EDMO Ireland’s Dr Eileen Culloty was a featured trainer at the online session “Media Literacy by Design: Practical Approaches for Platforms and Users. Can We Do Better?” held on October 7, 2026.
The session explored the emerging concept of “Media Literacy by Design,” an approach that shifts the focus from individual user education to embedding media literacy principles directly into platform infrastructure. This concept represents a move away from placing the burden of mitigating online harms solely on users, advocating instead for creating digital environments that enable informed decisions by default.
Despite its potential, Dr Culloty outlined significant reasons for caution during her presentation. She raised concerns about the intentions of tech companies, arguing it is a “conceptual gap” to ask platforms with economic incentives structurally misaligned with media literacy to constrain their own commercial logic. Furthermore, she noted that platforms have historically emphasized user responsibility to avoid design accountability and have a poor track record on providing transparent data and supporting robust, independent research.
Dr Culloty also highlighted weaknesses within the media literacy field itself. These include a lack of clear, shared definitions, underdeveloped methods for evaluating outcomes (particularly critical thinking), and the risk that a one-size-fits-all design approach could fail to account for diverse demographics and cultural contexts, leaving the most vulnerable users behind.
In conclusion, Dr Culloty stressed that while she hopes Media Literacy by Design succeeds, the burden of proof lies with platforms. Given their track record, she argued that we must critically ask whether this new approach can overcome the structural constraints that have limited media literacy efforts to date.
Check the presentation:
