Integrating mindfulness in media literacy: A culture-responsive training programme for older Thai adults

Abstract

Media literacy is a much-needed competency in the digitalised world, but it is still an unknown knowledge base for older Thai adults. This design-based research set out as an initiative to promote media literacy through an age-friendly and culture-responsive training programme. The design process involved focus groups with key stakeholders and older adult ‘learners’ as well as field observations. This type of research work, in the Thai context, revealed the primacy of integrating media literacy learning with the Buddhist practice of mindfulness. It also highlighted the importance of incorporating certain cultural values and practices - collectivism, a sense of enjoyment, beliefs about the supernatural - into any media literacy programme particularly aimed at older Thais. The findings provide significant insight into the ways in which media literacy - especially as it has developed in a Western context – has to be thoughtfully integrated into specifically located everyday practices and cultural perspectives.