African Media and Information Literacy (MIL) INDEX Study

"Today's media and information landscape is rapidly changing....To be able to navigate this challenging new environment, citizens need to be media- and information-literate."

The African Media and Information Literacy (MIL) INDEX study, conducted by the Deutsche Welle (DW) Akademie, seeks to find out how young people in six African countries access, use, create, and engage with media and digital sources of information. MIL is regarded by DW Akademie as an "important prerequisite for putting one's rights of access to information and freedom of expression into practice. It involves both using one's skills at the individual level for one's own benefit, but also being an active part in society and contributing to and shaping an informed community." The study was conducted between 2018 and 2020 in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, and Uganda.

The results of the study are shared in six reports and are intended for MIL practitioners in the six countries, who can use the insights gained to inform their own MIL teaching and to advocate for more support from governments and donors. The insights also serve to inform DW Akademie's country teams for their work on the ground.

The INDEX study seeks to address two specific challenges:

• The lack of information on the status quo of MIL among African youth - Some studies exist specifically for information and communication technology (ICT)-related topics and general media usage of 15- to 35-year-olds, but the MIL INDEX study seeks to highlight the challenges facing young people in the new digital and media environment they have to navigate on a day-to-day basis.
• The lack of instruments in media development initiatives for researching/measuring MIL - The study introduces the MIL INDEX methodology, which is based on a mixed-methods design, to a wider audience, enabling other organisations and researchers to draw on the experiences provided to conduct their own needs assessments and evaluations.

The study uses a mixed-methods approach involving youth focus groups, in-depth interviews with key local experts, and surveys based on multi-stage random samples meant to be representative for 15-to-25-year-olds in the given country. Click here for more detailed information about the methodology.

The study and analysis is guided by DW Akademie's MIL model, which divides MIL into the following five dimensions:

• Access: refers to the reception of media messages and knowing where to find which information. It looks at device ownership, frequency of (digital) media use, frequency of mobile app use, Internet access, sites of (digital) media use, and topics of interest.
• Analysis: is about being able to interpret and critically evaluate media messages, based on one's own media knowledge. It looks at how youth evaluate the media landscape, knowledge on social media, journalism, media genres, and right to freedom of expression.
• Reflection: entails a critical self-examination of what type of information sources are used and what impact certain forms of communication can have. This includes evaluating malcommunication (hate speech, disinformation, cyberbullying, news bias, censorship), MIL self-appraisal, and tolerance towards malcommunication.
• Creation: refers to being able to create and compose messages to express ideas or opinions and to share information. It looks at frequency of creative practices (photo, video, audio, editing) and frequency of digital practices (uploads, messenger groups, social media profile updates, programming).
• Action: refers to putting one's MIL skills into practice for the benefit of the community, but also for the benefit of the individual, and looks at the level of activism (sharing, commenting, campaigning).

Each country report offers a detailed description of the results as per these five dimensions of media literacy, in addition to a summarised factsheet at the beginning of each report. Overall, the results illustrate that "digital transformation is taking hold on the African continent, especially in urban settings – and yet it is a two-tiered transformation. While roughly two thirds of 15-to-25-year-olds in countries like Ghana and Kenya access the Internet on a weekly basis, this only holds true for around one third of Burkina Faso's youth. Africa's youth is challenged by this new media and information environment. Many experience disinformation, cyberbullying or hate speech on a daily basis. In Uganda, for instance, sexual harassment online has reached alarming proportions. And in Burkina Faso, youth do not feel represented in the media, tend to hold their voice back and withdraw into the private sphere."

DW Akademie notes that these findings hold important implications for MIL activities and policy considerations when it comes to youth and media. The country reports, therefore, include recommendations based on each of the five dimensions.