Media Literacy (HL Paper 163, 2024–25)

The Communications and Digital Committee's July 2025 media literacy report makes the case that inadequate media literacy is a threat to both social cohesion and democratic governance. Drawing on survey data on UK adults' confidence in assessing online information, the report calls for media literacy embedded in the national curriculum and better coordination across government.

The democratic resilience framing of media literacy is the report's most significant contribution to the policy debate. Prebunking research has demonstrated that audiences equipped with basic media literacy tools are more resistant to disinformation; the Lords committee argues this individual-level effect, aggregated across the population, constitutes a structural democratic defence.