The UNESCO Chair on Cyberspace and Culture and University of Tehran are organizing the 2023 Media and Information Literacy Seminar with the main theme of “A Collective Global Agenda” on Wednesday, 25 October 2023, which coincides with the World Development Information Day and United Nations Day.
The Sixth Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Seminar commemorates the 12th Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2023 (24 – 31 Oct) that highlights the 13th Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue Conference and the seventh Youth Agenda Forum.
The annual Global MIL Week, initiated in 2012, is led by UNESCO in cooperation with the UNESCO MIL Alliance, the UNESCO-UNAOC MIL and Intercultural Dialogue (MILID) University Network, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), and other partners. This week-long event offers an opportunity for all stakeholders to assess their progress towards “Media and Information Literacy for All”, and unites diverse actors committed to promoting MIL as a way to foster social inclusion and intercultural dialogue.
The annual Global MIL Week, initiated in 2012, is led by UNESCO in cooperation with the UNESCO MIL Alliance, the UNESCO-UNAOC MIL and Intercultural Dialogue (MILID) University Network, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), and other partners. This week-long event offers an opportunity for all stakeholders to assess their progress towards “Media and Information Literacy for All”, and unites diverse actors committed to promoting MIL as a way to foster social inclusion and intercultural dialogue.
In line with the International Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue Conference, and the Global MIL Week Youth Agenda Forum, 2023 MIL Seminar at University of Tehran aims to address the concept of incorporating MIL for the public good, and focus on how the global community can use Global MIL Week to build MIL as key to a vision of information as a public good and towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Amidst the rise of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) that provides new solutions to development challenges and SDGs, MIL is an essential tool for people’s development. Through MIL individuals can mitigate the problems of potentially harmful content and reinforce rights to information and freedom of expression within the current complex of information ecosystem, and it can empower individuals to develop themselves and their societies through enhanced capacities in communication and information.
We hope to provide an engaging forum for the participants, and uphold the vision that MIL contributes to the public good, and progress towards the objectives of open and pluralistic information systems, promoting sustainable development, inclusion, equality, intercultural dialogue, and safeguarding democracy.
Themes & Topics:
- Disinformation, propaganda, and MIL
- MIL role in preventing the use of social media to polarize society
- MIL, elections, good governance
- MIL in time of crisis (e.g. pandemics) and war (e.g. Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan)
- The role of social media in promoting peace and access to information
- The use of media, information and technology to advance MIL development among people
- MIL and social justice
- MIL policies and practices
- Teacher training; how to educate the educators?
- Youth: Formal/informal education, and peer education
- Information literacy, libraries, the public sphere
- MIL in theoretical contexts
- Youth and the news
- MIL and freedom of expression: Hate speech, dialogue, and engagement
- MIL role in privacy and protection of personal data (General Data Protection Regulation)
- MIL Futures: Innovation, best practices, challenges, the next step, where are we heading?
- Innovation, tools, state of the art technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and MIL
Although media and information literacy is related to all SDGs, particular attention can be given to:
SDG 4: Targets 4.6 (“ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy”), and 4.7 (“ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development”), by affording youth and adults with critical information, media and digital competencies that enable quality education, global citizenship and peacebuilding;
SDG 5: Target 5.b (“Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women”). By enhancing people’s abilities to detect and counter gender stereotypes, hate and racial discrimination in all types of media and digital platforms;
SDG 16, Target 16.10 (“ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms”) and SDG 11 (“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”), by raising citizens’ critical awareness of their access to information; and raise their power of communication in this regard, their fundamental freedoms, and critical engagement with information that makes cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.