Media literacy and the issue of misinformation, as well as disinformation, is a matter which has been discussed in Malta for some time, with the government having established a Media Literacy Development Board in early 2021 following an amendment to the Broadcasting Law Act.

The development board was intended to ensure that citizens have the desired media skills and the capability to exercise proper judgement by contextually analysing what they may find on the internet, in part to distinguish between opinions and facts. It was set to achieve this by drawing up plans and promoting measures to ensure the development of media literacy in Malta.

Years on from then, an extensive plan to address media literacy in Malta is yet to be implemented. According to the latest Media Pluralism Monitor Report, which describes media literacy as a fundamental prerequisite of an accessible media system as well as a core element of media pluralism, Malta was at the time one of eight countries within the European Union where media literacy was almost absent from the school curriculum.

It should be noted that in some cases students in Malta have the option to choose media literacy as a subject in secondary school, and media literacy also forms part of certain courses, including ones offered by the University of Malta and MCAST.

Malta is however ranked 26th out of 41 European nations in the European Media Literacy Index 2023. In that report, Malta was given a score of 45 out of 100. The top-ranking country in the 2023 media literacy index was Finland, which received a score of 74 out of 100.

In Finland, media literacy forms part of the school curriculum, and focus is placed on the matter by educators and policymakers in an effort to combat disinformation and misinformation so that Finnish society is able to responsibly make use of social media and the internet.

With that in mind, The Malta Independent on Sunday spoke with Leo Pekkala, the deputy director of Finland's National Audiovisual Institute.

Asked about the fundamentals of this sort of teaching and how it functions as part of the school curriculum, Pekkala explained that media literacy in Finland is not a standalone subject but is integrated across various subjects in the Finnish school curriculum.

"The official term is transversal skills," he said, continuing that all teachers and educators have to do something related to the topic in their teaching. He said that this education starts from early childhood and continues up to secondary level.

"The core curriculum tells the overall goals for each school year, but it does not tell how exactly a teacher should teach these topics, so we give lots of freedom to the teachers to decide for themselves as they know the students best. That's why it's challenging to provide a specific example of how this part is taught, as it varies in every classroom," Pekkala commented.

The deputy director of the National Audiovisual Institute remarked that it is difficult to measure the feasible impact of media literacy education because "each individual is doing their own thing", though he added that the system seems to be effective, as Finland tends to perform well in international comparisons on the matter.

"This has been going on for a long time, and the latest curriculum reform was in 2014. We have been teaching about media literacy even before that, so the adult population now, especially young adults, have all received some form of media literacy education in their formal schooling. We cannot scientifically confirm that this directly makes Finns more media literate and resistant to disinformation, but it appears to be the case, and we believe that it is mostly because of the education system."

Pekkala remarked that it is a case of considering the whole education system and the other things children learn at school. He said that children in Finland learn how journalistic media works, as well as the ethical codes of journalism. "So they understand the Finnish media quite well... It is not very easy to successfully spread disinformation in Finland."

The Malta Independent on Sunday asked Pekkala if he believes that online misinformation and disinformation have had a real impact on the world, particularly concerning political and social matters.

"That's what it looks like, yes," he replied, continuing that social media can have a lot of impact and has certain negative implications as some people take it "as a space where they can confirm their own thinking and beliefs, and then continue to spread disinformation".

Despite this, Pekkala remarked that this is only one part of the situation, as on the other hand, the time that people spend on social media can also be positive in nature as people are able to interact with friends and colleagues, or engage in things related to their hobbies.

Considering the seemingly overwhelmingly positive impact of intertwining media literacy within the national education system, Pekkala was asked if Finland has considered presenting a proposal for media literacy to become part of the school curriculum across the EU.

He responded that when looking at the idea pragmatically, one of the fundamental principles of the EU is that education is a national matter, and so the decisions have to be made by the member states. However, he continued that Finland is cooperating with different EU member states and regularly share its expertise and experiences so that each local authority can decide what they believe is best in their own context. "I think that's the way to go in these kinds of matters," he commented.

Pekkala was also asked if he believes AI presents a potential escalation to the dangers of misinformation and disinformation, to which he responded that people should be aware of the different possibilities and carefully follow how the different AI tools continue developing.

"I think we are still at a rather early stage," he said, "so I think we have only seen limited examples, and the tools we have now can only do certain things." Pekkala commented that AI tools may change the communication or information environment, but how this will happen exactly is yet undetermined.

Pekkala also spoke of the latest developments concerning major social media sites such as X and Meta. "What seems to be happening right now is quite alarming that the owners of these huge international companies are taking sides, so it's not only about making money any more it seems, but it's about making politics, and that's where we will need more discussion and more education, so people understand that there are different types of purposes."

With Pekkala having brought up the aforementioned social media sites, The Malta Independent asked him for his thoughts regarding Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision to take away the fact-checker system on its platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram. Pekkala was also asked if he believes that such systems have been successful in combating misinformation and disinformation.

"To some extent, yes," he replied, "but of course you think of the size and amount of content being created every second, it's impossible to fact-check everything."

"What Meta seems to be doing now is that they are changing their algorithms without telling what it is that they are doing, and I think there are some signals now that they are starting to again prevent certain content being published, and then promoting some other type of content. It starts to sound like propaganda, not just social media where people can post or follow whoever they want, but rather it's kind of like algorithmically-led propaganda."

The deputy director of Finland's National Audiovisual Institute concluded that he does not think there is any "silver bullet" with which one can solve all the problems related to the internet and social media, but rather that what has to be done is to remain alert and follow the developments in the space.