Online media literacy intervention in Indonesia reduces misinformation sharing intention

Michael G Yankoski, Trenton W. Ford, Matthew Facciani, Walter Scheirer

Abstract:

Media literacy is widely viewed as an important tool in the fight against the
spread of misinformation online. However, efforts to boost media literacy
have primarily focused on Western-media and Western-oriented social media
platforms, which are substantively different from the media and platforms
used widely in the Global South. In this work, we focus on the media
ecosystem of Indonesia and report the results of an online media literacy
intervention consisting of short videos that were targeted specifically to social
media users in Indonesia (N = 656). We found that participants in our media
literacy intervention were 64% more likely to reduce their sharing intentions
of false headlines than our control group (p < 0.001). Our novel media literacy
intervention shows promise as a useful tool to reduce misinformation in
Southeast Asia.