Media and information literacy, or MIL, is the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and create media and information in all its forms. It is what allows a person to ask: who made this, why was it made, what is it doing to me, and what am I going to do about it?
UNESCO has recognised MIL as a fundamental right in today’s information environment and urged societies to make it part of every learner’s education. In an age where anyone with a smartphone is effectively their own news editor, MIL is the difference between informed citizenship and manipulation.
Why India needs it urgently
- In the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024, respondents in India ranked misinformation and disinformation as the country’s top risk, out of 34. (The 2026 edition puts cyber insecurity first for India.)
- In a July 2022 McAfee survey across ten countries, 85% of Indian children surveyed reported experiencing cyberbullying.
- The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre recorded ₹7,061 crore lost to cybercrime in the first four months of 2024.
- India was among the world’s five most data-breached countries, with 5.3 million leaked accounts in 2023.
These statistics describe the same generation: children who scroll for hours a day, trust content with more likes and shares, inherit their parents’ and peers’ biases, and meet hate speech, scams and manipulation before anyone has taught them how it works.
What we teach
AltED’s curriculum is structured as five modules:
- Perceiving information — different forms of information; fact vs opinion; recognising our own biases; empathy as a cognitive tool.
- Emotions and persuasion — how tone, music, visuals and language are engineered to make us believe and keep consuming.
- News and newsworthiness — how news is made, what makes something “news”, what mis- and disinformation actually are, how to check sources.
- Media economies — the attention economy: TRP-driven television, algorithmic profiling, how advertising revenue shapes what we see, and the basics of AI-generated media.
- Digital citizenship — bullying, trolling, doxxing; digital hygiene; privacy; scams.
Test yourself
A short media-literacy self-assessment is in development and will appear here.