The challenge of defining news literacy: Perceptions from the UK news literacy sector

Abstract

Recent research has lamented a lack of theoretical clarity around the term news literacy, calling on the academy to produce tighter, more nuanced definitions. Vraga, described news literacy as a “bloated” term, warning in another paper that the movement was at a tipping point. If scholars want to do their bit by offering concrete guidelines to those delivering initiatives, they argued, agreement as to what news literacy actually is, and how it should be evaluated, must be reached. This paper seeks to aid this process by providing insights about how news literacy is conceived and operationalised by those delivering such education to UK. Drawn from in-depth interviews with practitioners linked to five news literacy projects in the UK conducted in summer 2021, it finds that far from there being agreement in the sector as to what news literacy is, or indeed what it could be, the term as deployed by UK practitioners is equally ‘bloated’ and lacking in clear definition. This has implications for the ability of the sector to promote itself, champion its priorities or conduct evaluation work against clear and relevant metrics. By highlighting this lack of clarity around definitions in the UK context, this study adds international weight to existing work stemming primarily from the US. It also demonstrates the need for greater clarity of terminology so that news literacy concepts including critical thinking are not lost within increasingly broad and instrumental skills-focussed definitions of a wider media literacy.