Each 24 to 31 October is celebrated as United Nations (UN) Global Media and Information Literacy Week.
The Thammasat University Library collection includes several books about different aspects of global media and information literacy.
Information and media literacy (IML) helps people to make informed judgments as users of information and media, as well as to become skillful creators and producers of information and media messages.
IML combines information literacy and media literacy, including creative works and new knowledge.
To publish and collaborate responsibly requires ethical, cultural and social understanding.
Researchers have suggested that few people verify the information they find online―both adults and children tend to uncritically trust information they found from whatever source.
However, people should evaluate the credibility of information and can do so by answering three questions:
- Who wrote it?
- What is the purpose of this message?
- How was this message constructed?
The UN website explains:
The New Digital Frontiers of Information: “Media and Information Literacy for Public Interest Information”
This year’s theme highlights the importance of equipping people with critical thinking skills in today’s digital ecosystem. Digital platforms have revolutionized how information is created, consumed, and shared, posing new challenges in discerning reliable content.
The emergence of generative artificial intelligence further blurs the lines between human-generated and AI-generated content, requiring new skills and critical thinking. It’s a pivotal moment for individuals to shape the digital spaces they inhabit and contribute to a more inclusive and resilient information ecosystem.
#GlobalMILWeek
This year’s Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week takes place in the city of Amman in Jordan.
Background
Media and Information Literacy for the Public Good
In 2021, the UN General Assembly decided to commemorate Media and Information Literacy (MIL) week, citing the need for the dissemination of factual, timely, targeted, clear, accessible, multilingual and science-based information. The resolution recognizes that the substantial digital divide and data inequalities that exist among different countries and within them, can be addressed in part by improving people’s competencies to seek, receive and impart information in the digital realm.
In the current ecosystem of complex and sometimes contradictory messages and meanings, it is hard to conceive of the public good being advanced, if the public is disempowered in the face of opportunities and threats. Each individual needs to be equipped with media and information literacy competencies to understand the stakes, and to contribute to and benefit from information and communication opportunities.
Global Media and Information Literacy Week, commemorated annually, is a major occasion for stakeholders to review and celebrate the progress achieved towards “Media and Information Literacy for All.”
What is Media and Information Literacy?
Our brains depend on information to work optimally. The quality of information we engage with largely determines our perceptions, beliefs and attitudes. It could be information from other persons, the media, libraries, archives, museums, publishers, or other information providers including those on the Internet.
People across the world are witnessing a dramatic increase in access to information and communication. While some people are starved for information, others are flooded with print, broadcast and digital content. Media and Information Literacy (MIL) provides answers to the questions that we all ask ourselves at some point. How can we access, search, critically assess, use and contribute content wisely, both online and offline? What are our rights online and offline? What are the ethical issues surrounding the access and use of information? How can we engage with media and information and communications technologies (ICTs) to promote equality, intercultural and interreligious dialogue, peace, freedom of expression and access to information?
Through capacity-building resources, such as curricula development, policy guidelines and articulation, and assessment framework, UNESCO supports the development of MIL competencies among people.
Global MIL Youth Hackathon
The Youth hackathon provides a worldwide platform for young people to get involved and engaged. It aims to use innovation and youth-led initiatives to address the Global Media and Information Literacy Week theme, focusing on the increasing influence of digital content creators and influencers in the information landscape as well as the challenges brought by artificial intelligence.
The winning teams are invited to attend the Global MIL Week Feature Conference’s closing ceremony in Amman, Jordan to showcase their projects.
Fifth Global Media and Information Literacy Youth Hackathon
Last update:4 July 2024
UNESCO’s 2023 Youth Hackathon, a key element of the Global MIL Week, has drawn worldwide interest, with 95 teams from 40 countries submitting a project on this year’s theme: “Youth powering media and information literacy in digital spaces”.
All the participants were offered a 2-days online mentorship programme on MIL and coding, offered by UNESCO specialists, professors, and international experts.
On 10 October 2023, an international and independent jury selected the four winning teams, one in each category (see below).
On 14 November 2023, during the Youth Forum and as part of the Partnerships Hub, the four winning teams will present their project in UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris. Representatives of each team, aged between 20 and 29 years-old, will receive an award for successfully addressing the need of improving MIL in digital spaces.
Game: MIL Justice League, Cameroon
“MIL Justice League: towards a harmonious digital world” is a narrative media and information literacy video game in which a team of MIL superheroes help citizens find solutions to real-life media-related problems and suggest good practices in order to become media and information literate.
MIL Justice League
Video: Wazobia, Nigeria
The project ‘Disagree in Peace’ brings together divers artists from different ethnic backgrounds with a vision to educate, inform and create awareness on the depth of hate speech and disinformation spreading across social media spaces and how it affects global peace and unity. If there are no regulations guiding the use of social media spaces and mediums to fact check Information before posting, our mobile phones would soon become weapons.
Wazobia
Application: MILES, Philippines
The Media Information Literacy Empowerment Space (MILES) is a mobile application that targets youth to enhance their media and information literacy skills. It offers bite-sized resources for learning MIL, engaging mini-games to test MIL knowledge, and facilitates collaboration within communities to promote media information literacy. Additionally, MILES provides monthly highlights, including events and campaigns, tailored to support marginalized groups in their journey towards digital empowerment.
Community-based intervention: Youth Media Literacy Ambassadors Program (YMLAP), Jordan
Youth Media Literacy Ambassadors Program (YMLAP): Elevating urban youth as media literacy ambassadors empowers them to educate peers and communities, promoting critical thinking and information literacy through campaigns and events. Our mission is to elevate youth’s media literacy, empower all generations, and foster digital confidence.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)