South Korea to hold media literacy week with exhibition, escape game and play from Oct 23

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Press Foundation will hold the "2026 Media Literacy Week - ME:LI Week" from Oct 23 to Nov 16, they said. Yonhap and Newsis report the announcement as made on the 22nd, while Asia Economy says it was made on the 21st. "ME:LI" is a shortened form of media literacy, which refers to literacy about media and critical, multidimensional thinking, according to Yonhap and Asia Economy. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]

This year's event is built around the message that "the same fact looks different depending on where you stand". Through participatory programmes such as an exhibition, an escape game and a play, visitors are meant to experience the importance of examining evidence and judging for themselves rather than accepting information as it is. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]

Asia Economy said three main experience events will run in Seongsu-dong, Seoul. A new exhibition will be shown for the first time from Oct 24 to Nov 8 at a pop-up store at 5 Seongsu-i-ro 18-gil. Visitors spend a day in the year 2046, when artificial intelligence is deeply part of daily life, and are meant to sense that an AI's judgement can also be one point of view. At the same place, the escape game "Jump x Cut" 2.0 has participants start from a single news item and trace clues to an incident, seeing how their view of the first information they received changes. [ 1 ]

The play "Jump x Cut" will have its official premiere at the Uran Foundation's Uran 2 Gyeong nearby, from Nov 7 to 15. It follows six characters whose accounts and memories of one incident conflict, and asks the audience how they take in what someone says. [ 1 ]

Related events on media literacy and the future of journalism will run over three weeks. On Oct 23 at the Korea Press Center, a national media education conference will be held on media education for an AI-native generation. On Nov 14 at the Cube Convention Center, the "ME:LI Awards" will honour winners of the 7th news-reading news-diary contest and the 8th youth checkathon. On Nov 16, the last day, the Korea Press Foundation's journalism conference on the next decade of journalism will be held at the Korea Press Center. [ 1 ]

Anyone aged 12 or over can take part free of charge. Reservation methods and detailed schedules are on the official website, www.meliweek.com. Minister Choi Hwi-young said the week would be a good opportunity to build the ability to view information from many perspectives and accept it critically in the AI era. He said the ministry plans to keep expanding media literacy education and experience programmes so that people can respond actively to changes in the media environment. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]