Media and Information Literacy in Albania, Croatia and Serbia Research on the needs and existing practices

Media and Information Literacy (MIL) has emerged as a critical skillset,
especially nowadays. The last three years, 2020 – 2023, have been
filled with different global developments, amongst others, the COVID-19
pandemic, geopolitical tensions like the war in Ukraine, and the advancement
of open Artificial Intelligence, which created a perfect environment
for the proliferation of false information and conspiracy theories around
the world. Altogether, during this period, donors have increased their
interest in supporting MIL as the spread of misinformation, fake news,
and propaganda has become concerning.

Albania, Croatia, and Serbia have not been immune to these developments.
The European Index of Media Literacy for 20231, reveals a concerning
trend. Out of 41 countries, Albanian ranks 38th, Serbia 31st and Croatia
25th. Furthermore, they have concerning levels of media freedom, with
Albania being ranked the lowest at 45th, Serbia 41st and Croatia 31st out
of 47 countries2. All these three countries, despite the small differences
between them, have a low potential to deal with the effects of so called
information disorder, mainly due to poor performance in media freedoms
and education.

With the intent of exploring the country-specific context of MIL, the Albania
Media Institute (Albania), Fade In (Croatia) and Media Diversity Institute
Western Balkans (Serbia) in the framework of the Project Scale Up
Media Coach aimed at increasing MIL competencies in these countries,
conducted research in each respective country.
The goal of the research was to provide an overview of the MIL situation
in Albania, Croatia, and Serbia for the period 2020 – 2023.