The conference focused on exploring and discussing initiatives and projects that can contribute to making Media and Information Literacy (MIL) a tool for promoting global understanding and peace. It highlighted the need for media and journalism to dissolve prejudices and stereotypes that foster hatred and confrontation, and to advance mutual understanding between different countries and social groups by combating misinformation and hate speech. Special emphasis was also placed on the need to foster inter-religious dialogue as a necessary condition for global understanding.

The main outcome of the conference was the adoption of a declaration for global understanding that summarises the points that will be disseminated internationally during the summer months of this year and a concrete action programme that will be shaped throughout 2024.

The declaration is available on the official website of the International Media & Information Literacy Institute in English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

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During the conference, held in Cairo between 22 and 24 April 2024, a Declaration (in English) shared by all participants on the meaning, role and importance of Media and Information Literacy (MILID) in today’s world was drawn up.

To read the Declaration in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, click the desired language or download the PDFs at the page’s bottom.

ENGLISH

Empowering Youth through Media and Information Literacy

Information providers, encompassing both traditional and new media, wield significant influence over the cultural identity landscape of any society. While the continuous flow of information, media, and technologies presents opportunities for youth education and sustainable development, it also poses genuine risks, particularly for the more vulnerable younger generation. Through the global pandemic that occurred four years ago brought attention to the dangers of an “infodemic,” the current reality is marked by widespread conflicts in different regions, amplifying the challenges associated with disinformation, hate speech, and harmful content online. Despite concerned efforts by major organizations to combat these issues, empowering youth and arming them with critical media and information literacy remains paramount. Globally addressing this need, though, Media and Information Literacy (MIL) becomes crucial, serving as a tool to safeguard children from the potential effects of excessive media use. MIL not only encourages active engagement with information and media but also cultivates critical thinking skills, digital literacy, and life skills, enabling youth to become informed and responsible global citizens.

Media and Information Literacy as a Safeguard for Youth

When discussing issues regarding democracy and development, we often forget that a media literate citizenry is a precondition. An important prerequisite for the empowerment of citizens is a concerted effort to improve media and information literacy – skills that help to strengthen the critical abilities and communication skills which enable individuals to use the media and communication both as tools and as a way of articulating processes of development and social change, enabling people to influence their own lives by making them more in control of their media use. Media and information literacy is needed for all citizens, but is of decisive importance to the younger generation – in their role as citizens and their expression and personal fulfilment. A fundamental element of the efforts to realize a media and information literate society is media education.

Media Literacy as a Prerequisite for Empowered Citizenship

Media and information literacy has become a global trend and tool for upgrading educational systems in different countries. It has become an important tool to encourage creativity and feelings of loyalty, belonging and citizenship. It has become an important mechanism for the democratic participation of citizens in general and youth in particular. It is a way to bring our young people and children from their bubbles in the virtual world to the real world. Furthermore, media and information literacy help empower young people to be active users of the media and not merely passive receivers. In brief, it helps to create an active audience, which we may call “prosumers”, i.e., producers and consumers of media content simultaneously. Media and information literate citizens can also discern “fake news” and “hate speech”, which have become very common, especially on the new media platforms. Such abilities pave the road to better global understanding and result in having more “global citizens” who realize that they share more in common and interact with people from other races, religions and cultures.

Global Impact of Media and Information Literacy

It is recommended that developments in the educational system take into consideration the integration of MIL into the formal school system. It is another tool to reinvigorate the students’ feeling of belonging to their country, their environment and culture.

Students’ acquisition of MIL competencies facilitates intercultural dialogue and the development of mutual understanding through passing on tradition and cultures in new ways and through more tolerance of the other, fostering intercultural and inter-religious dialogue. Nations never develop without critical and creative minds and qualified teachers who can contribute to building and guiding students’ cognitive abilities by teaching them MIL competencies and skills.

Integrating Media Literacy into Formal Education

MIL has been integrated into educational systems in several countries. In Canada, for instance, there is a formal curriculum for all 6 to 18-year-old students. In Finland, there is a cross-cutting curriculum in many subjects. In the USA and Britain, it is integrated as an activity for students, and the same applies to countries like India, the Philippines and some Asian countries. MIL has demonstrated success as a global tool for upgrading educational systems and empowering students. We live in a world full of violence, complications and challenges, and unfortunately, the media are full of fake news, hate speech and harmful content. The only way to tackle these problems is to have a better understanding of the other, countering the negative stereotypes we have about one another. No doubt that media and information literacy can play an important role in this respect.

Here you can read the Declaration in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

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This UNITWIN Network is composed of universities from different geographical areas: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), University of the West Indies (Jamaica), Cairo University (Egypt), University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), Temple University (USA), Tsinghua University (China), Moulay Ismail University (Morocco), Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University (Morocco), University of Guadalajara (Mexico), Western University (Canada), University of Gothenburg (Sweden), Sorbonne Nouvelle University (France), Punjabi University, Patiala (India), University of the South Pacific (Fiji), University of South Africa (South Africa), Nnamdi Azikiwe University (Nigeria), Ahmadu Bello University(Nigeria), Lagos State University (Nigeria), University of Jors (Nigeria), University of Calabar (Nigeria), Hosei University (Japan), University of Latvia (Latvia), Moscow Pedagogical State University (Russia), Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO (Colombia), Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), MICA (India), University of Campinas (Brazil). 

The main objectives of the Network are to foster collaboration among member universities, to build capacity in each of the countries in order to empower them to advance media and information literacy and intercultural dialogue, and to promote freedom of speech, freedom of information and the free flow of ideas and knowledge. Specific objectives include acting as an observatory for the role of media and information literacy (MIL) in promoting civic participation, democracy and development as well as enhancing intercultural and cooperative research on MIL. The programme also aims at promoting global actions related to MIL and intercultural dialogue. In such a context, a MILID Yearbook series is an important initiative. 

