Media literacy is not the silver bullet to the challenge of media sustainability

All the key points from PINF’s evidence to the House of Lords inquiry into media literacy. 

Falling trust in media is a huge challenge. Less than one in four people in the UK trust the news and four in ten people are sceptical of news production processes. To address the problem of low trust and provide the most value for local communities, PINF is on a mission to regenerate local news in the UK by 2035. 

Last Tuesday, the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee invited PINF’s Executive Director, Jonathan Heawood, to talk about the link between media literacy and media sustainability. The Committee was particularly interested to know whether news providers can do more to promote media literacy. 

Jonathan explained that we see huge potential for local newsrooms to connect with their communities, but we don’t think it’s right to call this ‘media literacy’. Instead, we call it ‘media engagement’. We have seen it in the highly successful in-person events of Indie News Week in 2024, and we hope to see similar results from our Local News Fund in Newry.  

"What we are looking for is a virtuous cycle, where local media organisations genuinely go out into their local communities, not to sell their wares or to educate the public on how great they are, but to have a genuine conversation: ‘What are your needs? What do you need us to cover? What stories are not being told? Whose voices are not being heard?’ They develop their product, their news offering, in response to that.” 

Jonathan went on to talk about the importance of local news for addressing low trust in the media: 

“A kind of media that is still well trusted is local. It has the distinguishing feature that people can see it, touch it, feel it and connect with it. If a local journalist says that the sky is green, but you look up and see that the sky is blue, you hold them accountable right there and right then. ‘I see you. I connect with you. We’re human beings. We live in this place together’.” 

Jonathan argued that media literacy is related to but distinct from media sustainability, and that the Government should not confuse the two agendas. 

“If the intended outcome is simply that the public are properly informed and empowered to make choices, their choice might be none of the above: 'I will not engage with any of this media; I do not like any of it now that I am fully informed’. To me, that seems a legitimate outcome of media literacy proper, but it might not be the intended outcome of media marketing or media engagement.” 

Media literacy is an important part of the puzzle, but on its own won’t fix trust in media and it won’t fix the local news crisis. Trust is earned. We can’t expect to simply educate our way back into the trust of the British public. 

Clearly, as the mechanism by which most people come about most of their information, big tech needs to take on some responsibility for the crisis faced by media. Social media algorithms have played a huge part in shaping media business models that prioritise sensationalism and AI deepening the spread of misinformation. As Jonathan explained, 

“If there were a slightly greater duty on those platforms to direct people towards an array of accurate, trustworthy media that sometimes challenged their worldviews and assumptions rather than reinforcing them, that might be at least part of the solution.” 

So, what should come next? Regular readers will no doubt be aware that last year the Culture Secretary announced the development of a local media strategy. PINF and other stakeholders have been invited to various meetings at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to discuss the upcoming strategy. We hope that measures will be included to ensure the sustainability of, as Jonathan concluded, 

“...the kind of media that is most likely to engender trust and engagement because it is genuinely trustworthy and engaging.” 

Some quotes have been edited for length and clarity.  

Watch the full recording of the evidence session, where Jonathan spoke alongside Frances Yeoman, Head of Journalism at Liverpool John Moores University and Elli Narewska, Head of News and Media Literacy at the Guardian Foundation: https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/f87eba67-ce62-4351-9a40-ec261dafde42.

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