Media literacy education plays a vital role in college students’ ideological and political education in the new media era. The development and popularization of new media technology and the widespread use of the Internet and social media have significantly changed the way of acquiring, processing and disseminating information, and put forward new challenges and requirements for college students’ ideological and political education. In this context, an in-depth exploration of the effective way to integrate media literacy into college students’ ideological and political education can help enhance their media critical abilities and promote their overall development. This paper uses the three-dimensional media literacy curriculum model (visual culture, text analysis and individual competence) to design teaching strategies for integrating media literacy into civic and political education. Through a questionnaire survey of 2,000 college students and teachers, students’ media literacy scores increased from an average of 3.1159 to 3.4159 after applying the teaching strategy, with the most noticeable improvement in media awareness and comprehension, and Analysis and critical thinking. The study demonstrated a significant improvement in the ability of college students to analyze and evaluate online information by incorporating media literacy. Strengthening media literacy education, primarily through integrating the three-dimensional media literacy model of visual culture, text analysis and individual competence, can effectively enhance the media literacy of college students and provide necessary support for their healthy growth in the information society.