1 June 04, 2026

Abstract:
Social media platforms, like YouTube, have become essential resources for informal science education in today's digital learning environment. Earlier limited to textbooks and classroom instruction, science has now expanded to include short science explainer videos that simplify difficult concepts into interesting, approachable learning opportunities. This aids overall understanding of science and improves science literacy. This study examines how short science explainer videos work as educational tools that simplify complex concepts and engage diverse learners through storytelling, visuals, and influencer-led presentation. 202 college and university students in West Bengal, India, participated in pre- and post-surveys using a mixed-method design, viewed two-minute videos about astronomy, physics, chemistry, and geology. Many were motivated by curiosity and educational needs, according to the findings, and results showed strong comprehension and positive reception across genders and educational backgrounds. Influencers’ narrative style, credibility, and visuals were seen as important in improving understanding and trust. The study highlights influencer-led science communication as an emerging form of media education that enhances learners’ engagement, increases conceptual understanding, and contributes to the development of digital science communication. To expand the educational reach of science and media communication, the study recommends incorporating multilingual subtitles and research-based evidence for greater clarity and credibility.

URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577167.pdf
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Abstract:
This article examines the role of media creativity as a key component of contemporary media education in the context of rapid digital transformation. The increasing scale of media flows and user-generated content intensifies risks related to media safety, misinformation, and the impact of destructive content, which underscores the need for effective media education strategies. The purpose of the research is to identify the theoretical foundations, pedagogical potential, and socio-cultural significance of media creativity in modern media education. The findings demonstrate that media creativity should be understood as a multidimensional pedagogical and socio-cultural phenomenon that combines the development of youth’s technical skills, creative abilities, critical thinking, and media culture. It is shown that media-creative practices (blogging, digital storytelling, etc.) serve not only as tools for developing skill but also as mechanisms for personal self-realization, social participation, and identity formation among adolescents. Particular attention is paid to the role of critical media literacy, which enables young people to analyse media content, resist misinformation, and engage responsibly in the digital environment. It is argued that effective media education should not treat creativity as a supplementary element but rather as an important mechanism for developing the competencies necessary for youth’s active citizenship and meaningful participation in contemporary media culture.

URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577215.pdf
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Abstract:
Since 2022 in the New Reality, for India and Russia, the innovative strategy of country interactions in all spheres becomes a significant research problem. Сreative industries as a dual cultural-economic phenomenon is seem as a relevant research subject. These article analyses for the first time the creative industries in the public sphere in Russian internet media as a field of current interaction between the two countries. Publications from the emergence of the declared topic in the media space in 2014, with a focus on 2022–2024, were analyzed. The final sample consisted of 400 articles (2022–2024) discussing both Indian and Russian creative industries. The main indicators of analysis were: values; historical and regional context; core industries; thematic and contextual-thematic categorization; communication goals; subjects: enterprises, government bodies, international and Russian organizations, and the key persons. A comparative analysis of the quantitative results with the value matrix created at the study’s initial stage showed that all official value-meaning constants inherent to creative industries were fully represented in publications on Indian and Russian creative industries, and in the New Reality the creative industries of Russia and India is the field of strategic interstate communication, based on historical and cultural traditions, traditional values, and parity communication.

URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577278.pdf
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Abstract:
Digital and media environments have become an integral part of young people’s everyday lives, which increases the importance of developing digital competences, critical thinking, and media and information literacy within formal education. This study focuses on analysing how these areas are integrated into school education programs of general upper secondary schools in Slovakia. The research is based on a qualitative content analysis of 82 school-level curricular documents from all regions of the Slovak Republic. The findings indicate that digital education is addressed more frequently than media and information literacy, with the emphasis placed mainly on basic user skills and the technical use of digital tools. Critical thinking appears relatively often in curricular documents, particularly within general educational aims; however, it is commonly formulated at a declarative level without clear methodological guidance or evaluation criteria. Media and information literacy is integrated mostly implicitly or marginally, which results in uneven conditions for the development of these competences among students. The study highlights the need for more explicit curricular anchoring of cross-curricular competences, stronger coordination at the school level, and clearer frameworks for their systematic development and assessment in general upper secondary education.

URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577324.pdf
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Abstract:
This study investigates the connection between information seeking behavior and digital literacy among maritime university students. Despite the recognized importance of digital competencies, empirical research in specialized academic fields remains limited. A cross-sectional survey of 235 Greek maritime students was conducted, integrating Wilson’s information-seeking model with the DigComp 2.2 framework. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The results show that while students possess strong basic digital skills, such as using general search engines, their advanced competencies in retrieving and evaluating scholarly literacy strongly correlates with the use of specialized maritime sources. Furthermore, digital competencies, including ICT use and problem solving, operate as an interconnected skill set. While limited by its cross-sectional nature and specific geographic sample, the study provides valuable empirical evidence. It highlights the urgent need to integrate structured digital literacy training into maritime curricula, focusing on advanced scholarly research skills. Ultimately, this research extends existing information behavior models into domain-specific education, offering practical insights to better prepare maritime students for digitally intensive professional environments.

URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577383.pdf
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Abstract:
The article examines students' essay portraits of their favorite higher school teachers. These essays were submitted as a credit assignment in the course “Methods of Teaching Journalism in Higher Education” at the master's program at St. Petersburg State University. The essays were written in a free form. The research includes portraits written during the period 2021–2024. The texts were subjected to quantitative analysis according to a set of parameters, and the results were summarized in a table. Unlike typical studies of students' opinions about teachers, this research is based not on answers to standardized questionnaire, but on students' personal impressions. The aim of the study was to identify which qualities of a teacher make the strongest impression on learners, and to outline the optimal (from a student's perspective) style of communication between teachers and students. It turned out that ideally, students would like to see their professors as harmoniously developed individuals with high professional qualifications and bright personal features.

URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577422.pdf
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Abstract:
Contemporary media and information literacy (MIL) education faces a fundamental challenge: its analytical tools remain rooted in concepts like “text,” “author,” and “audience” inherited from print culture, while the media environment has transformed into a complex ecosystem of platforms, algorithms, and participatory networks. This article proposes a new theoretical framework for MIL education based on the concept of the Platform Assemblage. Drawing on assemblage theory (DeLanda), actor-network theory (Latour), and critical platform studies (van Dijck, Gillespie), we argue that media phenomena are not discrete texts but dynamic gatherings of heterogeneous actors – human and non-human, including algorithms, interfaces, legal codes, and user communities. We articulate five dimensions for analyzing any platform-based media formation: (1) neuro-mimetic resonance (how platforms engineer collective affect); (2) quasi-biological replication (memetic evolution under algorithmic pressure); (3) chronophagy (the capture of attention as economic driver); (4) the dark matter of the latent (the generative power of the unseen); and (5) algorithmic co-agency (non-human actors as co-creators). The article demonstrates how each dimension translates into specific competencies for MIL education, enabling learners to move beyond content analysis to infrastructure critique. We conclude by proposing a pedagogical shift from hermeneutics to cartography: teaching students to map platform assemblages rather than merely interpret media messages. This framework equips educators with conceptual tools for fostering critical agency in platform-saturated environments.

URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577468.pdf
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Abstract:
Media and Information Literacy (MIL) has become a vital educational priority in the digital age, equipping learners with critical competencies to navigate complex media environments, combat misinformation, and engage responsibly with digital technologies. While scholarly interest in MIL has grown rapidly over the past two decades, a systematic global mapping of research trends remains limited. This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 2,866 peer-reviewed publications related to MIL in educational contexts, indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection between 2000 and 2025. Using the Bibliometrix package in R, we examined publication patterns, influential authors, leading institutions and countries, intellectual structures, and thematic evolution. Results reveal a sharp increase in MIL research post-2010, coinciding with rising concerns around fake news, digital citizenship, and social media influence in educational environments. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia emerged as dominant contributors, while collaborative networks show increasing engagement from Asia and Latin America. Thematic analysis identified evolving research priorities, from foundational literacy frameworks to AI-mediated learning, algorithmic awareness, and policy integration. Despite conceptual growth, the field remains geographically uneven, and integration between media literacy, information science, and pedagogy is still emerging. This study contributes a global overview of the MIL research landscape in education, identifies research gaps, and offers directions for interdisciplinary collaboration and inclusive knowledge production.

URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577522.pdf
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Abstract:
As college students increasingly encounter news across traditional and social media platforms, understanding how platform context shapes trust judgments remains important. This study examined how undergraduate students evaluate the credibility of news presented in traditional news and social media video formats, with particular attention to algorithmic awareness, media literacy, and platform-based trust. Participants included 235 college students who completed an online survey and viewed two short video clips representing different media formats. Results indicated high engagement with news content and strong awareness of algorithmic content curation. Although overall trust ratings for traditional news and social media clips did not significantly differ, direct comparisons revealed a stronger preference for traditional news sources in perceived trustworthiness and confidence. Participants were also more likely to question information encountered on social media and reported that stylistic features, including tone, pacing, and presentation, influenced credibility judgments. No significant gender differences emerged. Findings highlight the relationship between media literacy, platform design, and trust, emphasizing the continuing importance of presentation and forum type in shaping perceptions of news credibility among college students. The study also demonstrates that students actively compare information across platforms, reinforcing the importance of critical evaluation skills within contemporary digital news environments and journalism.

URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577572.pdf
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Abstract:
In the contemporary world, where interactions, mobilisations and opinions are deeply influenced by digital media, civic participation remains uneven, even among journalists who are deeply engaged in the digital spaces. Thus, the skills required to efficiently navigate digital spaces, Digital Media Literacy (DML), are the need of the hour. Moreover, finding the relationship between DML and Civic participation in digital spaces is inevitable. Addressing this, the present study examines whether DML predicts online civic participation among women journalists in India. Hence, this study applies the Binary Logistic Regression model to predict the factors influencing online civic participation of women journalists in India in the digital era. The study analysed a random sample of 300 women journalists working on digital media platforms from six major metropolitan cities in India. The findings indicate that digital media literacy is a strong and statistically significant predictor of online civic participation (B = 1.502, SE = 0.411, p < .001), with higher DML levels substantially increasing the odds of engagement. By focusing on women journalists, this study contributes to existing scholarship on the gender digital divide and its impact on civic engagement in the Global South, enforcing the role of digital media literacy initiatives.

URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577614.pdf
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Abstract:
This article develops Critical Media Education (CME) as a theoretically grounded paradigm within media and information literacy (MIL) scholarship and media literacy education. Moving beyond instrumental or protectionist approaches, CME is theorized as an emancipatory model aimed at cultivating learners able to interrogate and contest the power relations reproduced through mediated discourse and platform infrastructures. Media and information are conceptualized not as neutral reflections of reality but as discursive and ideological practices that shape meanings, identities, and social consensus. Anchored in Freirean critical pedagogy and complemented by cultural studies and critical political economy, the article integrates four interrelated dimensions: critical epistemology, textual and discourse critique, political economy and platform critique, and praxis-oriented media production. These dimensions are operationalized through guiding analytical questions and indicative classroom practices, offering a usable framework for media literacy education, teacher education, and curriculum work. The article also addresses risks of moralization and outlines safeguards that preserve plural interpretation, autonomous judgment, democratic participation, and future empirical development in datafied societies for contemporary classrooms and wider public cultures. It further argues that CME advances media literacy education when critical reading, structural platform analysis, and civic action are connected within one coherent pedagogical model for contemporary democratic societies.

URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577655.pdf
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URL: https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1780577672.pdf
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