UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy initiatives #MILCLICKS

Today I was invited to speak at the webinar: Building a Media, Digital and Information Literate Scotland organised by Scotland’s Information Literacy Community of Practice and CILIP Scotland. Below are my slides and these are the links and references. 

Main UNESCO MIL site: https://www.unesco.org/en/communication-information/media-information-literacy/about 
Short Twitter video https://twitter.com/MILCLICKS/status/1319605689690562563
UNESCO MILA: https://en.unesco.org/themes/media-and-information-literacy/gapmil
Global MIL week: https://www.unesco.org/en/media-information-literacy-week
MIL CLICKS: https://en.unesco.org/MILCLICKS

Doyle, A. (2019). Analyzing the laws of MIL: a Five-step scientific conversation on critical information literacy. Communications in Information Literacy, 13(1), 114-126. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2019.13.1.8
Garner, S. (2005). High-Level Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt: November 6-9, 2005. http://eprints.rclis.org/3829/1/alexfinalreport.pdf
Grizzle, A. et al. (2013). Media and Information Literacy: policy and strategy guidelines.  https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000225606
Grizzle, A. et al. (2021). Media and information literate citizens: think critically, click wisely! Media & information literacy curriculum for educators and learners. ISBN 978-92-3-100448-3. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000377068.locale=en
Haider, J. & Sundin, O. (2022). Paradoxes of media and information literacy: the crisis of information. Routledge.
Owens-Ibie, N. (Ed) (2019). Media and information literacy: non-formal education guide for all platforms. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000372417
UNESCO. (2005). Beacons of the Information Society: The Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning. https://www.ifla.org/publications/beacons-of-the-information-society-the-alexandria-proclamation-on-information-literacy-and-lifelong-learning/
UNESCO. (2020). Evaluation of UNESCO’s work in the thematic area of media and information literacy (MIL). https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374972
UNESCO. (2022). Global Standards for Media and Information Literacy Curricula Development Guidelines. Available here
UNESCO. (2019). Global Framework for Media and Information Literacy Cities (MIL Cities). https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/global_framework_for_mil_cities.pdf
UNESCO Communication and Information Sector. (2013). Global Media and Information Literacy Assessment Framework: country readiness and competencies. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000224655
UNESCO Section for Global Citizenship and Peace Education. (2022). Addressing conspiracy theories: what teachers need to know. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381958
Yanaze, M. & Chibás, F. (2020). From smart cities to MIL cities. https://www.academia.edu/43369259/FROM_SMART_CITIES_TO_MIL_CITIES_Metrics_inspired_by_the_vision_of_UNESCO 

UNESCO - Media and Information Literacy initiatives from Sheila Webber

Media and Information Literacy news

A couple of UNESCO-related news items. Firstly, various news outlets have reported on Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, saying why he thinks that Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is important. This is as plans go ahead for Nigeria hosting the in-person Global MIL Week conference in October 2022.
Oyedeji, N. (2022, 7 August). UNESCO confab to boost war against fake news, misinformation – Lai Mohammed. https://factcheckhub.com/unesco-confab-to-boost-war-against-fake-news-misinformation-lai-mohammed/ 

Secondly, there is a short report on a training session organised by UN Lebanon via UNESCO, for 15 young people, to help youth combat hate speech and misinformation under the Youth Countering Hate Speech and Misinformation project
Lebanese youth learn to stand up to hate speech. (2022, 12 August). https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/08/1124502
I also came across a series of short Youtube videos from UNESCO Beirut Office Verified - Youth Countering Hate Speech and Disinformation - the first one is here (n.b. I haven't viewed them) https://youtu.be/KGfbCwszh1Y

Photo by Sheila Webber: my hydrangea, August 2022

Seoul Declaration on Media and Information Literacy for Everyone and by Everyone: A Defence against Disinfodemics #MILCLICKS

My final post of 2020 looks to the future, in highlighting the Seoul Declaration on Media and Information Literacy for Everyone and by Everyone: A Defence against Disinfodemics which was an outcome of this year's Global Media and Information Literacy week. After the usual preambles, it states the following (below), and then lists actions: for government, for "civil society, media, youth, academic institutions and researchers", for the private sector "including Internet communications companies", and for UNESCO. There is much collaborative work laid out in these actions, which it would be good to address in a (post)pandemic 2021. 

