Harmony in diversity: Digital literacy research in a multidisciplinary landscape

Abstract

The advent of the digital era has significantly heightened interest in digital literacy across multidisciplinary backgrounds and has endowed these fields with interdisciplinary and integrative characteristics. In this study, we employed VOSviewer and Bibliometrix for bibliometric and descriptive analyses of digital literacy, and we analyzed 3005 records from the Social Science Citation Index and Science Citation Index. We constructed keyword co-occurrence time networks across five distinct research areas and supplemented them with keyword co-occurrence frequencies to examine similarities and differences between research themes from diverse disciplinary perspectives. The findings of this study indicate that although various fields recognize the significance of digital literacy, different fields prioritize different aspects. As the main field of research, Education & Educational Research focus primarily on the pedagogical practices of cultivating digital literacy, whereas Communication emphasizes the cultivation of digital literacy to address challenges in information dissemination. Information Science & Library Science typically view libraries as central to digital literacy. Moreover, Computer Science research emphasizes the leveraging of technology, whereas Psychology explores the connection between digital literacy and cognitive processes. Analyzing the differences between different disciplines and drawing new ideas from them is of great significance for Education & Educational Research regarding how to deepen digital literacy education content, construct digital literacy education contexts, integrate digital literacy education resources, narrow the digital divide, and promote educational equity in the future.