Media literacy has become a national priority in Australia, and we’re seeing it in policy decisions from government bodies and institutions.
The Parliament of Australia has identified media literacy as a preferred and complementary response to rising misinformation. This goes hand in hand with the federal government’s commitment to developing the country’s first National Media Literacy Strategy.
Public libraries are central to this national effort.
To understand how that work is playing out, PressReader and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) partnered to survey 340 public library professionals across the country.
In this post, we’re zooming in on one part of the story. Read on to take a closer look at what Australian librarians say they’re doing, right now, to support media literacy in their communities, and what’s working best.
The shape of media literacy in Australian libraries
We asked library professionals what approaches they’ve used in the past 12 months to support media literacy learning in their communities. Three approaches dominated the responses:
- Digital resources providing access to trusted news and journalism (68%)
- Informal support or guidance at service desks (66%)
- One-to-one guidance from library staff (59%)
These three sit far ahead of the next tier of responses, which include facilitated workshops or group sessions (49%), programs for multilingual or inclusive engagement (23%) and partnerships with schools or youth organizations (14%).
This hierarchy is telling. Most media literacy work in Australian public libraries is happening in moments. It’s happening at the desk, in conversations with staff, or while navigating library resources, not in formalized programs. The ALIA and University of Canberra Snapshot Report frames this concept as “incidental” media literacy education. Most people are learning about media literacy almost by accident as part of another request. This can look like a librarian helping a patron with a tech problem and then, as part of the same conversation, showing them how to spot a phishing attempt. A question about an online news story someone saw on Facebook can turn into a conversation about checking sources before drawing conclusions.
This isn’t surprising. Libraries have long been trusted, low-friction places for community members to ask questions. But it does point to a broader pattern: media literacy is often being delivered through existing staff capacity rather than dedicated programs. This has real implications for reach, consistency and scale.
Which media literacy initiatives are most effective?
When we asked librarians which media literacy initiatives they’d found most effective, many pointed to one-on-one interactions. The style of interactions varied significantly. While some libraries offer ad-hoc one-to-one support, others have clearer systems with alternating sessions across branches, booking limits per patron and same-day appointments as available.
Workshops on media literacy are also drawing strong attendance, particularly when the topic is timely. AI awareness sessions and scam education for older patrons are working especially well in their limited scope. One respondent described a facilitator who goes deep into explaining the psychology of scams and the trickery involved, and that these sessions are always well received.
But the responses also surfaced a challenging truth. The approaches that work best are often the hardest to scale, and the ones that scale don’t always reach the people who need them most. As one librarian put it:
“Workshops are very popular; talks on this subject are also well attended but tend to appeal to people with an interest in the subject rather than those with little existing knowledge or awareness who potentially would benefit more.”
Another captured the central frustration even more directly:
“It’s really difficult to educate about media literacy unless a patron is actively experiencing an issue and requests help, which they’re unlikely to do.”
What emerges is a picture of media literacy as something that, in practice, is most often entered through the side door, whether that’s digital literacy, tech help or a question about a specific news (or fake news) story.
That’s not to say that there are no structured programs or offers in the sector. The State Library of Queensland recently launched Fact or Fiction?, twelve short, curriculum-mapped media literacy challenges for students in years 4–7. The State Library of Victoria maintains robust misinformation guides and resources for navigating the web. Meanwhile, AMLA, ALIA, ABC Education and Western Sydney University recently launched a series of 20+ workshops on verifying information online that are being rolled out across Australian public libraries. These structured offerings sit alongside — and depend on — the quieter ongoing work happening at the desks every day.
From belief to capability
What these survey responses show is a sector doing real, valuable media literacy work, often behind the scenes. They also surface the central tension that underpins our report: While 99% of librarians believe media literacy is important, only 10% feel very well equipped to deliver it. An additional 73% feel just somewhat equipped.
The approaches that work best — patient, individual conversations — are also the most resource intensive. The ones that scale don’t always reach the patrons most at risk. That’s the gap that needs closing, and it may have to require leaning into the topic areas that people are interested in and linking them to media literacy.
The full report goes deeper, looking at which community groups Australian librarians feel are most at risk, what’s standing in their way and what they believe needs doing to better meet the needs of their community.
For a broader understanding of the state of media literacy in Australian libraries, download the report.
And if you’d like to learn about how PressReader supports libraries in providing a breadth of trusted digital publications to their patrons, explore our public library page.
