In the age of disinformation and misinformation, the need for media literacy amongst consumers is imminent. But we feel the role of media literacy cannot stop at doing fact checks or calling out disinformation. The need is for consumers of media to critically engage and be aware of the political economy of the media environment. We have designed critical media literacy modules for school students and media professionals to equip them with tools to engage with and question the current media practices.
During the pandemic, we did a research study looking at the regional media coverage of migrant workers forced to walk back to their homes due to lack of work in Kannada and Malayalam media. We did content analysis of the selected newspapers and television news channels in both languages to understand the inherent bias in reporting, skewed understanding of the labour related issues and representation of the voice of the workers in the media. Findings of the report found its way in designing the critical media literacy modules.