From Images to Critical Thinking: Media Literacy Education Paths Between School and Digital Society ^†

Abstract

In contemporary society, dominated by visual communication and the intensive use of social media, educating learners to interpret images critically has become an essential task for all educational contexts. New generations live immersed in digital environments where images, often decontextualized or manipulated, contribute to shaping identities, relationships, and perceptions of reality. Within this scenario, image education should be understood not merely as technical literacy but as a critical and formative practice aimed at developing awareness, autonomous judgement, and analytical competence. The present contribution proposes a pedagogical reflection on the urgent need to integrate structured pathways of visual media literacy within school curricula, with particular attention to the role of schools as educational bastions in preventing phenomena such as the erosion of critical thinking or the diffusion of distorted and unrealistic visual models. This work situates itself within the interdisciplinary debate on Visual Education, highlighting the need to train teachers and educators capable of guiding children and adolescents in decoding visual messages and developing reflective thinking.

1. Introduction

In the contemporary communicative ecosystem, images have assumed a central role in the construction of meaning and in the transmission of values, identities, and collective narratives. The pervasiveness of digital devices and the rapid expansion of social media have radically transformed the ways in which younger generations access information, build relationships, and shape their own identities. In this context, characterized by an incessant flow of visual content, the ability to critically interpret images is no longer merely a desirable competence, but a fundamental educational requirement for navigating the complexity of the digital world.

The image-driven society in which individuals are immersed presents characteristics that are unprecedented compared to the past: the speed at which content circulates, the ease of manipulation and decontextualization, the multiplication of sources, and the fragmentation of attention contribute to shaping a media landscape in which it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between reality and representation, information and propaganda, spontaneity and fabrication [1,2]. Younger generations, although technically digital natives, often lack the critical tools needed to navigate this visual universe consciously, rendering them paradoxically vulnerable to the manipulative logics that govern much online communication [3].

The urgency of an education to images that exceed mere technical literacy becomes even more evident when considering the risks associated with uncritical exposure to digital content. Cyberbullying, the dissemination of stereotypes and unrealistic body ideals, the polarization of opinions through the strategic use of emotionally charged images, and the proliferation of visual fake news represent only a few of the challenges that children and adolescents face daily in their developmental trajectories and processes of digital socialization [4,5]. Schools are therefore called to rethink their role and teaching strategies, integrating structured pathways of visual media literacy into curricula-approaches that go beyond technical or aesthetic dimensions and instead promote the development of critical thinking capable of deconstructing visual messages, understanding the logics behind their production and circulation, and cultivating forms of creative and conscious resistance [6].

Education to images thus becomes an education for digital citizenship, an investment in the psychosocial well-being of younger generations, and a form of prevention against the risks linked to problematic uses of digital media [7]. These are issues requiring timely intervention on the part of the relevant institutions.

In light of these considerations, the present contribution aims to explore the risks associated with this educational challenge by offering a reflection on Visual Education and on the ways, it may be effectively incorporated into school environments. The objective is to outline a conceptual framework capable of guiding teachers, educators, and policymakers in the design of training initiatives that support children and adolescents in developing a more conscious and critical relationship with the digital visual sphere, transforming potential vulnerabilities into opportunities for growth and empowerment. Although this contribution may appear to discourage engagement with the digital sphere, its intent is quite the opposite: since distancing oneself from online environments is impossible, it becomes necessary to understand and study them to counter risks and promote positive outcomes, as has occurred with e-learning and AI [8,9].

The present contribution is positioned as a theoretical reflection with pedagogical proposals, grounded in a selective narrative review of the international literature on visual education, critical media literacy, and digital pedagogy. Sources were selected according to three criteria: theoretical centrality within the field of Visual Critical Literacy; direct applicability to the educational challenges posed by digital visual environments and influencer culture; and disciplinary complementarity across media studies, educational semiotics, and developmental psychology. The contribution is guided by two interrelated research questions: RQ1: What theoretical and pedagogical foundations can sustain the structural integration of Visual Critical Literacy pathways within school curricula? RQ2: Which methodological strategies are most conducive to developing critical thinking competences in learners whose media diet is predominantly composed of algorithmically curated and influencer-generated visual content? The objective is to translate these insights into actionable pedagogical proposals capable of guiding educators and policymakers in designing structured and evaluable literacy interventions.

The following pages therefore aim to offer reflections that not only encourage a stance in favor of literacy on these themes but also propose concrete measures that may constitute an initial step toward processes of organizational change within schools.

2. Visual Education as a Tool for Fostering Critical Thinking

The complexity of today’s media landscape requires a profound reconsideration of traditional educational paradigms, placing at the center of pedagogical reflection the need to develop new critical competences specifically oriented toward decoding the digital visual language. Visual Critical Literacy [2] emerges as a multidimensional pedagogical approach that transcends traditional art education, embracing instead a critical perspective on images as systems of social signification. Media literacy education therefore teaches students to routinely apply skills of reading, reflection, and analysis to all forms of media they encounter, establishing itself as an essential transversal competence for contemporary citizenship.

