Does Media Literacy Help Identification of Fake News? Information Literacy Helps, but Other Literacies Don’t

TLDR

Concerns over fake news have spurred renewed interest in media literacy, with prevailing expectations that literacy interventions inoculate audiences against harmful misinformation. This study empirically examines whether higher levels of media, information, news, and digital literacy improve fake‑news detection and identifies the most relevant literacies. The authors assessed participants’ media, information, news, and digital literacy levels and measured their ability to identify fake news. Results show that information literacy significantly boosts fake‑news identification, whereas other literacies do not, prompting conceptual and methodological reflections on self‑reported competency measures.

Abstract

Concerns over fake news have triggered a renewed interest in various forms of media literacy. Prevailing expectations posit that literacy interventions help audiences to be “inoculated” against any harmful effects of misleading information. This study empirically investigates such assumptions by assessing whether individuals with greater literacy (media, information, news, and digital literacies) are better at recognizing fake news, and which of these literacies are most relevant. The results reveal that information literacy—but not other literacies—significantly increases the likelihood of identifying fake news stories. Interpreting the results, we provide both conceptual and methodological explanations. Particularly, we raise questions about the self-reported competencies that are commonly used in literacy scales.