A well-informed public depends on citizens who can engage with the media critically and purposefully. These citizens understand where information comes from, how it is produced, what interests may shape it, and how to evaluate its reliability. It also depends on organisations across government, civil society, and the private sector that communicate effectively through the media and appreciate the professional context in which journalism operates. In an era of accelerating digital change, widespread misinformation, and declining public trust in institutions, this kind of literacy is a civic necessity.
Engaging the public through digital platforms
ACME recognises that media literacy is not a competency acquired only in classrooms or training rooms. It is cultivated through sustained engagement with ideas, debates, and discourse in the places where people already spend their time. For this reason, ACME uses this website and its broader online presence as platforms for public education about the media.
This includes commentary and analysis on media performance, explainers on journalism practice and professional ethics, and resources designed to help readers engage more critically with the news they consume every day. ACME also publishes guides and tools aimed at helping citizens, students, and practitioners navigate an increasingly complex information environment.
ACME’s Why Journalism? video series on YouTube is one expression of this commitment. The series opened up conversations about the purpose and value of journalism, making the case for a free and responsible press to audiences that extend well beyond those who attend formal training events. Through these digital channels, ACME is able to reach younger and more geographically diverse audiences, engage communities that might not otherwise encounter media literacy content, and contribute to a broader public culture of informed, critical engagement with the media.
Training for non-journalists
ACME also delivers structured media and information literacy training to organisations and individuals who are not journalists themselves but whose work brings them into regular contact with the media, or ought to. This training is built on the understanding that the quality of public discourse depends not only on journalists doing their work well but also on the ability of citizens, public officials, civil society practitioners, and others to engage with the media knowledgeably and effectively.
The training addresses the role and place of the media in a democratic society, the realities of journalism practice in Uganda and across East Africa, and the skills required to navigate and contribute to an evolving information landscape. Participants develop the capacity to critically analyse media content and assess the credibility and reliability of sources. They also acquire practical competencies in media engagement.
ACME has delivered this training to a wide range of participants over the years, including government officials, politicians, civil society practitioners, business leaders, and high school leavers. Partner organisations have spanned human rights, environmental advocacy, governance, disability rights, reproductive health, energy, and national NGO coordination.
Media literacy for young people
Young people occupy a particular place in ACME’s media and information literacy work. They are among the most active consumers of digital content and among those most exposed to misinformation and the manipulative use of information. Equipping young Ugandans with the skills to navigate this environment critically is both an educational priority and a democratic one. ACME’s engagements with high school leavers and young people more broadly are designed to build these foundations early.
A broader purpose
Across all of these activities, ACME’s media and information literacy work is animated by a conviction that runs through everything the centre does: that democracy functions better when citizens and institutions understand the media, engage with it critically, and hold it to account. The objective is to contribute to a society in which the press is better understood, more widely valued, and more effectively scrutinised – and in which citizens are equipped to participate in public life with the knowledge and confidence that an informed democracy demands.