This conception finds its theoretical foundations in Paulo Freire’s pioneering work on critical pedagogy, which underscores the need to cultivate a consciousness capable of deconstructing dominant narratives and promoting active forms of cultural resistance [10].

The evolution of this approach within the field of visual communication has been masterfully articulated by Kellner and Share [11], who theorized Critical Media Literacy as a pedagogical framework capable of linking media analysis to an understanding of dynamics of power, representation, and ideology. Their proposal revolves around five fundamental questions that should guide any educational pathway in media literacy: Who creates the message and why? Which creative techniques are used to capture attention? How might different people interpret this message differently? Which values, lifestyles, and viewpoints are represented or omitted? Why is this message being sent? [11,12].

The application of these principles to visual education becomes particularly significant when considering the pervasiveness and often subliminal nature of image-based communication. Mirzoeff [13] notes that contemporary “visual culture” is not limited to the production and consumption of images; rather, it constitutes a veritable regime of visibility that determines what can be seen, by whom, and in what ways.

Building on this, the contribution of Hobbs and Moore [6] demonstrates how structured media literacy programs can significantly enhance students’ ability to critically analyze media content, developing transferable competences across various disciplinary contexts. Their research highlighted substantial improvements in critical analysis, argumentative writing, and reflective thinking among students who participated in media literacy programs compared to control groups. Particularly relevant were the gains in identifying persuasive techniques in advertising images and recognizing ideological biases in social media visual content [6]. To orient schools and educational institutions toward methodologies that promote greater media awareness, it is essential to emphasize one factor that encapsulates the concept of digital citizenship: critical thinking.

The lack of critical thinking among young people when interpreting digital visual content represents one of the most significant challenges in forming informed citizens in the contemporary era. The concept of “digital natives”, introduced by Prensky [14], has long nurtured the illusion that young people raised in the digital age automatically possess the competences needed to navigate the modern media environment critically. Yet technological fluency, while a necessary starting point, is insufficient to produce fully educated and literate digital natives: contemporary research shows a significant disconnect between technological proficiency and the ability to critically analyze digital content.

Boyd [15] highlights that the notion of media literacy predates the internet, tracing back to 1930s Britain, where educators argued that the public needed skills to critically evaluate propaganda. This historical perspective reveals continuity in challenges related to media manipulation, which today assume more sophisticated forms through influencer marketing and branded content strategies.

This lack of critical thinking is especially evident in young people’s difficulty in recognizing persuasive strategies hidden within seemingly spontaneous content produced by other users, particularly influencers [16]. Freberg and colleagues [16] found that adolescents tend to perceive these content creators as authentic and trustworthy figures, developing parasocial relationships that inhibit the activation of critical defense mechanisms. The integration of influencer figures into marketing strategies has produced new dynamics of online opinion leadership, forming a powerful instrument of persuasion [17].

To foster greater user awareness, the theoretical framework for developing critical thinking in the analysis of influence-generated content must be articulated around several analytical dimensions. Recognizing whether an influencer is promoting a product requires the acquisition of specific semiotic competences. Younger generations must therefore be trained to identify [3,16]:

• Narrative inconsistencies: analyzing the coherence between the lifestyle presented by the influencer and the sponsored products, recognizing discontinuities that reveal commercial intent, conflicts of interest, or concealed and undisclosed product placements.
• Techniques of authentic washing: decoding rhetorical strategies that simulate spontaneity while conveying structured commercial messages.
• Emotional manipulation: identifying the instrumental use of personal vulnerabilities, identity aspirations, and social belonging needs to promote consumption behaviors.

These three analytical dimensions acquire pedagogical concreteness when grounded in empirically documented cases. With respect to narrative inconsistencies, Boerman [18] demonstrates that adolescents’ capacity to activate advertising literacy is significantly suppressed when commercial content is embedded within personal narrative formats-the “healing journey” post, the “what I eat in a day” video-because the parasocial bond with the influencer functions as a trust amplifier that preempts critical scrutiny. Students should be trained to identify the specific markers of this suppression: the absence of statutory disclosure labels, register shifts between personal testimony and promotional claim, and the selective deployment of aspirational visual evidence [18].

Regarding authentic washing, De Jans, Hudders, and Cauberghe [19] demonstrate experimentally that “unboxing” and “haul” formats exploit identification mechanisms that are developmentally heightened during adolescence, rendering young viewers structurally more vulnerable than adult audiences. Their findings also show that even a single targeted literacy session significantly improves adolescents’ ability to recognize these formats critically providing direct empirical support for the interventions proposed in Section 3.

