Friday, May 07, 2021

Notes from: Media and Information Literacy for Government Officials and Policy-makers #MILCLICKS

I attended the WSIS forum webinar that I advertised earlier today, which had an impressive list of panellists (see my previous blog post). It started by publicising the MOOC (free online course) that is being developed by the United Nations University: Media, Information and Literacy (MIL) MOOC for Government Officials and Policy-makers (see https://egov.unu.edu/research/media-information-and-literacy-mil-mooc-for-government-officials-and-policy-makers.html#outline) which will launch in a few months. At the start of the webinar they outlined that there will be 4 modules in the course (An invitation to MIL; MIL policies and strategies; Mainstreaming MIL in general policy development; Practice & experience).
There was also broader discussion about related Media and Information Literacy issues. Points that were made included: that in some regions of the world governments would be unwilling to support MIL, because critical and independent thinking is thought of as disrespectful and not something to be developed; that involving citizens in developing MIL was essential (and not just involving media companies etc.) - the link to the SDG about "leaving noone behind" was mentioned; that fact-checking is not enough - for example, critical thinking is vital; the need for all stakeholders to collaborate to move forward, and for it to be transdisciplinary; the need for a multilevel approach (from local grassroots, through national, to international policy), all joined up.
There is a recording of the webinar on Facebook https://fb.watch/5kVUgVaLUr/ and this was the agenda and panel biographies https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2021/Agenda/Session/399

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