Found: London, Ofcom Partner for Content and Standards, Chair of the UK Government’s Working Party on Media

Found: fair value of the product. 3.Quality assurance (an online news code and kitemarking) coupled with media

Found: We have media literacy powers—particularly on the Online Safety Act—and we are going to be doing more

Found: The second thing is to really work on media literacy, so that the media understand the role that they

Found: We talked years ago and are probably still talking about media literacy initiatives, because ultimately

Found: debate among the public are public levels of trust in Government, which is key, and levels of public media

Found: literacy.

Found: Media literacy 36.

Found: Media literacy 36.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support local journalism.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government is committed to supporting local and regional newspapers and other news outlets as vital pillars of communities and local democracy. They play an essential role in holding power to account, keeping the public informed of local issues and providing reliable, high-quality information.

Amid an evolving media landscape and changes in consumer behaviour, we are working to support journalism and local newsrooms to ensure the sustainability of this important industry. We are introducing a new, pro-competition regime for digital markets. The regime, which aims to address the far-reaching power of the biggest tech firms, will help rebalance the relationship between publishers and the online platforms on which they increasingly rely. This will make an important contribution to the sustainability of the press.

Additionally, our support for the sector has included the delivery of a £2 million Future News Fund, the extension of a 2017 business rates relief on local newspaper office space until 2025; the publication of the Online Media Literacy Strategy; and our work through the Mid-Term Review of the BBC Charter to encourage greater collaboration and transparency from the BBC in the local news market and other markets in which it operates. The BBC also supports the sector directly, through the £8m it spends each year on the Local News Partnership, including the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.

We are also reducing regulatory burdens on commercial radio providers, and strengthening requirements on the provision of local news through the Media Bill to ensure commercial radio continues to provide high quality local journalism.

We continue to consider all possible options in the interests of promoting and sustaining news journalism.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of the population they estimate will be digitally literate by 2030.

Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

This Government has been clear that ensuring that no one is left behind in the digital age is a key priority. The 2023 Consumer Digital Index found that 92% of UK adults have the ‘Essential Digital Skills for Life’.

The National Curriculum subject of computing ensures that pupils become digitally literate so that they are able to use, express themselves and develop their ideas through information and communication technology, at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world. Computing is compulsory in all Local Authority maintained schools across Key Stages 1 to 4.

Media literacy is also included in the citizenship curriculum which is compulsory for all maintained secondary schools. Furthermore, under our ambitious Online Media Literacy Strategy, we have provided almost £2.5million in grant funding for projects designed to build the media literacy and critical thinking skills for users of all ages.

The government has also introduced a digital skills entitlement in August 2020 for adults with no or low digital skills to undertake specified digital qualifications, up to Level 1, free of charge. Such qualifications enable people to gain the skills needed to participate in modern life, access further study, and find and progress in work.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of her Department's media literacy strategy in countering (a) mis- and (b) dis-information.

Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Improving media literacy is one of the government’s key tools in tackling the harm caused by misinformation and disinformation. To demonstrate how the Government is delivering against the objectives of the Online Media Literacy Strategy, we are publishing annual Action Plans each financial year until the end of 2024/25. Through media literacy grant schemes, we have provided almost £2 million in funding to a range of educational projects.

These projects seek to build the online safety and critical thinking skills of internet users, empowering them to respond effectively to the threats posed by mis- and disinformation, along with other online harms. All funded projects are evaluated robustly, including by independent experts, and findings will be published on gov.uk upon completion. This will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of future media literacy initiatives and inform government policy moving forward.

As part of this work, we established the Media Literacy Taskforce to bring together organisations in the media literacy landscape to amplify, increase and improve media literacy provision across underserved parts of the UK. Taskforce members advised the government on which projects should be awarded funding, and then helped grant recipients to maximise the impact of their projects.

Alongside the Strategy, the Online Safety Act updates Ofcom’s statutory media literacy duty to require it to take tangible steps to prioritise the public's awareness of and resilience to misinformation and disinformation online.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, further to the Online Safety Act 2023, what additional steps she plans to take to help tackle online disinformation and misinformation.

Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Online Safety Act will be our key tool in combatting the most egregious forms of online mis- and disinformation but Government action doesn’t stop there.

In addition, we are educating and empowering users through our work on media literacy, responding to information threats to our democracy via the Defending Democracy Taskforce, and analysing attempts to artificially manipulate the online information environment through the work of the National Security Online Information Team.

I regularly meet with major platforms to discuss these issues and would be very happy to update him on recent progress that has been made.

Found: literacy Media literacy involves education on how to access, evaluate, create, and act on all forms