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.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 Sector<\/em>at this event. Disinformation was also the focus of the recent call for submissions for funding by Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Coimisi\u00fan\u00a0na\u00a0Me\u00e1n\u00a0has announced the\u00a0media literacy\u00a0projects that will receive funding under the Media Literacy \/ Countering Disinformation Call for Submissions for Funding 2026. <\/em>This call was launched on 10 March to support\u00a0initiatives\u00a0that help people better understand and respond to online mis-\u00a0and disinformation.\u00a0 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. 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\u00a0is focused\u00a0on building and resourcing a National Media and Digital Literacy Infrastructure\u00a0with\u00a0specific\u00a0reference to\u00a0Media Literacy Ireland.\u00a0MLI provided evidence<\/a>\u00a0to this\u00a0Committee\u00a0earlier in the year, including a\u00a0written submission<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Webwise has announced the award winners for Safer Internet Day (SID) 2026<\/a>, which saw a record-breaking 200,000+ participants across Ireland. This year\u2019s theme was AI Aware \u2013 Safe, Smart and in Control<\/em> and initiatives covered a wide range of important issues, including cyberbullying, image sharing, privacy, online wellbeing and digital rights.<\/em> 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. 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\u00a0ARENAS Learning Platform<\/a>\u00a0has been developed to address this problem. The ARENAS Learning Platform is a free, openly accessible digital library developed as part of the\u00a0ARENAS project<\/a>, a four-year EU Horizon Europe research programme examining extremist narratives, with 12 participating partners from 9 European countries. 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.\u00a0Designed for secondary-school teachers, a Teacher\u2019s Package<\/a> offers free educational materials aimed at increasing knowledge, enhancing skills and creating attitudinal change. 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\u00a028<\/strong> June\u20133 July<\/strong>\u00a0at\u00a0The 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<\/strong>. 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. 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 \u20ac20,000 to \u20ac30,000 and the deadline for submissions is 24 June<\/strong>. A new EDMO Ireland report by Dr Shane Murphy and Dr Eileen Culloty on Disinformation Impacts on Community and Voluntary Organisations<\/em> 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. 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<\/em><\/a>, using\u00a0survey data from 32 organisations, including TG4. The report highlights the\u00a0Be Media Smart campaign<\/a>, which\u00a0encourages citizens to Stop, Think and Check the accuracy of information they come across, as well as Foghlaim TG4’s collaboration with COGG to deliver Iriseoir\u00ed an Lae <\/em><\/a>Am\u00e1rach<\/a><\/em>, a journalism training programme for students. The UK\u2019s 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\u2019s 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. 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\u2019 views about their children\u2019s online and media use and how they monitor and manage their children\u2019s use. Ofcom\u2019s Children\u2019s Media Lives<\/em> 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\u2019s daily lives and domestic circumstances. This research provides a small-scale, rich and detailed qualitative complement to Ofcom\u2019s quantitative surveys of media literacy. An Ofcom research report<\/a> 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\u00a0and their parents would like to see platforms do to support positive time management. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u2018Workshop-in-a-Box\u2019, works on media literacy research and standards, and co-hosts the annual Disinformation Forum with MLI. EDMO Ireland recently presented\u00a0new research on the impact of disinformation on the charity and voluntary sector<\/a>. 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\u00a0exploitation of the fuel protests by US conspiracy theorists<\/a>\u00a0while\u00a0The Journal has provided new factchecks\u00a0<\/a>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\u00a0webinar series on multilingual disinformation.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\u00a0Age-Friendly AI<\/a>\u00a0training programme, Ireland\u2019s 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\u00a0Technological University Dublin\u00a0and the\u00a0ADAPT Research Ireland Centre<\/a> \u00a0and 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<\/a> <\/strong>and an online information session<\/a> will take place on 17 June<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Media & Learning Conference 2026 will be held in Leuven, Belgium. The overall theme for the conference is\u00a0Co-creating the future of learning<\/em>, a theme which runs throughout the programme\u2019s 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<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMRC) will host its 2026 conference in Galway 28 June\u20132 July <\/strong>with the central theme\u00a0Peripheries and Connections: Media, Communication, and Transformation<\/em>. The conference will address the complexities of contemporary media systems in a polarised and interconnected world and will provide a platform for reimagining media\u2019s role in addressing critical challenges such as climate change, migration, representation and digital inequalities. The counter-disinformation community will meet for #Disinfo2026 in\u00a0Vilnius, Lithuania. The main conference days on\u00a07\u20138 October<\/strong>\u00a0will 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Council of Europe Steering Committee on Media and Information Society adopted a new\u00a0Guidance Note on the implications of Generative AI for freedom of expression<\/em><\/a>\u00a0during their 28th<\/sup>\u00a0Plenary 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. \u00a0 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<\/em>.\u00a0The course was part of the nationally funded research project,\u00a0Circulating Populist Sentiments in 21st Century Film and TV Fiction in Italy<\/em>, which examines the role of cinema and TV series in shaping populist political cultures in contemporary Italy. 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. Scanarix<\/a> 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. The resources<\/a> 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<\/a> form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a colleague or friend who might enjoy these updates, they can register to become an MLI member<\/a> or just subscribe<\/a> to receive the newsletter. For any membership issues, or if you have something you’d like to include in next month\u2019s edition of the newsletter, please email us at info@medialiteracyireland.ie<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kind regards, <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the November MLI newsletter for media literacy related news and updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1309,"featured_media":5551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[349,23],"tags":[294,162,267],"class_list":["post-6983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mli-news-2","category-news","tag-media-literacy-events","tag-media-literacy-ireland","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Month in Media Literacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Announcements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.medialiteracyireland.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Annoucements-cropped.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n awards media literacy funding<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nEDMO Ireland and Media Literacy Ireland host the annual Disinformation Forum<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nJoint Oireachtas Committee report makes media literacy recommendation <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nWebwise Safer Internet Day Award Winners 2026<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe ARENAS Learning Platform<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nImmunising the next generation: How teachers can build student resilience against disinformation<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nApplications open now for The Close-Up Summer Residency<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy media literacy matters in Ireland\u2019s energy transition<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nCalls to the Media Literacy Community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Applications open for new Royal Irish Academy Disinformation Research Grant<\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nResearch and Reports<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nNew EDMO Ireland Report on Disinformation Impacts on the Charity and Voluntary Sector<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nEBU Report: Advancing Media Literacy Through Public Service Media<\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nInternet Matters report: Are children safer online?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nChildren and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report 2026<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nChildren\u2019s Media Lives 2026<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nOfcom report on persuasive design on online platforms<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
M<\/a><\/strong>ore<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nEDMO Updates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat is EDMO?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nUpdates<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Events<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Age Friendly AI: Upcoming events \u2013 17 June and various dates<\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Media & Learning Conference 2026 \u2013 17 and 18 June<\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
IAMCR 2026 Galway \u2013 28 June\u20132 July<\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSave the date: Disinfo2026 \u2013 7\u20138 October<\/strong> <\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn Case You Missed It <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nGuidance note on the implications of generative artificial intelligence for freedom of expression<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nMedia-Pop: Interpreting populist narratives through the media<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nEU Disnfo Lab webinar: Look what you made me do: How FIMI actors weaponise pop culture \u2013 30 April<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nResource of the Month <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nScanarix Media Game<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nLooking for media literacy resources?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Thanks for reading!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The MLI Team<\/p>\n\n\n\n