New instructional formats for media literacy education: A retrospective analysis of projects based on gamification, exploration, and multiformats.

Abstract

The challenge of fostering media and information literacy (MIL) is particularly significant in a society marked by the accelerated growth of fake news, digital noise, and information overload. This challenge is compounded by the new generation’s particular experience and use of media, platforms, and content. Therefore, it is crucial to promote new projects and initiatives that reinvent educational dynamics, types of content, and the role of young people. This chapter presents a comparative analysis of six MIL projects conducted by the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) in Spain over the last 10 years, which combine gamification, experiential learning, and multimedia messages, to encourage young people to look at media critically. These initiatives have resulted from national and international calls and/or have been awarded different prizes and recognition in the fields of communication and education. The comparison of these six cases highlights young users’ recognition and persuasive capacity of learning dynamics based on escape rooms, educational video games, projectbased learning, exploration, and storytelling. The study concludes that MIL education requires increasingly innovative and unconventional proposals adapted to new media and platforms. It is crucial to develop these in collaborative lines of research between academia, the media, and other industry players.