Vol. 16 No. 2 (2025): MEDIA EDUCATION – Studi, ricerche e buone pratiche
Articles

Remediating prebunking in practice: Enhancing teachers’ competencies for digital source evaluation and disinformation detection

PDF
  • Nicola Bruno,
  • Annamaria De Santis,
  • Stefano Moriggi
Nicola Bruno
Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy
Annamaria De Santis
Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy
Stefano Moriggi
Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/me-18373

Published 2025-12-30

Keywords

  • Disinformation,
  • Media Literacy,
  • Prebunking,
  • Teacher education,
  • visual literacy

Copyright (c) 2025 Nicola Bruno, Annamaria De Santis, Stefano Moriggi

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This study evaluates a national program for media literacy training designed to enhance Italian teachers' competencies in digital source evaluation and disinformation detection. Using a “remediated prebunking” approach, the program involved 115 primary and secondary school teachers across Italy in a blended learning experience combining online modules with hands-on workshops. The intervention focused on two core areas: digital source verification and visual literacy for detecting manipulated images. A pre-post quasi-experimental design assessed six competency domains through mixed-methods evaluation emphasizing argumentative reasoning over simple classification accuracy. Results demonstrated significant improvements across all domains, with particularly notable gains in visual literacy and collaborative analytical skills. These findings suggest that “remediated prebunking” methodologies can effectively address systematic gaps in teacher preparation for tackling disinformation in digital citizenship education, providing evidence-based guidance for scalable professional development interventions.

PDF

References

  1. Aljalabneh, A. (2024). Visual media literacy: Educational strategies to combat image and video disinformation on social media. Frontiers in Communication. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1490798
  2. Anstead, N., Edwards, L., Livingstone, S., & Stoilova, M. (2025). The Potential for Media Literacy to Combat Misinformation: Results of a Rapid Evidence Assessment. International Journal of Communication, 19, 23. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/23549/5009
  3. Bruno, N., & Moriggi, S. (2023a). La verità vi prego sulla disinformazione. Il prebunking come modello educativo per una società postmediale. In S. Moriggi (Ed.), Postmedialità. Società ed educazione (pp. 101–128). Raffaello Cortina.
  4. Bruno, N., & Moriggi, S. (2023b). Prebunking as preventive ecology: The case of conspiracy thinking. In T. Minerva & A. De Santis (Eds.), Proceedings of the Italian Symposium on Digital Education (ISYDE 2023). https://hdl.handle.net/11380/1366623
  5. Cook, J., Lewandowsky, S., & Ecker, U. K. H. (2017). Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence. PLOS ONE, 12(5), e0175799. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175799
  6. Council of Europe. (2025). Digital Citizenship Education Planner. Available here: https://www.coe.int/en/web/education/dce-planner
  7. Ecker, U. K. H., Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J., Schmid, P., & Fazio, L. (2022). The psychological drivers of misinformation belief and its resistance to correction. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1, 13–29. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-021-00006-y
  8. Erdem, C., & Eristi, B. (2018). Paving the way for media literacy instruction in preservice teacher education: Prospective teachers’ levels of media literacy skills. International Journal of Instruction, 11(4), 795–810. https://doi.org/10.12973/iji.2018.11450a
  9. European Commission. (2022a). DigComp 2.2: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/115376
  10. European Commission. (2022b). Guidelines for teachers and educators on tackling disinformation and promoting digital literacy through education and training. https://education.ec.europa.eu/news/guidelines-for-teachers-and-educators-on-tackling-disinformation-and-promoting-digital-literacy-through-education-and-training
  11. Eugeni, R. (2015). La condizione postmediale. Scholé.
  12. Frau-Meigs, D. (2024). User empowerment through media and information literacy responses to the evolution of generative artificial intelligence (GAI). UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000388547
  13. Gallese, V., Moriggi, S., Rivoltella, P.C. (2025). Oltre la Tecnofobia. Il digitale dalle neuroscienze all’educazione. Raffaello Cortina.
  14. Hebbar, N., & Wolf, C. (2024). Determining trustworthiness through provenance and context. Google Policy Paper. https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/publicpolicy.google/it//resources/determining_trustworthiness_en.pdf
  15. Huang, G., Jia, W., & Yu, W. (2024). Media literacy interventions improve resilience to misinformation: A meta-analytic investigation of overall effect and moderating factors. Communication Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502241288103
  16. International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). (2018). International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS). https://www.iea.nl/studies/iea/icils/2018
  17. Ipsos MORI. (2021). Online media literacy: Across the world, demand for training is going unmet. Ipsos. https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/online-media-literacy-across-world-demand-training-going-unmet
  18. Manovich, L. (2001). Post-media aesthetics. https://manovich.net/index.php/projects/post-media-aesthetics
  19. McGrew, S., & Breakstone, J. (2023). Civic Online Reasoning Across the Curriculum: Developing and Testing the Efficacy of Digital Literacy Lessons. AERA Open, 9. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584231176451
  20. Moriggi, S. (2023). Postmedialità. Società ed educazione. Raffaello Cortina.
  21. Pérez-Escolar, M., Lilleker, D. G., & Tapia-Frade, A. (2023). A systematic literature review of the phenomenon of disinformation and misinformation. Media and Communication, 11(2), 76–87. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i2.6487
  22. Ranieri, M., Bruni, I., & Kupiainen, R. (2018). Digital and Media Literacy in Teacher Education: Findings and Recommendations from the European Project e-MEL. Italian Journal of Educational Research, 151-166. https://ojs.pensamultimedia.it/index.php/sird/article/view/2796
  23. Ranieri, M. (2021). Cittadinanza digitale e sviluppo professionale. Quali dimensioni concettuali, quali approcci formativi?. Essere a scuola, 6, 12-16. https://www.morcelliana.net/img/cms/Materiali%20on%20line/essere%20a%20scuola/2021/6%202021%20-%20febbraio/Contributo%20Eas%206.pdf
  24. Rivoltella, P. C. (2020). Nuovi alfabeti. Educazione e culture nella società post-mediale. Scholé.
  25. TeaMLit Project. (2023). Media Literacy in Teacher Education: Comparative Report. https://media-and-learning.eu/project/teamlit/
  26. Trust, T., Maloy, R., Butler, A. & Goodman, L. (2022). Critical Media Literacy in Teacher Education: Discerning Truth Amidst a Crisis of Misinformation and Disinformation. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 30(2), 167-176. Waynesville, NC USA: Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.70725/007235rcfely
  27. Tsankova, S., Angova, S., Nikolova, M., Valchanov, I., Valkov, I., & Minev, G. (2023). The media literacy and the teachers. Pedagogika–Pedagogy, 95(1), 68–80. https://doi.org/10.53656/ped2023-3.03
  28. UNESCO (2018). Journalism, fake news & disinformation: handbook for journalism education and training. https://unesdoc.UNESCO.org/ark:/48223/pf0000265552
  29. van der Linden, S. (2023). Foolproof: Why we fall for misinformation and how to build immunity. 4th Estate.
  30. Wardle, C., & Derakhshan, H. (2017). Information disorder: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policy making. Council of Europe Report. Retrieved online October 14, 2025. Available here https://edoc.coe.int/en/media/7495-information-disorder-toward-an-interdisciplinary-framework-for-research-and-policy-making.html
  31. Zaçellari, M., & Reçi, L. (2024). Empowering future teachers with media and literacy skills. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research and Development, 11(1), 74–81. https://doi.org/10.56345/ijrdv11n108