Building in Gender Sensitivity as a core media literacy competence

by Sylvia Liuti and Martina Morbidini, FORMA.Azione sr, Italy.

Why develop a Competence Framework on Gendered Disinformation for Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Educators? Who are MIL Educators? These relevant questions guided the GenderED Coalition project partners in developing and implementing key project activities to tackle online gender disinformation.

In today’s interconnected world, media not merely reflect what happens in society at large, but have come to play a pivotal role in shaping societal norms, values, and perceptions, by reproducing stereotypes, perpetuating inequality and eroding social justice, especially but not exclusively among younger generations.

A particularly insidious manifestation of this generative influence is the phenomenon of gendered disinformation– false, misleading, or manipulated information that specifically targets individuals based on gender, and thus disproportionately affecting women and girls, both those in public roles such as politicians, journalists, business leaders, and athletes, and those ‘common users’ whose voices are further marginalised and easily silenced by targeted attacks.

Gendered disinformation is more than a problem of spreading misinformation—it is a cultural strategy that works to silence women and marginalised minorities, distort public perception, and hinder gender equality by discouraging their participation in political and social arenas. It is achieved, among other tactics, through the normalisation of sexist language and stereotypes, which further marginalise underrepresented groups.

As highlighted in DisinfoLab’s in Gender-Based Disinformation: Advancing Our Understanding and Response: “Gendered disinformation needs to be understood as a pattern rather than a set of isolated episodes”, and therefore addressing this issue requires more than reactive measures; it calls for a structured, proactive approach that integrates gender sensitivity into education and information literacy.

In fact, while social media users are constantly exposed to such harmful environment, key professionals engaged in relevant contents’ production and generation are not always sufficiently well-equipped with appropriate knowledge and competence on how to recognise and contrast online disinformation and hate speech.

The GenderED Coalition: addressing the gap between MIL Education and Gender Equality Competencies

But who are more in need than others to be equipped with such competences to effectively contrast gendered disinformation online? GenderEd Coalition project partners have decided to address MIL educators, meaning primarily professionals, such as teachers, librarians and journalists together with social media practitioners, like influencers, content creators, online activists who have the power to raise awareness of social media users on disinformation online, through their posting activities and online presence.

Recognising the urgent need to combat gendered disinformation, the GenderED Coalition seeks to bridge the gap between Media and Information Literacy (MIL) education and gender equality expertise through developing a comprehensive Competence Framework on Gendered Disinformation for MIL educators. This framework equips them with the tools to:

• Foster critical awareness on gender stereotypes – Understand patterns, identify sources, and analyse the impact of disinformation on public perception and democratic engagement.
• Encourage empathy and intersectional understanding – Critically engage with and produce media content that challenges the roots of gender stereotyping.
• Support gender-sensitive content creation – Integrate gender perspectives into media content creation, through storytelling techniques and counternarratives.
• Advocate for online accountability – Support policies and initiatives that advocate for gender mainstreaming in media and for critical medial literacy

Integrating gender-focused MIL competencies into educational frameworks—such as the UNESCO MIL Curriculum— aims to equip MIL educators with gender sensitivity as a core competence, and to bring an intersectional and cross-cultural dimension to critical thinking, ethical media production, and responsible digital citizenship.

Countering gendered disinformation is not just an educational challenge—it is a fundamental issue of human rights and democratic integrity. To further this mission, the GenderED Coalition will launch a series of initiatives, including a training program, a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), and the establishment of a Transnational Community of Practice on Gender-Sensitive Media and Information Literacy (MIL).

GenderED Coalition is a CREA MIL project committed to promoting gender-competent media and information literacy (MIL) education for equitable societies.

Editor’s note: GenderED Coalition is under CREA-CROSS-2023-MEDIALITERACY, Project number: 101136124
Here, you can find the contacts and websites relevant to the project.

Authors

Sylvia Liuti

Co-founder at FORMA. Azione srl and Giove InFormatica, expert in gender policies in the labour market and part of the Gender Equality Taskforce set up by EAEA, EARLALL, and EfVET.

Martina Morbidini

Junior European Project Manager at FORMA.Azione srl, she leads the GenderED Coalition project, focusing on media literacy, gender studies, and online activism.