The Climate Editorial Team – an ESD exercise to promote media literacy in dealing with climate disinformation

Abstract

Social media is a key source of information for young people and, at the same time, a platform for the spread of disinformation about climate change. Against this backdrop, promoting information and media literacy as part of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is becoming increasingly important. This article examines the extent to which a practice-oriented ESD exercise can enable young people to critically examine and contextualise climate-related disinformation in social media posts. A newly developed exercise was piloted during a workshop with around 25 young people aged between 13 and 17. The results provide initial indications of the exercise’s potential for promoting information and media literacy in the context of climate-related disinformation.  The article concludes by discussing possibilities for the exercise’s further didactic development and more systematic evaluation.