Information Disorders: Risks and Opportunities for Digital Media and Information Literacy?

Abstract

This paper analyses the major modifications created by the “social turn” i.e. the emergence of social media. It presents the drastic change of ecosystem created by the three “continents” of the Internet. This sets up the context of deployment for “information disorders” such as radicalisation and disinformation. The analysis then considers the risks and opportunities for Media and Information Literacy: on the one hand, the rise of fact-checking and the increasing interference of social media platforms; on the other hand, the augmentation of the Media and Information Literacy epistemology and the Media and Information Literacy paradigm shift entailed by information disorders. It concludes on an agenda for Media and Information Literacy in 21st century.