Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Global Forum on Media and Gender: Media and Information Literacy

On December 2-4 in Bangkok, Thailand, there was a UNESCO Global Forum on Media and Gender. One of the strands was titled Media and Information Literacy, although it seems like the focus was on media literacy, not information literacy. The sessions that made up the strand were:  
- Use access to information provisions to report on gender equality and women’s human rights issues: Some experiences;  
- Girls/Boys, Women/Men and Technology: Enabling voices Social media, Internet blogging and GEwe; 
- Gender, media and identity; and  
- MIL and cultural competencies to advocate GEwe: A practical workshop for youths ( girls/boys and young women/men).
There are abstracts from this page http://unesco-ci.org/cmscore/gfgm-themes/media-and-information-literacy and the following articles gives an account of some of the sessions.
Ndlovo, S. (2013) Africa: Critical Audiences Have the Power Watch the Watchdogs. AllAfrica. 4 December. http://allafrica.com/stories/201312050541.html
My perception is that this is an area where there could be more thinking and development in identifying gender issues to do with information literacy (i.e. apart from issues to do with literacy and gender, the media and gender, or computer skills and gender; where there is more activity and literature).
The following page links to numerous publications relevant to the conference, for example Gender-sensitivity: a training manual for sensitizing education managers, curriculum and material developers and media professionals to gender concerns and Gender issues in the information society.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/crosscutting-priorities/gender-and-media/global-forum-on-media-and-gender/publications/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Christmas tree ornament, 2013

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