Truth Warriors: Enhancing the Students’ Critical Thinking Skills through Media and Information Literacy in the Battle against Fake News

The role of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is to greatly contribute to the development of students’ critical thinking in analyzing facts and evaluating reliable sources on online media to help safeguard academic integrity. MIL paves the way for scrutinizing essential facts, discerning accurate information, and fostering critical thinking. This scoping review analyzed valuable insights and implications from peer-reviewed journals, published studies, and related articles relevant to the topic. This paper highlights the importance of integrating media and information literacy into education by shaping students’ critical thinking skills to eradicate fake news and misinformation. The review adhered to the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews and the PPC framework. The eligibility criteria include problems, concepts, context, language, subject area, types of sources, database, and period (2020-2025). After the researchers had iteratively revised the clusters, the following thematic clusters were finalized for the present review: (1) false information presented as news; (2) ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media; and (3) critical thinking regarding media and understanding power dynamics. Despite the challenges, MIL plays a crucial role in enhancing students’ critical thinking skills, helping them analyze media messages, recognize biases, and make informed decisions. To spread MIL effectively, educational curricula should integrate it at all levels, educators should be trained to teach it, community programs and digital platforms should be leveraged for outreach, and collaboration across sectors like education, media, and government should be encouraged to create comprehensive media literacy initiatives. Collectively, these efforts can help build a more media-literate society capable of critically navigating the complex information landscape.