Chapter 36 Further Reading: Education-Based Interventions and Media Literacy Programs

The following annotated bibliography guides readers toward the primary and secondary sources most valuable for deeper understanding of education-based approaches to media literacy. Sources are organized thematically. Publication dates reflect original or most recent editions.

Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews

Jeong, S. H., Cho, H., & Hwang, Y. (2012). Media literacy interventions: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Communication, 62(3), 454-472.

The most comprehensive quantitative synthesis of media literacy education research. Analyzing 51 studies, the meta-analysis finds a mean effect size of d = 0.42, identifies key moderators (age, duration, outcome type), and provides the statistical foundation for much subsequent discussion of the field's evidence base. Essential reading for any serious engagement with the evidence on media literacy education effectiveness. Note that the 2012 publication date means it does not capture the most recent wave of media literacy research, particularly work on digital platforms, social media, and prebunking. Researchers have noted that effect sizes from more rigorous designs in more recent studies are typically smaller than the meta-analytic mean, suggesting some inflation from earlier methodologies.

Vraga, E. K., & Tully, M. (2021). News literacy, social media behaviors, and skepticism toward information on social media. Information, Communication & Society, 24(2), 150-166.

An important empirical study connecting news literacy (as measured by the News Media Literacy scale) to actual social media behavior — specifically, skepticism toward information encountered on social media. One of the relatively few studies in the media literacy literature to examine behavioral rather than just attitudinal outcomes. Vraga and Tully find that news literacy is associated with more discriminating evaluation of social media information, with effects on actual sharing behavior. This paper is valuable for researchers and practitioners who want evidence that media literacy education translates beyond test scores into how people actually engage with information in daily life.

Craft, S., Ashley, S., & Maksl, A. (2017). News media literacy and conspiracy theory endorsement. Communication and the Public, 2(4), 388-401.

Uses the News Media Literacy (NML) scale to examine the relationship between news literacy and conspiracy theory endorsement. Finds that higher news literacy is associated with lower endorsement of conspiratorial explanations for public events. This study connects media literacy research to the broader misinformation literature and provides evidence that news literacy has meaningful real-world epistemic consequences beyond improved performance on source evaluation tasks.

Source Evaluation and Lateral Reading

Wineburg, S., & McGrew, S. (2019). Lateral reading and the nature of expertise: Reading less and learning more when evaluating digital information. Teachers College Record, 121(11), 1-40.

The definitive empirical study establishing the superiority of lateral reading over traditional vertical reading approaches to source evaluation. Wineburg and McGrew compare the evaluation strategies of professional fact-checkers, historians, and undergraduate students, finding that fact-checkers consistently use lateral reading (immediately leaving a site and searching for external information about it) while historians and students use vertical reading (reading deeply within a site). The fact-checkers are significantly more accurate and efficient in their evaluations. This paper provides the empirical foundation for the growing emphasis on lateral reading instruction in media literacy education. Accessible to non-specialist readers despite its publication in an academic journal.

Wineburg, S., McGrew, S., Breakstone, J., & Ortega, T. (2016). Evaluating information: The cornerstone of civic online reasoning. Stanford Digital Repository.

The Stanford report that catalyzed widespread policy attention to media literacy education. Documenting the widespread inability of students at all levels to evaluate online information, this report established the empirical foundation for the subsequent wave of media literacy education reform. Available free online. While some of the specific claims in this report have been debated and nuanced, the core finding — that students perform poorly at evaluating online information — has proven robust across subsequent research.

The Accuracy Prompt Approach

Pennycook, G., McPhetres, J., Zhang, Y., Lu, J. G., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: Experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy-nudge intervention. Psychological Science, 31(7), 770-780.

An important application of the accuracy prompt approach to COVID-19 misinformation during the pandemic. The study demonstrates that briefly asking people to consider the accuracy of health-related headlines significantly increases their ability to discriminate accurate from inaccurate COVID-19 claims and reduces their stated intention to share inaccurate content. The rapid publication during an active public health crisis makes this an important demonstration of the practical value of accuracy nudges for real-time misinformation challenges.

Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2022). Nudging social media users toward accuracy: An experimental evaluation. Psychological Science, 33(5), 826-828.

Reports the Twitter field experiment that demonstrates accuracy prompt effects in a naturalistic social media context. Users who received prompts asking about accuracy subsequently shared more accurate content than control users. The field experiment design — measuring actual sharing behavior rather than stated intentions — provides particularly strong evidence for the behavioral relevance of the accuracy prompt. This short paper should be read alongside the earlier laboratory studies to understand the full evidence base.

K-12 Media Literacy Education

McGrew, S., Ortega, T., Breakstone, J., & Wineburg, S. (2017). The challenge that's bigger than fake news: Civic reasoning in a social media environment. American Educator, 41(3), 4-9.