Concerning emotional manipulation through identity-based appeals, the authors [20] document that values-aligned sponsored content, embedding commercial messaging within mental health advocacy or social justice discourse, is the category most resistant to critical detection, precisely because it resonates with adolescents’ developing identity frameworks and activates moral identification rather than consumer awareness.

Pedagogical intervention here requires comparative case analysis: students examine genuine advocacy content alongside commercially sponsored values-based content, investigate the material conditions of production, and evaluate the ethical implications of conflating political identity with consumer identity.

3. Reflections and Operational Proposals

This contribution demonstrates that education for visual critical thinking represents an indispensable requirement for preparing younger generations to engage with the complexity of the contemporary media landscape. The pervasiveness of digital images and the sophistication of visual manipulation strategies call for a structured educational intervention that goes beyond traditional technical literacy, promoting instead a critical and conscious perspective on visual communication.

To translate this pedagogical urgency into concrete teaching practices, several methodological lines of action are proposed.

Firstly, visual deconstruction workshops, held weekly and dedicated to the analysis of visual content, constitute an especially effective strategy. The Visual Thinking Strategy [21] offers an operational framework built around three guiding questions: “What is happening in this image?”, “What do you see that makes you say that?”, and “What more can you find?”. Adapting this approach to contemporary digital content enables students to develop transferable analytical skills. Buckingham [22] suggests integrating comparative analysis sessions, in which students examine original and manipulated versions of the same image, strengthening their capacity to recognize digital alteration techniques.

A second methodological direction draws upon the “pedagogy of production” theorized by Jenkins et al. [23], operationalized through creative projects that shift students from passive consumers to conscious producers. Students may be guided in designing ethical advertising campaigns, creating educational videos on visual manipulation risks, or developing “visual fact-checking” analyses of viral content. According to Potter [24], firsthand experience of media production processes fosters greater awareness of the commercial and persuasive logic that governs digital communication.

To render these methodological orientations pedagogically actionable, two structured unit exemplars are proposed, differentiated by school cycle.

For lower secondary school, a visual deconstruction unit unfolds as follows: students analyze social media images through the Visual Thinking Strategy grid [21]; compare original and digitally altered versions of the same image, cataloguing specific manipulation techniques; apply the five critical questions of Kellner and Share [11,12] to two posts from a single influencer; and synthesize findings into a peer-facing critical guide, evaluated through an analytic rubric assessing semiotic accuracy, argumentative quality, and collaborative coherence. Breakstone and colleagues [25], in a large-scale study, demonstrated that structured analytic tasks of this type produced significant and lasting improvements in students’ ability to assess the credibility and intent of digital content.

For upper secondary school, a lateral reading and production unit applies the approach developed by the Stanford History Education Group [26]: rather than analyzing a source in isolation, students immediately seek independent external information to contextualize and verify it. Students map the influencer ecosystem of a chosen thematic domain, verify claims and affiliations through lateral reading, then produce a short fact-checking video for peers. Assessment integrates the quality of source triangulation, argumentative rigor, and communicative clarity of the final product.

Across both exemplars, assessment is conceived as a continuous, multi-modal process embedded within learning activities rather than confined to summative testing, consistent with the “critical moments” framework proposed [27].

However, the effectiveness of any media literacy intervention ultimately depends on the specific preparation of teachers. Research by Hobbs and Moore [6] shows that structured teacher training programs, lasting at least 40 h, lead to significant improvements in students’ media literacy competencies. It is therefore recommended that interdisciplinary training pathways be implemented, integrating semiotic, pedagogical, and technical competences, with particular attention to influencer marketing strategies and the detection of product placement on social media.

In terms of practical implementation, the integration of Visual Critical Literacy should not be conceived as an additional subject but rather as a transversal competence embedded across all disciplinary areas. Van der Bend et al. [27] advocate for the introduction of “critical moments” within everyday teaching practices, where any visual content used becomes an object of systematic analysis.

For these methodological interventions to be truly effective, a systemic approach is required, one that involves schools, families, and the broader community. Creating collaborative networks among institutions, sharing open educational resources, and organizing public training events can amplify the impact of these initiatives, transforming image education from an experimental endeavor into an established pedagogical practice.

A methodologically honest assessment must acknowledge that media literacy interventions are not universally effective: approaches focused predominantly on exposing manipulation risk producing cynicism rather than critical agency, and competence gains tend not to persist without adequate teacher training, dedicated curriculum time, and coherent vertical progression across school cycles. These challenges do not diminish the urgency of the proposed investment; rather, they define the structural conditions under which it can generate durable outcomes.

The urgency of this educational transformation can no longer be postponed: in a communicative ecosystem where images increasingly shape perceptions, behaviors, and decisions, educating for visual critical thinking means investing in the formation of citizens capable of resisting manipulation, navigating informational complexity, and using digital tools creatively to promote justice, authenticity, and social inclusion.