"We understand that MIL on its own is not a cure for all problems, including the pandemic, but insist that MIL be further recognized and valued throughout educational, social and economic systems and that it be applied as part of a more proactive approach in order to build a sustainable and inclusive society; 

"We stress that enhancing media and information literacy for all, which addresses critical thinking, provides a sustainable approach to strengthen people’s critical thinking and their power of discernment about how they engage with information and communication technologies – especially in times of crisis.

 "We urge therefore that “Media and Information Literacy for Everyone and by Everyone” should be advanced in the age of digital connectivity. In this connection, we commit to: 

"1. Promoting MIL within wider efforts to tackle divides such as in access to information and quality education, which have been notably widened by the pandemic, to assure no one is left behind; 

"2. Attracting more participation in MIL and MIL policy from Internet communications companies, academia, NGOs, international and regional organizations, communications regulators, media, civil society, youth and communities; 

"3. Advocating for intensified MIL initiatives to tackle the disinfodemic, climate change, etc., while also urging respect for freedom of expression and access to information which are not only human rights but also part of the solution to disinformation; 

"4. Building MIL considerations into ethical frameworks within institutions and companies, so as to ensure transparent, inclusive and safe development of technologies such as AI; 

"5. Advocate for MIL initiatives to tackle technological determinism." 

Go to https://en.unesco.org/news/seoul-declaration-media-and-information-literacy-everyone-and-everyone-0

Photo by Sheila Webber: pink rose after rain, September 2020 

Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy #emilforum

This afternoon's session at the European Media and Information Literacy Forum 2014 (at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France) started with a focus on the Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy. Carolyn Wilson (University of Toronto, Canada) introduced the strategic goals for GAPMIL and its priorities for the short term. Its terms of reference are being finalised currently. The website for GAPMIL is at http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/media-development/media-literacy/global-alliance-for-partnerships-on-media-and-information-literacy/
Maria Torras Carme (representing the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions - including the information literacy section) talked about the importance of partnerships. She also identified that the information literacy and media literacy needed to identify their common ground and work together to support Media and Information Literacy worldwide. Common themes in the ML and IL included the inclusion and intergration of MIL into the curriculum, the concern that MIL should not just be seen as a technical issue, and the critical thinking aspect of ML and IL. Maria stressed that the interpersonal and physical aspects of MIL are important. She called for a cross professional intercultural dialogue: dialogue between ML and IL experts. Finally Maria mentioned areas were there could be active collaboration e.g. working with librarians to develop teachers' MIL.
Following this Alan Rosenblatt (Turner 4D, USA) mainly advocated active use of social media to promote awareness of MIL. He urged us all to tweet why we though Media and Information Literacy was important (so obviously I did - see https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%23milit&src=typd). The last of the speakers to provide their perspective on GAPMIL was Chido Onumah (GAPMIL) who stressed the important of identifying key partners in the African context, including ones concerned with particular issues such as journalists' freedom. He also mentioned the need for a national platform on MIL in Nigeria (a project I think they are working on with UNESCO), the need to create discussion on the intergration of MIL curriculum, and the need for world market in media. Ismail Abdel Ghafar (Arab Academy, Egypt) chaired the session and made a nice summing up of the presentations before the session was opened to the audience.

European Media and Information Literacy Forum 2014: 1st report

I am attending the European Media and Information Literacy Forum 2014 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France. Despite the title, the focus is mainly on media literacy, influenced by the fact that this is also the final conference for the EMEDUS project (http://www.eumedus.com). However it also reflects the fact that media literacy has more of a hold on national and international agenda (something that information literacy people have to take action on...)

In the session at the moment ("Formal Education: New Curriculum"), the focus is on Media Literacy in the curriculum, with contributions from different countries. Firstly Sara Pareira (University of Minho, Portugal) has highlighted the lack of ML in the curriculum in Portugal, hwoever now there are being introduced ML guidelines for several levels of education. Other important documents include the Braga Manifesto on Media Literacy (2011) and National Educational Council's (2011) recommendations for ML. However these have had relatively little impact, and more is expected of the new Guidelines.
Next, Lazslo Hartai (Hungarian Institute of Educational Research and Development) has explained that media literacy only becomes a separate option at upper secondary level (before that it was, I think, seen to be part of visual literacy).

Unfortunately I have just lost some of my blogging (connection problem, grrr), but I will try to remember what I blogged! Carmen Campos (Spain) stressed the importance of having media literacy as a subject, but also intergrated into the curriculum transversally, and she saw teacher education as vitally important (teachers being supported to teach all forms of literacy). Ditemar Schipek (Austria) felt that ML was well intergrated in Austrian school curricula. He cited the work of the Austrian national library, broadcasters etc. in developing children's ML and also mentioned a conference on gaming aimed at young people. He identified "doing" as important - e.g. children learning how to be broadcasters. He also talked about ways of assessing whether schools are dealing adequately with ML (a "minimum standard"). Patrick Verniers (Belgium) pinpointed ways in which ML might be in the curriculum, but felt that at the moment it was rather reliant on the teacher's individual enthusiasm/ initiative. He proposed a framework for media literacy education (I took photos of those slides, so I may blog that later).

At the moment in the session, the speakers are coming forward again to consider ML education in Europe, as opposed to in their specific country. Interestingly, some speakers see things as having got a worse, posibly due to the Bologna Process of harmonisation of education in Europe. Frequent themes are the lack of requirements for media literacy education as part of teacher education, and the lack of a clear policy framework. Laszlo Hartai mentioned the lack of substantial data on what is going on in classrooms around Europe and some confusion around the concepts of ML, information literacy and digital literacy. The contribution from Natasa Slavikova (Slovakia) included mentioning translating the UNESCO MIL curriculum for teachers into Slovak.

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

Moscow Declaration on Media and Information Literacy

Just released is a declaration from the meeting sponsored by UNESCO and other bodies, in Moscow, held in June: the Moscow Declaration on Media and Information Literacy. I was invited to this meeting, but was unfortunately unable to attend, though I did prepare a video which was presented at the meeting.
The Moscow Declaration is an important document: it starts by asserting some fundamental, first of which is:
"Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is a prerequisite for the sustainable development of open, plural, inclusive and participatory knowledge societies, and the civic institutions, organizations, communities and individuals which comprise these societies."
It then goes on to make some robust proposals for heads of state etc. about what should be done.
The declaration is here: http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/moscow-declaration-on-media-and-information-literacy

UNESCO Media & Information Literacy: report 3

This continues my report from the meeting, held on 11th August in San Juan, Puerto Rico, about developing Media and Information Literacy indicators (the meeting was organised by IFLA and UNESCO). Jesús Lau (Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, México) gave the main presentation before our small-group discussion about the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Indicators which are under development. Lau (who I am pleased to say got his doctorate in my own department, at Sheffield University) has led key information literacy initiatives with UNESCO. He started by identifying some initiatives that provided a rationale for UNESCO being interested in MIL. Examples are its own Education for All (EFA) and Information for All (IFAP) programmes, and action lines from the World Summit on the Information Society C 3 “Access to information and knowledge”, C 7 “e-learning” and C 9 “Media”. Lau felt that “Inclusive knowledge societies require tools to measure media and information access and especially use” and there was currently a lack of data for decision making in this area. Some of the related statistics (e.g. number of books borrowed in libraries) were not good indicators for MIL. Lau introduced a cycle which he felt that applied to bothIL and ML: an iterative cycle with Creation/ availability; Distribution/ supply; Information supply; Distribution/ use MIL skills. Lau also presented a “contellation” of info-communication skills (including onformation literacy, ICT and media literacy, literacy, oral communication, and reasoning). He saw the core skills of MIL as being: Access; Evaluation/ understanding ; and Use. Media Literacy (ML) has a mediating role in active citizenship (e.g. governance), public health (e.g. as regards risky behaviours) and aesthetics (e.g. creativity and self expression). Information Literacy (IL), on the other hand, he viewed as focusing more on the “Information Quality” elements (such as data/information reliability). Lau felt that “both literacies aim to develop the same skills” (which he illustrated with a slide depicting convergence of IL and ML) but IL has in the past tended to focus more on academic side of things (as opposed to everyday behaviours). He also identified that some cultural factors will be more important than others, or will define attitdes to MIL, in different countries. Lau moved on to talk about some principles of indicator development, and the practical options for developing MIL indicators. The first two options he presented were: independent survey specifically for MIL (expensive); and as a set of questions in an existing survey (for example PISA, national education surveys etc.). The remaining two options meant collecting no data specifically about MIL, but using existing statistics: either combining index of international indexes and international surveys; or index of secondary international indicators (e.g. statistics about creating/distribution of information like books). Lau mentioned a number of pieces of work which the current MIL work is building on, some of which UNESCO has sponsored itself. These are some of those items (I’ve blogged most of them at some point, I think, some of them more than once!).
- Catts, R. and Lau, J. (2008). Towards Information Literacy Indicators. Paris: UNESCO.http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/towards-information-literacy-indicators
- Horton, F. (2007) Understanding Information Literacy: a primer. Paris: UNESCO. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=25956&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
- ITU (2010). Measuring the Information Society. Geneva: ITU. http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-d/opb/ind/D-IND-ICTOI-2010-U2-SUM-PDF-E.pdf (ITU is the United Nations agency for telecommunications)
- Lau, Jesus (2005). International Guidelines for Information Literacy for Lifelong Learning. The Hague: IFLA. http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/guidelines-on-information-literacy-for-lifelong-learning
- Partnership for 21st Century Skills. http://www.p21.org - Thompson, S. (Ed)(2003). Prague Declaration: Towards an Information Literate Society. https://ar.unesco.org/sites/default/files/praguedeclaration.pdf
- UNESCO (2005). Beacons of the information society: Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning. Alexandria: UNESCO.https://www.ifla.org/publications/beacons-of-the-information-society-the-alexandria-proclamation-on-information-literacy-and-lifelong-learning/ Photos by Sheila Webber: The first picture shows the tiny straw baskets which our Puerto Rican hosts gave us (on a printout of the presentation) and the second shows some of the participants coming from lunch, Lau is second right.