A practitioner-accessible summary of the Stanford civic online reasoning research, written for educators rather than researchers. This article makes the case for teaching lateral reading and civic online reasoning skills in schools, with concrete examples and pedagogical suggestions. A good starting point for K-12 teachers looking to understand the research base and practical implications of media literacy education.

Hobbs, R. (2010). Digital and media literacy: A plan of action. Aspen Institute.

Renee Hobbs's comprehensive framework for digital and media literacy education, developed for the Aspen Institute. This report provides a conceptual framework, policy recommendations, and practical guidance for developing digital and media literacy programs across educational contexts. While now dated in some respects (the 2010 social media landscape is quite different from today's), the framework remains influential and provides important historical context for understanding how the field has developed. Hobbs is one of the most prolific and influential researchers in media literacy education.

Information Literacy in Higher Education

Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). (2016). Framework for information literacy for higher education. American Library Association.

The foundational policy document for information literacy instruction in US higher education. The Framework replaced the older "Standards" approach with a six-frame conceptual model emphasizing deep understanding over skill checklists. Understanding the ACRL Framework is essential for anyone working on information literacy in higher education contexts. Available free on the ACRL website.

Caulfield, M. (2017). Web literacy for student fact-checkers. Pressbooks.

Mike Caulfield's open-access textbook introducing the SIFT method (and the slightly earlier "four moves and a habit" framework) for information evaluation. Caulfield's approach is distinctive in its emphasis on practical, low-friction habits that can be applied in the course of normal web browsing rather than requiring deep research skills. The textbook is freely available online and is suitable for undergraduate or advanced high school courses. Caulfield's pedagogical philosophy — that information evaluation must be fast and low-effort to be used in practice — is an important counterpoint to more elaborate frameworks that may be theoretically complete but practically unusable.

Finland and International Comparative Education

Kupiainen, R., Kulju, P., & Mäkinen, M. (2015). Conceptualizing media literacy in Finnish multiliteracies education. In J. Viteli & A. Östman (Eds.), Proceedings of EdMedia: World Conference on Educational Media and Technology. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.

A scholarly account of how Finland conceptualizes and implements media literacy within its national curriculum framework, with particular attention to the "multiliteracies" competency that integrates media literacy into all subjects. Valuable for understanding the theoretical framework underlying Finland's approach and how it connects to international multiliteracies scholarship.

Lazer, D. M. J., Baum, M. A., Benkler, Y., Berinsky, A. J., Greenhill, K. M., Miryam, F., ... Zittrain, J. L. (2018). The science of fake news. Science, 359(6380), 1094-1096.

While not specifically about education, this influential policy piece published in Science by a multidisciplinary team of researchers argues for media literacy education as a key component of addressing misinformation. The paper's call for educational interventions helped motivate increased research attention and policy investment in the period 2018-2022. Accessible to non-specialists and provides important context for understanding the policy environment in which media literacy education programs have been developed.

Civic Education and Democracy

Civic Education Research Group. (2023). Civic learning for an informed citizenry: Strengthening democracy through education.* National Academy of Education.

A policy report examining the relationship between civic education and democratic participation, including the role of civic knowledge in misinformation resistance. Provides both evidence review and policy recommendations. Valuable for understanding how media literacy fits within the broader civic education agenda.

Learning Science Applications

Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Harvard University Press.

An accessible synthesis of cognitive science research on effective learning, covering retrieval practice, spaced practice, interleaving, elaborative interrogation, and other evidence-based learning strategies. While not specifically about media literacy, this book provides the learning science foundation for the program design principles discussed in Section 36.10. Highly readable and directly applicable to curriculum design. Essential background reading for anyone designing or evaluating media literacy education programs.

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. National Academies Press.

The foundational National Academies report on the science of learning, covering prior knowledge effects, transfer, metacognition, and the design of effective learning environments. While not specifically about media literacy, this report provides the theoretical foundation for understanding why education-based interventions work (or fail to work) in the ways the research describes. Available free from the National Academies Press. The 2018 and 2020 updates (How People Learn II and III) extend the original report with more recent research.

UNESCO Media and Information Literacy

UNESCO. (2013). Media and information literacy: Policy and strategy guidelines. UNESCO Publishing.

UNESCO's global policy framework for media and information literacy (MIL) education, providing guidelines for national MIL strategies, curriculum development, teacher training, and program evaluation. Valuable for understanding the international policy context in which national media literacy programs operate and for the cross-national perspective it provides. While somewhat dated, the underlying framework remains the most comprehensive international policy document on MIL education.

This reading list reflects the state of the literature as of early 2026. The field is evolving rapidly, and researchers and practitioners should supplement this list with searches for recent work on lateral reading, accuracy nudges, and media literacy curriculum effectiveness using Google Scholar and similar tools.