AI & Media Literacy

When we talk about “digital tools,” most people think of apps, software, and gadgets. But for the communities we serve at the Digital Justice Lab, digital tools are something deeper. They’re the difference between being spoken about and speaking for yourself. Between being manipulated and being informed. Between being invisible and being impossible to ignore. This is a story about what happens when communities get the tools they’ve been denied and what they build with them. T

You’re scrolling through your feed, and a headline stops you cold. It’s shocking. It’s emotional. It confirms exactly what you already suspected. Your thumb hovers over the share button. But wait. In 2026, artificial intelligence can generate entire news articles, social media posts, images, and even audio clips that look and sound completely real. The technology is getting better every day, and the people using it to spread disinformation know exactly how to push our buttons

Imagine this: A community organizer in South LA shares a voter registration link on social media. Within hours, a flood of AI-generated posts claims the link is a scam. Confusion spreads. Turnout drops. No one was hacked. No law was broken. But real harm was done, and the community had no tools to fight back. This is the world we live in now. And this is exactly why digital justice matters. So What Is Digital Justice? Digital justice is the belief that everyone—regardless of