Media Literacy: Testing and refining criteria to assess media literacy levels in all EU Member States

Overview

The Audiovisual Media Services Directive requires that the European Commission report on the levels of Media Literacy in all European Union Member States by December 2011. In response to this directive, the Danish Technological Institute (DTI), European Association for Viewers’ Interests (EAVI), and the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) aim to develop and validate indicators of adult media literacy levels across EU Member States. This project advances work completed in 2009 for the Commission (Study on Assessment Criteria for Media Literacy Levels, coordinated by EAVI), which identified potential indicators of media literacy based on reviews of existing European studies and interviews with media literacy experts in 20 EU member states.

This project uses qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine media literacy at individual and national levels of analysis. We plan to critically assess the existing indices of national media literacy levels published in EAVI’s report using data from Eurostat, Eurobarometer, and OxIS. In particular, we hope to identify dimensions of media literacy and investigate the ways in which they differ and remain consistent across cultures and ages.