All-Party Parliamentary Group on Media Literacy
The Student View has teamed up with parliamentarians and leading experts to discuss how to make Britain the safest place in the world to be online.
A media literate society is vital to our democracy.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Media Literacy is a cross-party forum for parliamentarians to discuss how to equip young people and wider society with the critical thinking skills needed today.
The APPG will work with industry, regulators and businesses to put forward positive proposals for change.
Why we exist:
- 62% of the UK’s local authority districts have no daily local newspaper coverage (JICREG, 2019)
- Only 2% of 8 – 16 year olds in the UK are able to spot fake news (All Party Parliamentary Group on Literacy, 2018)
- 43% of leading news journalists were privately educated, yet this accounts for 7% of the country’s schoolchildren (Sutton Trust, 2019)
Our goals:
- Raise awareness among parliamentarians that media literacy skills are vital to the UK;
- Work with parliamentarians to champion media literacy skills in education and wider society;
- Build upon the current evidence base of media literacy skills among young people and wider society; and
- Offer recommendations to the government to ensure the national curriculum reflects the latest media literacy challenges
Officers:
Chair: Damian Collins MP (Conservative Party)
Damian Collins is the former chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee from 2016 to 2019, leading enquiries about disinformation and fake news.
He has been the Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe since 2010.
Before being elected, he worked in the Conservative Party’s press office and in the advertising and communications industries with M&C Satchi and Lexington Communications.
Co-Chair: The Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE (Crossbench)
Lord Hastings is an Advisory Board member for The Student View.
He was appointed as an independent peer to the House of Lords by Her Majesty the Queen in 2005 and served as a member of the Communications and Digital Committee from 2007 to 2009.
Lord Hastings is the former Global Head of Corporate Citizenship for KPMG International, the BBC’s Head of Public Affairs and the then first head of Corporate Responsibility for the BBC.
Vice-Chair: John Nicolson MP (Scottish National Party)
John Nicolson is a member of both the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee and the sub-committee on Online Harms and Disinformation.
He was elected as the MP for the Scottish National Party for Ochil and Perthshire in 2019.
Before this, he was a reporter for Newsnight, Panorama, ITV News, BBC Breakfast and talkRADIO.
Vice-Chair: Siobhain McDonagh MP (Labour Party)
Siobhain McDonagh was first elected into parliament in 1997 as the Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden.
In 1982, she became London’s youngest councillor when she was elected to Merton Council.
During her career, Siobhain McDonagh worked as a clerk at the Department of Health and Social Security, a receptionist at Wandsworth Council’s Homeless Families Unit, before becoming Development Manager at Battersea Churches Housing Trust.
Vice-Chair: The Rt Hon. the Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour Party)
Jim Knight is a Former Labour Cabinet minster, who was made a life peer in 2010.
Lord Knight works as the Chief Education Advisor for Tes Global, a digital education company that supports educators.
He was previously the Chair of digital and social inclusion charity, Good Things Foundation and is now Chair of XRapid, an app that diagnoses malaria.
Donations by sponsors do not influence the work of the APPG and participants have no influence on the terms of reference or the outcomes of any work.