Media and Information Literacy Indicators: Bangkok report

A booklet has just been published which provides a summary of the outcomes of the Bangkok meeting which discussed Media and Information Literacy (MIL) indicators, organised by UNESCO, as well as introducing the concepts of MIL. I haven't had time to look at it properly and I may blog again when I have read it. The meeting I attended on Thursday (which I'm still posting about) was a follow-on from thr Bangkok meeting.

Moeller, S., Joseph, A., Lau, J. and Carbo, T. (2011) Towards Media and Information Literacy Indicators: Background Document of the Expert Meeting 4-6 November 2010, Bangkok, Thailand. Paris: UNESCO.
http://www.ucm.es/BUCM/boletin/doc17043.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: La Rogativa (statue group) San Juan, Puerto Rico, August 2011

Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers

The Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers was published in July 2011. "This UNESCO model MIL Curriculum and Competency framework for teachers is intended to provide teacher education systems in developed and developing countries with a framework to construct a programme for turning out teachers who are media and information literate." At the moment it is just in English, but it will be translated into other key languages.

Part 1 provides the MIL Curriculum and Competency Framework and Part 2 outlines 9 core modules for the the curriculum for teachers plus some optional modules. There seems to be rather more that could be specifically designated media literacy than could be specifically designated information literacy: "Information Literacy and Library Skills" is just module eight of nine, though evaluating information critically is a thread that runs through all the modules. ML is also rather more prominent than IL in the "MIL competencies". I haven't pondered this in depth yet, but I wonder whether one issue is of having been too successful in presenting IL as something "straightforward" that has "steps", since the modules seem to engage with ML at a more complex level than they do with IL.

Some time, and an international team, were involved in production of this curriculum, and since getting teachers to understand about IL is (everyone seems to agree) vital, then this initiative is to be welcomed. Also, since it comes from UNESCO, it will get international attention. Finally, there is good material in it!

I think a worthwhile effort would be to aim to devise some further modules that introduce teachers to more complex IL issues (e.g. IL in different cultures and contexts) to match the challenge and detail of some of the ML modules.

