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
We have lots of news for you this month, including the winners of the Young Lions competition and the 2026 Young Journalists Awards. Staying with the theme of young journalists, Learning Waves has opened applications for its Journalism Graduate Programme. We also have news about a fantastic new resource for third-level institutions from Munster Technological University, lots of great new resources from Webwise and information about how media literacy is being embedded within forest schools in Ireland. We also have lots of items about AI this month too, including the launch of the AIready.ie platform. Read on!
Announcements
Are you AI ready?
AIReady.ie is the Government’s new national AI skills development platform, designed to provide people across Ireland with access to essential AI skills. Developed by SOLAS, in partnership with the National Skills Council, the aim of the platform is to enable anyone to learn the fundamentals of artificial intelligence through free, practical and bite‑sized online courses.
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Cannes Young Lions winners announced
Earlier this year, MLI was delighted to act as the official client partner for the 2026 Irish Young Lions Competition. This month, following a rigorous assessment process, Iapi announced the 14 exceptional young talents who will represent Ireland on the global stage at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity this June.
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Young Journalist Ireland competition winners announced
On 16 April, the winners of the Young Journalist Ireland Awards, run by NewsBrands Ireland, were announced at a ceremony in the Dublin Royal Convention Centre. The awards celebrate the outstanding work of Transition Year students from across the country, and prizes were awarded across six categories: Features, Opinion, Sports Journalism, Photojournalism, Podcast and School Newspaper.
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Applications Open for Learning Waves Journalism Graduate Programme 2026
The Learning Waves 2026 Journalism Graduate Programme is an innovative programme designed and supported by the Independent Commercial Radio Sector, along with Coimisiún na Meán and Skillnet Ireland. In 2026, Learning Waves will offer ten journalism graduates the unique opportunity to be placed in one of Ireland’s radio stations for a period of five months. Find out about how to apply here.
New MIL resources for available for librarians
MIL-CC (Media and Information Literacy Community Connections) is pleased to announce that its media literacy training programme for public librarians is now freely available in English and Spanish. Funded by the European Media and Information Fund and supported by public library authorities in Ireland, Spain and Portugal, the project addressed the urgent need to upskill librarians with media literacy skills.
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Webwise Youth Advisory Panel’s new AI Aware Checklist
While generative AI tools can be helpful for learning, creativity and exploring ideas, they also come with risks. As part of Safer Internet Day 2026, the students on the Webwise Youth Advisory Panel have created a new AI Aware Checklist, designed to help teens to better understand and safely use these tools.
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Ecomedia Kids Project – Empowering young children through environmental awareness, media literacy and forest school practice
Ecomedia Kids is an interdisciplinary project that integrates ecology and media literacy into applied practices within Irish forest school settings. The first pilot phase has been completed, working with children aged 5–10 who attended weekly forest school sessions in Dublin over a six-month period. The project supports children in developing critical thinking skills and introduces age-appropriate discussions about climate change, misinformation and the ecological impact of media technologies.
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Webwise advice on how to reset your algorithm
On social media platforms, algorithms decide what content is shown to users based on their preferences, behaviour and interactions. Under the Digital Services Act, many platforms must now give users the options to reset or depersonalise their newsfeeds or algorithms. By regularly resetting their algorithms, users can manage their social media experience and maintain a balanced newsfeed. Webwise provides instructions for resetting algorithms for each of the most popular social media platforms.
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New Garda Schools Programme lesson on Coco’s Law
Developed in partnership with Webwise, a new Garda Schools Programme lesson on Coco’s Law was officially launched last month. The lesson provides a clear breakdown of the legislation, which names new specific offences regarding online activity and empowers students to recognise key offences and understand that they are legally accountable for their digital actions.
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European Commission Special Panel for child safety online
To better protect and empower minors online, the European Commission has assembled a panel of specialists to advise on the best approach for Europe on child safety online and potential age restrictions for social media. At its first meeting on 5 March 2026, the Special Panel assessed current evidence on the risks and benefits from children’s use of social media and other online activities. It also discussed existing approaches to online safety from the EU as well as in third countries.
