I was delighted to take part in this event run by Young Scot (YS) and the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP). Here, I say a little about the event but more about my thoughts and contributions. I look forward so much to the research this event was based on being published.

What happened, and why?

To adapt a bit from the Eventbrite description, 

SYP and Young Scot had teamed up to explore how young people engage with news, information and politics in today’s digital world. In summer 2025, they launched a nationwide survey to understand where young people access information, how they engage with politics, and what shapes their views. Over 440 young people took part. The findings revealed a concerning gap:
• fewer than half of the young people surveyed feel involved in politics, yet nearly three-quarters recognise its impact on their lives
• just over half know where to find trusted information – yet many struggle to tell what’s true or fake online.
• The full research report will be launched publicly in January 2026.

So the first part of the event was a description of the findings, including the reactions of a group of young people to the initial findings. I don’t want to risk misrepresenting anything that was said, and I assume Chatham House rules apply, so let’s look forward to the published report.

What happened next?

Over half of the time was used for small-group discussions, of which arguably the most important topics were

• What should political information literacy look like?
• What are our organisations doing?
• What collective action should we take?

I think that information literacy, whether it’s about politics, work, hobbies or anything else, still boils down to understanding that information is needed, getting the needed information, processing and understanding it, then doing something constructive with it. This follows SCONUL’s core model, and I’ve yet to see a model that is more adaptable and applicable to any information need. (Of course channels to information are now mostly digital, which calls for additional digital skills and knowledge of whether these channels are trustworthy. And misinformation, disinformation and fake news has become a big concern.) So it was gratifying that these topics and concerns were discussed in terms of what was practical and likely to be beneficial.

It was brilliant to hear of so many good things being done, and to hear of Scottish Government’s interest in all of this. Sometimes my work has seemed to be ploughing a very lonely furrow, and I am very grateful to have met a great group of like-minded, committed people from very disparate organisations. I was able to promote the CILIPS-funded research into school librarians and mis/disinformation, some Napier work on teachers and mis/disinformation, and the Scottish Media and Information Literacy Community of Practice (aka MILCoP). 

There were many suggestions for collective action. I think the most important one was to keep this proto-community going. I’ll be very happy to contribute to this, making connections to help make things better. Is that what it’s all about?

Update, 14 December

Thanks to Stéphane Goldstein of InformAll and the CILIP Information Literacy Group for the following:

Ofcom recently issued a call on developing critical skills for democracy in anticipation of the Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections next year; and the Electoral Commission has also recently done some work on young people’s views on politics and voting.