The page with the link is
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/publications-and-communication-materials/publications/full-list/media-and-information-literacy-curriculum-for-teachers/ and the actual pdf is at
Wilson, C. et al. (2011) Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers. Paris: UNESCO. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001929/192971e.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sculpture on the Unversidad Politecnica de Puerto Rico campus

UNESCO Media & Information Literacy: report 2

This continues my report from the meeting, held on 11th August in San Juan, Puerto Rico, about developing Media and Information Literacy indicators (organised by IFLA and UNESCO).
There had been a meeting of both Media and Information Literacy (MIL) experts in Bangkok in November to discuss MIL indicators: the report from that is just published & I will do a separate post on that. Then there were two follow up meetings, for IL experts (the one I attended yesterday) and for ML experts. The second presentation on 11th August was a short report, via videolink, about this meeting of the Media Literacy experts, held in Istanbul in July. This meeting had been linked to the conference of The International Association for Media and Communication Research. The programme for the event is here: http://www.univ-paris3.fr/73959597/0/fiche___actualite/.

The Media Literacy participants at the Istanbul meeting had welcomed the initiative, but with some caution and qualification. They called for a period of constructive critique and felt that developing the MIL indicators should be a long term strategy, rather than rushing things through. They thought there should be in-country adaptions of the indicators (recognising cultural differences), though without compromising principles such as free speech. It was noted that there was a tension between intellectual property rights and notions of freedom of information. Other points to emerge from this media literacy experts meeting included:
- Ethics tied to citizenship (that was the note I made yesterday during the presentation: I think it was stressing the ethical aspects of media literacy in relation to citizenship);
- Criticality was an essential part of MIL;
- Media Literacy had a political dimension.
In the short question period at the end I picked up on this last point. It was confirmed that this was one of the messages from the media literacy experts meeting, and indeed it is my perception that this is more explicitly a theme with ML experts than with IL experts. Personally I think that IL also has a political dimension, and it is a good idea to surface this, rather than pretending that IL is "neutral".
Two other colleagues raised questions:
- Whether countries would really pay attention to any MIL indicators. The answer was that by putting on UNESCO's agenda, it would get attention, even if not from all countries.
- Whether UNESCO could articulate why ML and IL are joined and also why other literacies are not being addressed. The response from the UNESCO side was that these two literacies are most linked with the remit of communication and information. Therefore it seemed (to me) that there was a certain pragmatism, and inclusion of other literacies in the future was not ruled out.
Photos by Sheila Webber: Sculpture on the Unversidad Politecnica de Puerto Rico campus, and a poster with the University's mission, that I saw posted up in several places.

UNESCO Media & Information Literacy: report 1

On Thursday (11th August) I participated in the meeting organised by the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) Information Literacy Section and UNESCO IFAP (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Information For All Program) on Media and Information Literacy Indicators and Government Action Recommendations. It was held at the Universidad Politécnica de Puerto Rico, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I will do several separate blog posts about it.

The day started with a presentation via video link from Mr Janis Karklins, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information at UNESCO. The picture above shows the video feed. He identified reasons why UNESCO is working on literacy issues. Namely, in order to succeed in fast changing societies, and tackle the challenges of the knowledge economy, people needed various literacies. These literacies should support diverse people to succeed. Information Literacy was still seen as part of people’s basic human right which helped people achieve their personal and professional goals.

UNESCO felt that they needed to look at a combination of literacies, and felt that it would be “interesting from a conceptual point of view” to link the two essential literacies: media literacy and information literacy. They had already done work in both these areas. Mr Karklins presented a diagram which showed overlapping circles: information literacy, media literacy, digital literacy, computer literacy and “other types of literacies” (the examples given for "other" were financial and health literacy).
The strategy for Media and Information Literacy (MIL) includes the Teachers’ curriculum for media and information literacy (published in July: I was sure I had blogged this, but I don't seem to have done so. I wil put this in a separate post), establishment of an international clearinghouse for MIL, strategy statements for MIL and developing indicators for MIL.
The point of the indicators would be to use them internationally. It was hoped that the MIL indicators would be a tool for countries’ self-assessment and a benchmark or standard for MIL. The main challenges include:
- Finding a balance between IL and ML;
- Getting agreement on definitions;
- Identifying the indicators themselves!
The process started in 2007 with the publication by Lau and Catts: Towards Information Literacy Indicators, then in November 2010 there was the first meeting of MIL experts, then some further conceptual work, and now two separate meetings (one with media literacy experts, held in July, and one with IL experts i.e. the one I just attended).