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EU ethical guidance on AI in schools updated
The EU has revised its ethical guidelines on AI use in schools. The new document, Guidelines on the Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence and Data in Teaching and Learning for Educators, aims to further support educators in making informed and ethical decisions when using AI and data in the classroom.
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News Literacy Project: Two Truths and AI
Two Truths and AI is a series from the News Literacy Project that’s designed to help students sharpen their critical thinking skills around AI. Each episode seeks to make AI literacy engaging and interactive and to stimulate classroom discussion.
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UNESCO Youth Hackathon – Coming soon
The annual UNESCO Youth Hackathon empowers young people to become changemakers by proposing innovative solutions to pressing challenges, leading the way toward a more media and information literate world. A flagship initiative of UNESCO’s Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week, the Hackathon invites participants to design practical and scalable initiatives that address issues such as misinformation and disinformation, online hate speech, ethical digital engagement, and critical thinking skills and media and information literacy.
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Calls to the Media Literacy Community
Call for proposals on the community engagement and empowerment programme
A call for proposals has been issued through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal to support actions that contribute to preventing and countering radicalisation leading to violent extremism and terrorism across the EU. In particular, this call responds to the growing challenge of online radicalisation, including the manipulation of youth and vulnerable groups through violent extremist, terrorist and other harmful content distributed via digital platforms.
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Research and Reports
National reports on media literacy measures
Reports by EU member states on national measures to promote and develop media literacy skills have been published, and Ireland’s report reveals the breadth and depth of the work in this area, with the work of the MLI, EDMO and the Be Media Smart campaign highlighted. National reports are issued periodically under the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and reports covering the period of 2022–2025 can now be viewed here.
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Ofcom: Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes Report 2026
Ofcom’s report provides evidence on media use, attitudes and understanding, and how these change over time, among UK adults aged 16 and over. The report supports Ofcom’s wider media literacy work and Making Sense of Media programme.
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Ofcom: Adults’ Media Lives 2026
Set up in 2005 and conducted annually, Ofcom’s Adults’ Media Lives study provides a small-scale, rich and detailed qualitative complement to Ofcom’s quantitative surveys of media literacy. The project follows the same 20 individuals over time and interviews them on camera each year about their media habits and attitudes. The interviews provide evidence about how media habits and attitudes change over time, in particular linked to life-stage.
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Psychological Defence and Information Influence – a Textbook on Theory and Practice
Published by the Psychological Defence Agency, Sweden, Psychological Defence and Information Influence examines how states, institutions and citizens can understand, detect and counter information manipulation such as disinformation and influence campaigns. It is a comprehensive overview of key issues related to psychological defence and information influence. A summary of the textbook is provided here.
Common Sense Media report: A new look at families’ attitudes on AI
AI is becoming the backdrop of daily life and is the most powerful technology of our time. Common Sense Media’s 2026 Generation AI: What Kids and Families Think About AI reports on the key findings of a survey of US children age 12 to 17 years and their parents on how they feel about AI, how they think it will affect their futures, and whether they think it is child safe.
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Internet Matters report: Children’s Wellbeing in a Digital World 2026
Internet Matters has published the fifth Children’s wellbeing in a digital world report, part of an annual series that tracks the impact of digital technology and online spaces on UK families’ lives. Based on a survey of 1,000 UK children and their parents, the research explores children’s digital wellbeing through four dimensions: social, emotional, developmental and physical. This year, the report’s key findings are that harms remain high and that children are struggling to regulate the amount of time they spend online.
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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 researchers provided commentary on the media dimension of recent events. In comments to the Irish Independent, Aidan O’Brien highlighted the role of the disinformation economy in the fuel protests and wrote an op-ed on the role of monetisation in the online abuse of politicians for the Irish Examiner. Eileen Culloty wrote about media freedom for the Irish Times. EDMO Ireland was very pleased to provide support for the new open-education resource on media literacy, which was developed by Munster Technological University. Looking ahead, EDMO Ireland’s Shane Murphy is working on a report on the impact of disinformation on the community sector ahead of the MLI-EDMO Ireland Forum next month.
