Archive for the study of digital information & news literacy

The digital structural change of the public sphere poses new challenges for citizens and politicians alike. Consumers are increasingly becoming producers, public and private communication is becoming blurred and unbounded, journalistic gatekeepers are losing both their importance and their trust, and digital debates are migrating into closed communication spaces. In view of the far-reaching and global debate about a so-called “infodemic”, the rapid spread of disinformation and the confusing, daily changing information situation, digital news and information literacy is more relevant than ever. 

This is precisely what we worked on in the digital news and information literacy project. Based on the June 2020 paper developing the six skill sets of digital news and information literacy (“Verstehen, was ist. Auf dem Weg in die nachrichtenkompetente Gesellschaft”), we designed a representative survey in collaboration with the market research institute pollytix on the question: “How news-competent are Germans?” With the resulting study (“'Source: the internet'? Testing digital news and information literacy in Germany”), we obtain for the first time ever an overview of which digital competencies are already present in the German population, how different age and population groups perform in this regard, and where (new) digital education offerings may be needed. 

Based on these results, we have gone into the “translation phase”, which is aimed at experts and decision-makers from ministries, media organizations, public institutions, NGOs and also citizens.