This special issue of Information Matters explores how the discipline of Information Literacy (IL) can develop: in the future, and for the future. The argument that IL is a subject of research and practice in its own right has been gaining ground, in particular with the formation in 2021 of the international collaboration, ILIAD (Information Literacy is a Discipline).
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Social media is used today by billions for work, education, social interaction, and commerce. Yet, at the same time, it is a story of dependence, addiction, extremism, intimidation, subversion, pollution, and politics. Technical outages, addictive programming, control and intimidation by tech giants, pollution of information and discourse environments, and political manipulation are only some of the issues rattling social media platforms. Important controversies have arisen around the promotion of anti-social behavior, malicious content, and addictive algorithms. Prominent human rights issues have emerged around privacy, data protection, digital rights, inequitable access and representation, and government interference.
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I never expected my journalism degree would lead me to a job as a Graduate Assistant/ Intern at the Journal for the Association of Information and Technology (JASIST). Now, three years and a master’s degree in library and information science later, I’m writing about what I learned – and still wondering about — as my time at JASIST comes to a close.
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Public knowledge is not simply found; it is produced, filtered, circulated, and contested across institutions, platforms, algorithms, and everyday acts of participation. Bringing together contributions on journalism, education, marketing, archives, health communication, cultural representation, and artificial intelligence, this special issue examines how information gains visibility, credibility, meaning, and public consequence in a networked society.
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Social media overuse and social media addiction are increasingly recognized as health concerns (Cherney 2020). We all have some idea what social media means and why it is so easy to lose time when doomscrolling but pinning down why social media platforms succeed at keeping us engaged is harder than it seems.
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In today’s digital environment, social media has become highly accessible. With smartphones, users can connect to online platforms within seconds anywhere and anytime. As the digital era continues to grow, it has significantly changed how people consume media and entertainment. Traditional channels such as television, radio, and newspapers are now often replaced or supported by social media platforms, where audiences can directly follow influencers, celebrities, and brands. From an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) student, this rapid change allows businesses to connect with consumers more directly and strategically.
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The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has sparked a wave of anxiety across virtually every profession. From teachers and librarians to bankers, lawyers, journalists, and healthcare practitioners, many people are asking the same question: “Will AI take my job?” My answer is simple and direct: yes, AI can take your job, but only if you choose to remain superficial in your profession.
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Is information literacy (IL) capable of enabling people to effectively use information in the age of AI? The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) into the mainstream has been even more disruptive than previous technological advancements, such as the World Wide Web or social media, and in some ways has fostered much disorder and uncertainty within the world of information. While new IL models and tools are being developed to address AI, they have tended to treat AI-generated information similarly to how earlier IL models provided checks and balances for considering human-created information sources and tools. Continuing to enable effective use of information, IL needs to keep pace with evolving ideas of AI-generated information and its effects on the human beings that interact with it.
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Because I studied statistics for my undergraduate degree, I have for years maintained a strong interest in the topic of statistical literacy. This is not just because I think it is important for people in general to be able to make sense of numbers and data, which is of course true, but also because I believe the information professions increasingly demand some degree of proficiency in this area. Information sciences as a field diverged a while ago from pure librarian work, and graduate degree holders in LIS now go on to pursue a host of professions, many of them concerned directly with data. That does not mean that MLIS/MSIS programs need to turn into data analyst or data scientist training programs, but it does mean that these programs should adjust their curricula to account for the growing relevance of data work in the information professions.
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TikTok started as a place for fun videos, but for many students it has become a source of news. On the For You Page, a breaking headline can appear right after a dance trend, showing how algorithms now decide what we see. This makes news quick and easy to access, but it also blurs the line between fact and opinion. For Filipino youth, TikTok is more than entertainment: it’s shaping how our generation learns about the world.
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