Dr. Eileen Culloty:

I will start on the media literacy point. It is interesting the Deputy mentioned Ben Wallace and that work on the straw-man fallacy. It is critical thinking, as Professor Laffan mentioned. We know that in conflicts, one of the most common types of objections presented is whataboutism, which we are all very familiar with in this country. Whataboutism is a straw-man fallacy, but most people have never heard that term. They have never had it pointed out to them. The work on prebunking is very positive. One can do a considerable amount just by explaining common arguments to people. It is also worth noting that those types of fallacies appear in all aspects of life and in politics in general. They are not limited to conflicts. It is worth knowing media literacy is separate to critical thinking. As someone who specialises in media, I think media literacy is valuable in itself, but we should not think it will be a panacea and solve all of these problems either. Critical thinking needs to be developed as well.

A media literacy short course is offered in secondary schools, but it is voluntary. The issues are in who signs up to it, who is missing out on it and whether the people who need it most are getting it. We saw during the pandemic that the need for media literacy is not limited to school children. It is a good place to start but there are other people in society who might need it as well. Another issue is that the teachers going in to the schools need to have the training to do it. We can offer things in schools, but do the teachers have training? A national association was set up by Coimisiún na Meán called Media Literacy Ireland. It has brought together all kinds of stakeholders; national media outlets, the library system, schools and university academics and they work on national campaigns such as Be Media Smart and provide training. Media Literacy Ireland is a very promising route to develop capacities in order that different bodies, including charities such as Age Action Ireland, can advance what they are doing in media literacy.