Reclaiming narrative sovereignty: education as counter-narrative in Occupied Palestine

In conflict settings, media literacy is a critical tool for enabling young people to navigate information ecosystems and reclaim agency. This study used a constructivist mixed-methods approach with a quasi-experimental, three-group design to investigate a media literacy intervention with 140 Palestinian university students drawn from five Palestinian universities, an in-crisis cohort, across 12 workshops. Combining pre/post surveys using the Critical Media Literacy Scale (CMLS), focus groups (two coders; κ = 0.78) and analysis of student media projects, the intervention group achieved statistically significant gains in framing detection and source triangulation (p < .001). Approximately six months later, 68% of the intervention group reported retaining fact-checking habits, unlike the control and delayed-intervention groups. Qualitative evidence indicates this sustained engagement was driven by a shift from passive media consumption to active participatory authorship. Conceptualising education as counter-narrative (linking critical analysis to media production) can build narrative sovereignty and offers a pedagogical model for reclaiming agency in conflict-affected settings.