The dialectics of media and information literacy with information disorder in the post-truth digital era: a multi-level theoretical and critical analysis

Information disorder in the post-truth digital environment poses urgent challenges to epistemic agency and democratic discourse, demanding theoretically robust frameworks for Media and Information Literacy (MIL). A critical systematic review of 127 peer-reviewed studies indexed in Scopus and Web of Science (2018–2024) was conducted, complemented by meta-theoretical analysis. The theoretical framework integrates social constructivism, cultural capital theory, cultural hegemony, critical discourse analysis, inoculation theory, dual-process theory, and participatory culture paradigms, tracing MIL across three paradigmatic formations: the protectionist, critical empowerment, and liberatory praxis models. MIL constitutes a multidimensional epistemic-praxeological system in which epistemological vigilance, critical metacognitive awareness, and hermeneutic competence are essential cognitive tools for confronting the structural-discursive complexities of information disorder within digital capitalism. Prevailing MIL frameworks inadequately address the political-economic conditions sustaining information disorder. A radical integrative model is proposed, structured around five interlocking pillars spanning epistemological, cognitive, socio-cultural, political-economic, and transformative praxis dimensions, offering a theoretically grounded architecture for MIL intervention in contemporary information ecosystems.