The Age-Friendly Media and Information Literate #AFMIL City: older people as creative and critical

The latest issue of the Journal of Information Literacy includes an article by me and Bill Johnston (open access). As well as drawing on our long-standing interest in IL, it also developed out of Bill's engagement with the older people's movement in Scotland, and our interest in Media and Information Literacy for all in society. We are reacting against the negative and patronising way in which older people are often portrayed as users of social media and online information. The abstract is as follows, and the diagram is the one we present in the paper
"This paper proposes a model for developing an Age-Friendly Media and Information Literate (#AFMIL) city. It starts by addressing general issues concerning ageing and ageism. Key features of UNESCO’s framework for a media and information literate city are described. The authors proceed to identify relevant international handbooks, guidelines and initiatives concerning age-friendly environments, cities for human rights, smart cities, creative cities and informational cities. Drawing on these documents, the authors outline a model for developing an #AFMIL city, centred on older people enacting three roles: their role as consumers of media and information; older people as represented in the media; and older people in their role as creators, critics and innovators. They highlight the role of librarians in this development."
Webber, S., & Johnston, B. (2019). The Age-Friendly Media and Information Literate (#AFMIL) City: Combining policies and strategies for ageing populations in media and information rich societies. Journal Of Information Literacy, 13(2), 276-291. https://doi.org/10.11645/13.2.2672