Media Literacy
What is Media Literacy?
Media Literacy is the ability to Access, Analyze, Evaluate, Create, and Act using all forms of communication.
– National Association of Media Literacy Education
Media literacy encourages individual media users to think critically about the source and content of the media they engage with, while also considering their own biases, desires, and attitudes when interpreting the information.
The Collaborative for Media and Health Promotion Research explores media literacy as a developmental process to better understand how individuals engage and develop their critical thinking skills and how it affects their decision-making skills.
Media Literacy Theory of Change
The Media Literacy Theory of Change explains that message interpretation incorporates both cognitive and affective components of information processing. Media literacy can enhance critical thinking about the source of a message, which can facilitate the analysis of the content in a media message (Austin & Domgaard, 2024). As individuals interact with media and technology, they can experience forewarning cues that motivate them to assess the source of information. Critical thinking about sources can motivate individuals to evaluate message content more critically as well. These lead to beliefs that are partially based on logic and partially based on affect, such as expectancies (if-then beliefs). This process leads to potential behavioral outcomes (Sutherland & Austin, 2025). Media literacy skills to interpret and create media messages can be learned and developed at any age. Because affect can contribute usefully or counterproductively to how people process information, media literacy skills help individuals manage how affect informs their management of the information environment, leading to better-informed outcomes.
Message Interpretation Process Model
The Message Interpretation Process (MIP) model illustrates how individuals evaluate messages by comparing the logical dimensions of the message to their personal experiences and respond with affective reactions, thereby determining the extent to which the individual accepts or rejects the presented message content (Austin, 2007, pp. 535). Drawing from social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) and persuasion theory (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), the MIP theorizes that media consumers’ wishful identification with media portrayals can influence expectancies and enhance efficacy. Individuals evaluate the logical elements of a message such as media portrayals as perceived realism, and the source’s credibility against their personal and observed experiences as well as their affective responses, such how desirable portrayals seem (Austin & Johnson, 1997; Austin & Domgaard, 2024). Previous research has shown that when engaging with media, individuals will evaluate the logic-based factors of a message, such as how realistic the message is, and reflect on the affect-oriented beliefs one develops through engaging with such messages (Vahedi et al., 2018; Xie et al., 2019). The MIP model thereby expands on the understanding that critical thinking about sources and content can help build evidence-based decision-making.
Media Literacy for Source & Content
Building on the Media Literacy Theory of Change Model and the MIP Model, media literacy processing engages in critical think about both the source of information and the content that is being presented. When evaluating the Media Literacy for Source of information, individuals consider the background, credibility, and expertise of the person creating the message, while considering the potential motivation and purpose of the delivery of the message. In the case of Media Literacy for Content, individulas critically evaluate the accuracy, up-to-date, and the completeness of the information that is being presented, while also taking into consideration other credible sources of information before they accept the information as believable.
Science Media Literacy
Science Media Literacy explores how people evaluate both the source and content of media that discusses science-based topics. Science Media Literacy for source and content constructs are based on these principles and are adapted from the Media Literacy for source/content for marketing and for news constructs that we have used before and that have been verified as valid and reliable.
