Media literacy and citizenship: A guaranteed relationship?

Abstract

Since the 1980s of the 20th century the relationship between media literacy and citizenship has been included in political and academic discourses. In a simplistic way, bureaucrats and researchers have long recognized that with basic media literacy skills and competencies, individuals will change their citizenship practices: they will be better citizens. This paper summarizes some results of research developed between 2009 and 2013 in CIES-IUL, and show that the relationship between media literacy competencies and citizenship practices was insipid – or even non-existent.