Student-led Media and Information Literacy workshops in India #MILCLICKS

I just received this report from Dr. Anubhuti Yadav via the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Alliance, describing student-led MIL workshops organised by the Advertising and Public Relations Department of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and Media and Information Literacy India Network (MILIN). Both the students leading the workshops and the participants identified the benefits of the initiative.

"At the time of the pandemic when people were struggling with Misinformation and disinformation around COVID 19, students of ADPR conducted workshops on MIL with the emphasis on Fact checking and verification and helped them in developing skills to verify the content they consume. Students were limited to their homes at the time of lockdown and all their learning were happening through online classes. These workshops were planned and designed to make their classes more engaging and meaningful. These workshops also instilled sense of purpose amongst these students by contributing constructively to the community at the time of crisis.
"Seventy workshops were conducted from December 2020 to March 2021 by the students in both online and offline mode in Delhi and NCR region, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bhubneshwar, Prayagraj, Haridwar, Lucknow, Mathura, Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bhopal, Betul, Jamshedpur and Ganganagar. More than 800 people were trained in Media and Information Literacy in these workshops. The demography of the workshop participants was diverse. It comprised of college students (45.2%) followed by family members of the students at 9.5 %. This was closely followed by professionals at 7.1%.
"To ensure participation in the MIL Workshop students mostly spoke to the individuals personally and asked them to participate (59.5%). This was followed by collaborating with the colleges at 9.5%, connecting through social media at 7.1% or speaking to the principal or head of the college or school directly, collaborating with an NGO and visiting a café and speaking to the people there. The key points which were discussed during the workshop were how to access information from reliable sources and how to analyze information whether it is true or fake. Some students also discussed how to create content responsibly for the social media."
More news about MILIN is available at https://twitter.com/MILIN_INDIA and https://www.facebook.com/MediaInformationLiteracyIndiaNetwork
Photo by Sheila Webber: white rose, May 2021