Instagram, Political Participation, and Critical Media Literacy

The use of social media platforms like Instagram for consumption of news and political content has gained large popularity among young adults in Germany. Simultaneously, an increase of criminal right-wing organization and radicalization has been noted in the same demographic group. These developments make it crucial to better understand how and why young adults engage with political content on social media. Notably, while much research has been invested in developing insights at this intersection, little to no works have focussed on the role of critical media literacy in the engagement patterns and motivations. Further, as most approaches have been quantitative, qualitative understanding is lacking. This thesis addresses these scientific gaps, by focussing on the most used social media platform among the target group, Instagram, and asking: How do German young adults draw on critical media literacy when engaging with political content on Instagram? Based on thematic analysis of ten semi-structured interviews with politically left-oriented, well-educated young adults, this work finds, that the participants overall successfully apply critical media literacy for informed and reflected consumption of and engagement with political content on Instagram. This e.g. includes detecting underlying algorithmic structures or purposely applied representational means for opinion manipulation, as well as questioning reliability of content and seeking additional sources to fact-check. However, the findings also highlight a selective application of critical media literacy, as the participants mostly applied their criticality in favor of the own and against other viewpoints. This challenges the predominant scholarly assumption that critical media literacy naturally fosters a balanced approach to media texts. Thus, this study highlights a need for revisiting the definition of critical media literacy, and points at the relevance of increasing scholarly engagement with the concept in relation to young adults' political socialization and participation on social media platforms, specifically with additional foci on different educational and political backgrounds, in order to further contribute to the societal relevance and create a more exhaustive, nuanced picture.