformation. The conference will address the complexities of contemporary media systems in a polarised and interconnected world and will provide a platform for reimagining media’s role in addressing critical challenges such as climate change, migration, representation and digital inequalities.
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Save the date: Disinfo2026 – 7–8 October
The counter-disinformation community will meet for #Disinfo2026 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The main conference days on 7–8 October will feature a full programme of sessions in a variety of formats, and pre-conference workshops will be organised on 6 October. Registration for the event is now open.
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In Case You Missed It
Guidance note on the implications of generative artificial intelligence for freedom of expression
The Council of Europe Steering Committee on Media and Information Society adopted a new Guidance Note on the implications of Generative AI for freedom of expression during their 28th Plenary meeting, held in Strasbourg last December. Providing for unimagined opportunities, at scale and at speed, Generative AI also presents growing risks for freedom of expression and democratic processes, including with regards to the lack of transparency, accuracy, repeatability, reliability, and the potential for bias and manipulation, of AI-generated content. The Guidance Note addresses these issues looking at the specific impact on the right to freedom of expression, enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
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Media-Pop: Interpreting populist narratives through the media
Between January and February 2026, Sapienza University of Rome offered a course aimed at post-primary school students on the theme Media-Pop: Interpreting Popular Narratives and Political Conflicts Through Films, TV Series, and Social Media. The course was part of the nationally funded research project, Circulating Populist Sentiments in 21st Century Film and TV Fiction in Italy, which examines the role of cinema and TV series in shaping populist political cultures in contemporary Italy.
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EU Disnfo Lab webinar: Look what you made me do: How FIMI actors weaponise pop culture – 30 April
High-visibility events, from major entertainment events to viral online controversies, are increasingly used within the information environment as opportunities for influence and narrative shaping. A webinar that took place last month explored how Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) actors exploit these moments to inject geopolitical narratives and influence public discourse.
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Resource of the Month
Scanarix Media Game
Scanarix is a multilingual game on media and information literacy for players aged 10 and up, including intergenerational groups. Developed in collaboration with the Ukrainian CSO Segalor, a member of the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance, Scanarix is both an offline quest-based game with board-game elements and a web-based interactive experience. It is currently available in English, Ukrainian and Greek.
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Looking for media literacy resources?
The resources section of the MLI website provides easy access to a variety of resources on a wide range of media literacy topics. You can now filter by topic, target audience and resource type. If you would like to submit a resource for inclusion in this library, please complete this form.
Thanks for reading!
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Kind regards,
The MLI Team
