The special issue of the OBS* magazine, edited by the MelCI Lab team, was published on 28 November. This special issue results from the first autumn school of the Media Literacy and Civic Cultures Lab (MelCi) Lab, Universidade Lusófona, CICANT), which took place in November of 2021. This training school attracted Ph.D. students and researchers for a joint critical reflection on the current methods used to explore pressing problems in this domain, and on the current challenges that media literacy researchers face.