EDMO Ireland has been invited to co-develop a new open-access digital media literacy toolkit that will be offered to all undergraduate students at Munster Technological University (MTU) and shared across the wider technological university network in Ireland. The initiative, led by Dr Catherine Palmer at MTU, responds to growing national and international concern over the impact of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation on democratic discourse and decision-making.
As part of the project, Dr Eileen Culloty, Coordinator of EDMO Ireland, is developing critical media literacy and misinformation training for the toolkit. The approach will incorporate prebunking strategies — which equip students to recognise and resist false narratives before they take hold — and feature content such as the Fallacy Finder video series to help students identify logical fallacies and rhetorical manipulation online.
The project comes at a time when access to accurate information and the ability to evaluate it critically are considered core civic skills. A 2024 OECD report warned that manipulated information threatens the “free and fact-based exchange of information underpinning democratic debate,” echoing concerns driving the Government of Ireland’s National Counter Disinformation Strategy, which recognises digital media literacy as a key pillar of national resilience.
While some Irish degree programmes integrate media literacy, it is often missing from STEM curricula and no national, open-access toolkit currently exists for higher education. This new resource will fill that gap by offering students across disciplines:
- A grounding in the structure and funding of media and technology platforms
- Insights into how AI and strategic influence campaigns are used to spread disinformation
- Case studies exploring the effects of bias, algorithms, and misleading content
- Guidelines for applying critical thinking to digital content and sources
The training development will implement EDMO media literacy guidelines by assessing needs and evaluating outcomes. The course will be launched in 2025