Events
Webinar: Memes, Warfare, and Propaganda – 4 May
As memes are being deployed to normalise dehumanisation, justify violence, and wage information warfare, the line between joke and weapon has never been harder to locate or more urgent to teach. This Media Education Lab webinar on 4 May examines how memes have become weapons of power, propaganda and political manipulation, and explores how educators can help learners recognise, contextualise, and resist meme-based manipulation.
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Webinar: Media Literacy in Preschool: A Case Study from Croatia – 11 May
Media Education Lab presents a case study on 11 May on how the process of creating a children’s picture book enabled an educator to discover strategies for introducing young learners to media literacy in developmentally appropriate ways. The project demonstrates how children’s illustrations can play an important role in linking creativity and family engagement in media literacy education.
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Safeguarding Civic Space in the Digital Age: Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting II – 11–12 May
Taking place in Vienna, Austria, 11–12 May, the second Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting of 2026, organised by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, will explore the risks and opportunities of digital technologies for civic space and human rights. Three sessions will focus on digital threats to civic space; disinformation and civic space: implications for human rights and democracy; and strengthening digital resilience for the protection of civic space.
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Webinar: From policy to practice: advancing GenAI literacy in higher education – 20 May
As generative AI tools rapidly reshape academic practices – from writing and research to assessment and creativity – universities face urgent questions about how to prepare both educators and students for responsible and effective use of these technologies. This Media and Learning Association webinar on 20 May introduces AI-LITERATE, a European initiative designed to strengthen AI literacy in higher education by developing evidence-based guidelines, case studies and targeted learning pathways.
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Registration now open: Media & Learning Conference 2026 – 17–18 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.
Community Media and the Re-Making of Social/Urban Space: Anchors in the Digital Commons – 26 June
Participants are invited to a free one-day workshop in Galway on Friday 26 June, focusing on the role community media can play as community hubs or ‘third spaces’. The IAMCR 2026 Gary Gumpert event is being held in advance of the IAMCR conference taking place in Galway. Funding is available to cover public transport costs of participants involved with Irish community media projects. Contact iamcr2026@universityofgalway.ie to register for the workshop and more information is available here.
The Children’s Media Conference – 7–9 July
The Children’s Media Conference (CMC) will take place in Sheffield in the UK on 7–9 July, bringing together those involved in developing, producing and distributing content for children. With the theme for the 2026 event of Finding the Funding, Finding the Audience, CMC will provide sessions, keynotes, workshops and videos.
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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 will open on 4 May and an early bird fee will be available until the end of May.
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In Case You Missed It
Webinar: How can civil society defend itself? The EDRN pilot story
A joint initiative by the CyberPeace Institute and EU DisinfoLab, the European Democracy Resilience Network (EDRN) pilot is designed to support civil society actors facing hybrid threats, including disinformation, doxing, impersonation and other digitally enabled attacks. An EU DisinfoLab webinar on 2 April provided key insights from the pilot, including the tools and support mechanisms that civil society organisations say they need to remain resilient.
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Communication in the Age of Disruption
A UCD Research and Innovation panel discussion took place in December 2025 on the theme Communication in the Age of Disruption, with experts exploring issues of trust, the role of evidence and expertise in public discourse, and disruption, innovation and evolution in the digital information ecosystem. You can watch the four-part recap online here.
Resource of the Month
MTU Digital Media Literacy resource
A new educational resource on digital media literacy has been developed by Munster Technological University with the support of EDMO Ireland. The course, Digital Media Literacy: Build the Skills to Question What You See Online, provides essential skills for third-level students navigating today’s digital information landscape and addresses the growing need for media literacy skills in higher education.
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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
