Building resilience to misinformation: A cross-national development of the Digital Media and Information Literacy Scale (DMILS)

Abstract

Amid growing concern about information quality and credibility in digital media environments, researchers and educators still lack a concise, comprehensive yet psychometrically sound instrument for tracking the various competencies that help people navigate this landscape. This article develops the Digital Media and Information Literacy Scale (DMILS)—a robust and multidimensional measure that distinguishes domain (digital vs information/news), competency type (knowledge vs skill), and is measured through both subjective and objective items. Through two empirical studies with three nationally matched samples in the United States and Singapore ( N = 1498), we developed an 18-item self-report battery and 16-item objective knowledge questions, showing strong structural, convergent, and predictive validity, along with a short form (eight self-report and eight objective items). By offering a parsimonious yet multidimensional yardstick, DMILS enables rigorous evaluation of media literacy interventions and supplies a common metric for cross-national research, critical for building an information ecosystem resilient to mis- and disinformation.