Today I was excited to speak in the session of the UNESCO Global Media and Information Literacy Week Feature Conference that focused on: World Cities Day meets Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2021: MIL Cities to address climate misinformation. The other speakers were: Dr. Alton Grizzle (Programme Specialist, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO) who is the leading light in UNESCO's MIL campaign; Hussein Orekoya (Civil Engineer, Future of Cities in Africa, Nigeria); Dr. Felipe Chibás Ortiz (Associate Professor, University of São Paulo); Muhammad Radwan (The Glass Room Project Lead, Tactical Tech). I was too focused on the session to liveblog, but some links are:
- The MIL Cities framework and the MIL CLICKS campaign ("Think critically, click wisely"!) highlighted by Dr Alton Grizzle
- The online Glass Room Misinformation exhibition https://theglassroom.org/misinformation-edition/ which was presented by Muhammad Radwan of Tactical Tech " In this exhibition you can explore how social media and the web have changed the way we read information and react to it.... All exhibits are presented through a series of animations, visualisations and apps that can be experienced on desktop and mobile". The Glass Room has also been a physical exhibition aimed at creating critical engagement with digital technology.
- The MIL Cities Network, which was presented by Dr. Felipe Chibás Ortiz. There is a book just published which I will feature in a separate post, but here I will highlight a recent journal article on UNESCO MIL Cities Network As Opportunity for Development in Africa which was published a couple of months ago and the MIL Cities Network on Facebook, where they offer webinars etc.
- The Climathon - an ideathon running this week and "a city-based programme ... that offers a clear pathway to action and interaction - an opportunity for cities and citizens to co-create local ideas to shared climate challenges" mentioned by Hussein Orekoya who also talked about his work with a number of other youth organisations he is involved with.
My own presentation focused on the need to see older people as active and creative agents in the Media and Information Literate city. It is embedded below