This article explores what critical thinking might mean in a media and information literacy (MIL) context by investigating how critical thinking is expressed in three reports that relate MIL to radicalization awareness and counter extremism. The purpose is to engage with recent debates about MIL and research on critical thinking and contribute to a grounded and theoretically informed foundation for discussing MIL competence. Findings indicate a primitive use of the term critical thinking, often bundled up with concepts such as democracy, creativity, and citizenship. More detailed and concrete descriptions about what to expect from critical thinking in a MIL framework display what can be described as a Gnostic impulse: critical thinking as a skill to reveal hidden meanings, to see through propaganda and flawed arguments. In other words, a critical thinking that asks people to doubt what they see. This notion is problematized in relation to writings on media literacy and critical thinking, focusing on the importance of acknowledging reflexivity and identity in the definition of critical thinking.

Media Education Research Journal 10.1&2, 2021