Lecture/Masterclass with Jad Melki
Media Literacy of Genocide, War and Colonialism

August 31, 2026
Lecture: 13:15-15:00h & Masterclass: 15:30-17:00h
Utrecht University

Lecture: Media Literacy of Genocide, War and Colonialism

The presentation summarizes an alternative approach to media literacy pedagogies for marginalized communities and postcolonial countries, especially in the Global South, tackling unexplored issues such as media literacy of war, terrorism, pandemics, infodemics, populism, colonialism, genocide, and intersectional feminism. With an emphasis on developing critical and emotive consciousness, it provides a unique perspective that fits the needs of people at the margins and challenges mainstream media literacy approaches mainly designed for the Global North. It offers a framework for designing curricula at and with the margins through an emancipatory media literacy approach. This approach directs energy toward resistance and praxis, focuses on local priorities of the margins, contextualizes issues within a postcolonial historical moment, and concentrates on fighting oppression structures and social injustice. The lecture will use the Gaza genocide as a case study.

Masterclass for RMa & PhD Students:

The masterclass will revolve around an open discussion of the concept of ‘media literacy of the oppressed’, linked to chapter 1 and 4 in the book, in relation to projects and interests of participating students.

Readings (available after registration):

  • Chapter 1: “Failures of Mainstream Media Literacy: A Case for an Emancipatory Media Literacy Framework”. Melki, J. (2025). Media Literacy Of The Oppressed: An Emancipatory Pedagogy for/with the Marginalized (1st ed.). Routledge.
  • Chapter 4: “Media Literacy of Colonialism, War, and Genocide: The Clash of Narratives and the Crushing of Worlds ” Melki, J. (2025). Media Literacy Of The Oppressed: An Emancipatory Pedagogy for/with the Marginalized (1st ed.). Routledge.

Recommended:

  • Chapter 2: “Media Literacy of Oppressed Identities: An Intersectional Feminist Approach for the Whole Society”. Melki, J. (2025). Media Literacy Of The Oppressed: An Emancipatory Pedagogy for/with the Marginalized (1st ed.). Routledge.

Details Lecture/Masterclass:

Date & Time: Monday, August 31, 2026, Lecture: 13.15-15.00h / Masterclas: 15.30-17.00h
Organized by: Koen Leurs, (Utrecht University); Annamária Neag (University of Groningen) and Çigdem Bozdag (University of Groningen), in relation to their forthcoming co-authored book Inclusive Media Education. Critical Media Literacies for Diverse Societies (Routledge).
Contact Person: Koen Leurs (k.h.a.leurs@uu.nl)
Credits: RMA and PhD students can receive 1 ECTS by completing the required reading and participating in the Lecture and Masterclass.
Registration: Click here

Biography

Jad Melki, Ph.D., is professor of journalism and media studies and director of the Institute of Media Research and Training at LAU. He is also a visiting faculty at the Salzburg Academy and an affiliated researcher at the University of Maryland. In 2015, Melki won the UNESCO-UNAoC International Media Literacy Award for advancing media literacy in the Arab region through the Media and Digital Literacy Academy of Beirut. Melki’s research is at the intersection of digital media literacy, journalism, war, gender and health communication. He won the 2020 Shoman Arab Researchers Award for his research on the impact of social media in the Arab World. Previously, Melki was founding director of Media Studies at the AUB and has taught at the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins and Towson University. As a former journalist, Melki won a Webby Award and a National Press Club Award for covering the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon. His latest book, Media Literacy of the Oppressed provides alternative approaches to media literacy pedagogies for marginalized communities and people in postcolonial countries, especially in the Global South, tackling the unexplored issues of media literacy of war, terrorism, pandemics, infodemics, populism, colonialism, genocide, and intersectional feminism.

 

Financially supported by Utrecht University Focus Area Governing the Digital Society, Digital Migration Special Interest Group
Additional partners: Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies (NOG), Netherlands Research school for Media Studies (RMeS), and Utrecht University Sector Plan theme “Welfare, Participation, and Citizenship in a Digital World”