Media Literacy In Canada: Fundamentals, Key Skills, And Growing Challenges

October 26-30, 2026 is Media Literacy Week in Canada, alongside Global Media and Information Literacy Week internationally. This year’s theme for MediaSmarts, Canada’s Centre for Digital Media Literacy is, “Wait…What?” a nod to the changes and challenges shaping media today, from algorithms to artificial intelligence. This factsheet provides an overview of media literacy — a core component of HRCCO’s educational mandate — including the skills it requires and the challenges posed by today’s digital information environment.

What is Media Literacy?:

Media literacy is a set of skills that make up an individual’s ability to understand, interpret, evaluate, and even create media. What this means is that one thinks critically about and breaks down the media that they consume. Thus, media literacy is better conceptualized as not just a set of skills, but a practice of interrogation and challenging what one encounters.
In today’s digital age, “media” is not just news platforms, but social media platforms, artificial intelligence tools and content, even video games and music. Digital media literacy builds on the traditional media literacy framework, but incorporates ideas that arise from the difference(s) between traditional media and digital media.
Media literacy is important because it enables consumers to identify bias and misinformation, and recognize harmful content, including hate speech.
A core concept of media literacy is that “every piece of media is a construction.” We understand and process media easily because we absorbed its conventions over time, but that natural process of learning through exposure actually obscures — or can make it easy to overlook — the fact that media are made through people making choices.
Media literacy is a practice that enables a consumer to see the choices made in media, transforming consumption from something automatic into a practice that analyzes, and where appropriate critiques the frames (or simply, the messages) that select and direct attention in a given piece of media.

Audiences and Interpretation:

Two important components of “media as constructions” are that: 1) Media construct versions of reality, and 2) The audience/consumer negotiates the meaning of media. The consumption of media is thus a collaborative process between the framing constructed by media creators, and the audience, composed of individuals with their own identities, experiences, and more.
People often find it easier to read media that aligns with their views sympathetically, and more difficult to engage critically with media they find offensive or disagreeable. Media literacy encourages readers to do both: engage with a message on its own terms while also analyzing its assumptions, evidence, and framing.
While audiences do not automatically accept a media message, most take away a meaning that is relatively close to its apparent or intended meaning. Some audiences — particularly those with identities or experiences that have been misrepresented or excluded from mainstream media — may develop “resistant readings” that challenge the dominant or intended interpretation.

Platforms, Algorithms, and Misinformation:

Networked media, and specifically algorithms, shape not only what users see, but also what they do not see. Media literacy therefore includes understanding how online experiences are curated — and taking a more active role in choosing and engaging with media.
One key difference between traditional media literacy and digital media literacy is the former relies on a medium that distributes content one way: media are created, then distributed. Digital media is networked, meaning that 1) users are connected to creators, platforms, and other users; 2) they can share and receive content with many people at once; and 3) their interactions with platforms are two-way, even when platforms control much of that exchange.
A further, and more complex aspect, of digital media literacy is the role of algorithms. An algorithm is a series of steps/instructions for doing something.
Artificial intelligence (AI) uses computer algorithms to do things — from answering medical questions to creating code, and much more — with little to no human involvement. AI is trained from data, then learns patterns and connections from the data to address the purpose it was created for. This process, unlike other algorithms, can be difficult to analyze.
Digital media are built on a range of algorithms trained to cultivate a network of content that is trendy, but also catered to a given user. Recommendation algorithms collect data about the content and about a user, filter out content that likely does not appeal to the user, continuously evaluating a user’s interactions with content to further recommend content.
Algorithms are not neutral. They learn from data about users’ behaviour, context, and profiles, and can reflect bias in how that data is collected, selected, coded, or used. Many platforms also optimize recommendation systems for engagement, creating incentives to amplify content that keeps users on the platform longer.
Digital media make content easy to copy, share, and remove from context. Media can thus reach unexpected audiences, and further, recommendation systems may amplify content that generates strong engagement. Sometimes, content is designed is to do exactly that.

Misinformation and the Digital Information Environment:

Canada defines misinformation, disinformation and malinformation (MDM) as a group of forms of informational activity, through varied in their intention. Misinformation is false information not intended to cause harm; disinformation is false information purposefully shared, intended to manipulate or misguide people; malinformation is derived from the truth — for example, cherry-picked statistics or facts without important context — but is often exaggerated in misleading way that may cause harm.
Misinformation is not new: media literacy education was established well before recent attention to MDM. For example, propaganda (often spread through media) has long influenced audiences, predominantly by reinforcing pre-existing beliefs and identities.
Digital media have changed the scale and complexity of MDM. Networked platforms allow information to reach millions of people, while digital tools make misleading content easier to create and distribute. Media has a primary function of providing information and education, and these challenges have made it more difficult to filter out reliable information.
Repetition can make inaccurate claims feel more familiar and credible: research on the “illusory truth effect” has found that people are more likely to believe information they have encountered before. This has a trickle-down effect; a claim from social media, repeated enough times across medias, could become uncontested truth in traditional legacy media.
MDM targets and affects specific communities. Research by the ADL has found that conspiratorial thinking is associated with greater belief in anti-Jewish tropes, including portrayals of Jewish people as secretly powerful or manipulative. Canadian leadership has similarly found that antisemitism is often driven by conspiracy theories and disinformation, especially in online spaces. As of April 2026, a key Senate recommendation for combatting antisemitism is supporting digital literacy and social media education for young Canadians.

A Practical Verification Toolkit:

Skepticism alone is not enough; assessing the trustworthiness of the source is essential. But the process, or the range of questions one might ask can feel tedious, especially when one is casually scrolling social media.
Before researching a claim or checking a source, a core skill to develop is pausing and asking what the message may be leaving out. Is there important context, other perspectives, evidence, or the fuller story that is missing? If the post provokes a strong emotional reaction, pause and consider both how that reaction may be shaping your interpretation and why the content may be designed to provoke it.
The CRAP Test is one framework for critically thinking about and approaching media. It requires asking: how current is the information, how reliable is the information, is the author of the information credible, and lastly, is the author’s purpose or point of view objective or subjective?
MediaSmarts suggests the practice of companion reading, or simply, gathering information from outside the original piece of media to assess its reliability. It means asking key questions, like the CRAP Test, but also: how sure do I need to be (to share this information), and has this been debunked elsewhere?

Media literacy is not about all-or-nothing trust or distrust of the media we encounter; it is a set of skills that accompanies the natural process of absorbing information through media. Media literacy is an ongoing practice that encourages individuals to pause and consider the framing, emotional impact, and omissions in any piece of media, online or on your television screen. This skill set is especially important in today’s complex and constantly changing digital environment, which undeniably shapes Canadian, and global, public discourse.