EDMO has established a Working Group with a goal to raise media literacy levels across Europe, by developing quality standards, guidelines and best practices that new and existing practitioners can consult to increase the effectiveness of their projects. This is crucial to EDMO’s wider mission, as raising media literacy levels increases the public’s resilience to online mis- and disinformation.

While it is evident that in an area as complex and diverse as media literacy there will be no one-size-fits-all approach, the often-fragmented sector would benefit from a more united focus on standards. Both wider research and consultation with the EDMO Hubs and other experts has pointed to a need for more consistent and robust evaluation of initiatives, for example, and for more investigation into what works and why. Many of the organisations carrying out media literacy initiatives are small with limited resources and/or short-term funding, and increased guidance would allow them to direct these resources more effectively.

Having recourse to standards and guidelines would create a way for initiatives to claim a level of credibility, and would be useful for EDMO Hubs and others when compiling repositories or directories of interventions.

In addition, the standards and guidelines could be used by tech companies who have signed up to the Code of Practice on Disinformation in their efforts to address Commitment 17, and could be referred to by EDMO and others in analysing signatories’ reports.

The quality standards and guidelines produced will be based on research evidence and consultation. They will be primarily a self-assessment tool for use by media literacy initiatives, who would be required to publish a report detailing their assessment if they want to publicly state that they meet the standards.

The current Working Group on Standards and Best Practices includes members of the EDMO Advisory Board, the EDMOeu Media Literacy team and representatives from the EDMO Hubs: