Critical Media Literacy, Information Ecosystems, and Institutional Cyber-Resilience

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@article{1724837,
      author = {Maryam Adamu Muhammed, Rabiu Kera, Hamza Suleiman},
      title = {Critical Media Literacy, Information Ecosystems, and Institutional Cyber-Resilience},
      journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
      year = {2026},
      volume = {10},
      number = {5},
      pages = {1674-1683},
      issn = {2456-8880},
      url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1724837.pdf},
      abstract = {Democratic institutions today face growing pressure from synthetic information, algorithm-driven polarization, and organized disinformation campaigns. This study examines how critical media literacy, when built into wider information ecosystems, can strengthen the cyber-resilience of institutions. The central problem is that technical perimeter defenses often fail when attackers target human judgment instead of software. To address this problem, the study offers an empirical framework for assessing human-centered threat reduction. It uses a mixed-methods design. The quantitative part analyzes panel data from 52 public and private organizations between 2021 and 2025. The qualitative part uses process tracing to follow cognitive security incidents from start to finish. The econometric results show that investment in critical media literacy and continuous information verification has a significant positive effect on institutional cyber-resilience (β = +0.51, p < 0.001). The same investment is linked to a 38% fall in susceptibility to socio-technical attacks. The findings also show that technical controls, such as firewalls and zero-trust architecture, are necessary but not sufficient. They work best when paired with cognitive security practices that can recognize manipulated information. For policy and practice, the study proposes a roadmap with four parts: mandatory socio-technical risk audits, cognitive security training, decentralized verification of information, and threat intelligence sharing across sectors. By joining human cognitive defense with enterprise cybersecurity, public and private organizations can keep operating even when their information environment is compromised.},
      keywords = {Critical media literacy; information ecosystems; institutional cyber-resilience; cognitive security; disinformation; socio-technical systems},
      month = {November},
  }