Gretel Juhansoo, Media Competence Specialist at the University of Tartu, shares how their team’s creative interventions—from building screen-free TikTok installations to guiding children through AI realities—are helping young people critically engage with the digital world. With experience in both grassroots and institutional initiatives, Gretel has helped shape Estonia’s media literacy landscape through the Baltic Engagement Centre for Combating Information Disorders (BECID) and other national projects. In this interview, she walks us through her journey, lessons learned, and why helping people of all ages understand recommendation algorithms and digital systems is essential to building an informed society.
Interview with Gretel Juhansoo
BCME: Tartu University has clearly made a conscious effort to address current digital phenomena – such as AI, recommendation algorithms, and platforms like TikTok – through its media literacy initiatives. What prompted this direction, and how did you become involved in shaping or delivering these interventions?
Gretel Juhansoo: The focus on media literacy at the University of Tartu began with the initiative and understanding of local media scholars that, given the rapid development of technology, practical knowledge for navigating the information society is becoming increasingly critical. In 2022, when junior researcher Maia Klaassen established and began leading the Baltic Engagement Centre for Combating Information Disorders (BECID) as part of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) network, a new opportunity emerged: to bring together fact-checkers and media researchers across the Baltics and involve even more people with shared values and goals in media literacy efforts. This led to a more targeted development of digital media literacy among various groups, using innovative methods – including playful, hands-on tools to teach digital safety to kindergarten-aged children.
My own path in this field began in a similar way. As a second-year undergraduate in Journalism and Communication, I led a project called the TikTok House together with fellow students as part of a course taught by Associate Professor of Media Studies Maria Murumaa-Mengel. The goal was to use a physical, screen-free installation to explain how TikTok’s recommendation algorithm works to the general public. Since the goals of the TikTok House aligned closely with BECID’s newly launched mission to strengthen public understanding of media mechanisms, we joined forces – sharing project materials on the BECID website and collaborating with Estonia’s Government Office to launch a thematic competition.
A few months later, I was invited to officially join the BECID team, initially as a communications assistant. However, I was also actively involved in media literacy initiatives. My personal focus remained on recommendation algorithms, TikTok, and the spread of conspiracy theories on that platform – which also became the topic of my bachelor’s thesis.
Thanks to BECID, I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to several other initiatives. For example, in 2024, together with my colleague Inger Klesment, we launched the Media Club project. We coordinated a student network and organized over 200 workshops for kindergarten and schoolchildren (grades 1–9) across Estonia.
Photo: Gretel Juhansoo, Media Competence Specialist at the University of Tartu (provided by BCME).
BCME: Platforms like TikTok are a central part of many young people’s lives, yet the underlying systems that shape their experience often remain invisible. In your view, what role should media literacy play in helping youth critically engage with these digital environments?
Gretel Juhansoo: First and foremost, it’s essential that media literacy plays a real and visible role in the everyday lives of children and young people. In my view, media education should be both systematic and rooted in real-life experience, while also remaining accessible to all – regardless of one’s place of residence, school resources, or other limitations.
To me, media literacy is one of the most important and practical branches of critical thinking. Its core purpose is not merely to teach media-related knowledge but to shape informed and responsible citizens – people who can navigate digital spaces, make conscious decisions, and critically assess both the reliability of information and its broader impact on themselves and society. This requires not only developing independent fact-checking skills but also a deep understanding of why such verification is necessary. We must grasp how algorithms influence us, how information spreads, and why we are all potential targets – and unwitting carriers – of misinformation. Media literacy is not just about acquiring knowledge; it’s about applying critical thinking consciously and consistently.
That’s exactly why media literacy development must begin as early as possible. Children and youth need a guided, supportive environment where they can safely learn, explore, and understand how information flows and how social media systems operate – especially since these mechanisms often function “behind the scenes,” invisible to users. If we want young people to be able to ask why certain content resonates with them, how it appears in their feed, or why some types of content spread so widely, we need to provide them with the language and tools to critically reflect on these phenomena before they have to navigate a complex and often overwhelming information environment on their own – an environment that’s challenging even for adults.
BCME: From your perspective, what should AI literacy actually encompass within broader media competence programs? Which core skills or understandings should be prioritized – and why are they increasingly important across all sectors and generations?
Gretel Juhansoo: Since artificial intelligence became widely accessible to the public, its capabilities have advanced rapidly, with new applications emerging all the time. While methods for teaching AI literacy are doing their best to keep up, it’s inevitable that they sometimes fall slightly behind the pace of innovation. But that’s not necessarily a problem. What matters most is helping people understand that AI isn’t some mysterious, independently thinking miracle machine, but rather a massive statistical language model that only functions through human input and oversight.
It’s just as important to explain how these models generate their responses – not through reasoning or conscious thought (which machines are simply not capable of), but by calculating probabilities and identifying statistical patterns. People also need to be aware that the data they input can potentially be used to further train these models, which means private or sensitive information should never be shared with AI tools. In other words: don’t tell your secrets to a computer.
I believe the core focus should be on building the skills needed to use large language models thoughtfully and responsibly across all generations and sectors of society. Just as important is the ability to recognize AI-generated content, whether it’s text, audio, images, or video. That, however, is becoming increasingly difficult, as tools for image and video generation have progressed rapidly even just over the past few weeks.
Conclusion
From interactive TikTok workshops to AI literacy for kids, Gretel Juhansoo and her colleagues at the University of Tartu are building a future where critical thinking and algorithmic awareness are part of everyday learning. Their work shows that media literacy isn’t just a subject—it’s a civic skillset for navigating today’s digital world. Empowering youth with that knowledge is one of the most meaningful ways to build long-term societal resilience.
Author: Baltic Centre for Media Excellence
Background illustration: Dubo