In such a context, a MILID Yearbook series is an important initiative. The centrality of information and communication to development is irrefutable. The MILID Yearbook provides a case for media and information literacy (MIL) as a tool for open and inclusive sustainable development.

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We want to help answer this question from a reflective, scientific point of view. A doctoral programme is in fact a collective platform for scientific research to answer certain questions. So in this summer school, what we seek to do is to sort out the questions that, from many perspectives, are being asked in relation to the object of the programme, which, as its title indicates, is Communication and journalism in the face of the challenge of disinformation. 

We have divided the sessions into two distinct parts. The mornings have been dedicated to conferences and debates with researchers and doctors who work, from different disciplines, on disinformation and its context, and how the media and journalistic work face them. We have also invited the directors of the department’s research groups. We have asked all of them to do two things. First, they should formulate the questions they consider essential on the general issue of disinformation, which will help us to understand what is relevant and to rule out the noise.  The second is to summarise the main lines of research on the issue.

The afternoons, the second part of the day, will be dedicated to the doctoral students of the programme, who will present their own doctoral research (or that of the research group they belong to), always in relation to the general theme of the School. To this end, we will organise round tables and colloquiums that will group together specific areas of research. There is also the possibility for those who wish to present a poster on their doctoral research work and are willing to discuss it with interested parties.

Who is participating in the first part, the morning sessions, and why?

All the names and CVs are listed in the programme. But I will refer specifically to what we have asked of each of them. The week will be opened by Dr. José María Mártínez Selva, professor of psychobiology at the University of Murcia. He has done a lot of work on the relationship between media and networks and personal psychology, with emphasis on factors such as stress, personal relationships, etc.  He has just published a book whose subject tackles the question of truth and lies from the very beginning: “La ciencia de la mentira“. We felt that, as the opening of the course, his multidisciplinary approach – ranging from neurology to sociology and communication theory – was very relevant. We expect him to place the issue of disinformation in a broad context and to provide us with a holistic perspective. 

We have then invited different professors and PhDs from the programme department – Luis Pérez, Santiago Tejedor, Michele Catanzaro, Cristina Pulido, Teresa Velázquez, Carmina Crusafón, Sally Samy, Samy Tayie, and others – to give us their different views on the issue. Thus, we will deal with polarisation and the media, the scientific method and journalism, the contributions of AI to journalism -with its problems and solutions-, EU policy in relation to disinformation, and so on. And we close the week with the contribution of another guest lecturer, Dr. Lluís Codina, who will help us to unravel the contributions that AI can make to our scientific work in the fight against disinformation. 

I think the programme is very interesting and quite comprehensive in its approach. We hope that it will serve, above all, to enrich the different doctoral research of the researchers in the programme. 

But is the course only for them?

No, the course is open to all researchers, scholars and professionals interested in the measurement of the capacities of our rooms. They are very welcome.

From your point of view, what are the challenges facing journalism and communication in the face of disinformation?

They are many, varied and affect different dimensions of our personal and social lives. 

To try to answer this question, it is necessary to contextualise the phenomenon very well. What we call disinformation today is an everlasting phenomenon in humanity. It has to do with knowledge and the distribution of power. Those who are powerful, govern or simply want to impose their designs on others have always known that to achieve their goals they had to impose a cognitive (or information) imbalance. They had to accumulate more and better knowledge than those on whom they seek to impose their will. And for this they have used, throughout history, many different strategies, but always oriented to this end: accumulating information exclusively, prohibiting the circulation of information, selectively informing, misinforming, concealing, manipulating, falsifying, etc. All these strategies correspond and adapt to the circumstances and technologies of the different eras and their information systems. In ours, it is clear that this unequal distribution of knowledge or information corresponds to (and feeds) inequalities of resources (subsistence, on the one hand, and of power, on the other), but also of social relations (social capital) and cultural relations (cultural capital).

And this unequal distribution takes place in the midst of what we have called the media tsunami (the great mediatisation) that has digitised – through large platforms – human relations. This is what we need to study. 

Personally and with my research team, we have dealt with many aspects of this problem. I have tried to describe and theorise how media technologies transform culture and society, affecting dimensions of our existence of which we had little awareness. I have done so in “La gran mediatización“. I tried to draw attention to the enormous and growing power of large platforms that were giving rise to two worrying phenomena: a) super-surveillance, a new system of mass control over people; and b) the concentration of political and technological power, what has later been called techno-feudalism. I believe that issues such as echo chambers, studies on post-truth and, in general, what is being studied on disinformation, respond to a double problem, derived from the unequal distribution of knowledge, on the one hand – which, as I have said, is an almost eternal problem – and, on the other hand, a very recent phenomenon that acts as a communicational infrastructure and as an accelerator of processes, which is the digital tsunami. 

But, more specifically, how does this unequal distribution and the media tsunami affect journalism?

Well, let’s be blunt, like a catastrophe that is no less serious for having been announced. Economic catastrophe. The journalistic media can no longer find a business model that allows them to survive, and so they disappear, lay off staff and close down. Or they transmute into infotainment (and fiction) systems that use the changing world as an occasion to launch discourses that, although they look like journalism, do not meet the standards. 

What standards are you referring to?

Those that have made journalism a reliable discourse about the world. And that can be summed up in a few sentences: the separation between fact and opinion. The acceptance that the world has an empirical reality that we can approach with a method similar to the scientific one; the need for objectivity or neutrality (which does not exclude a commitment to certain values) but which requires not lying, not misrepresenting, not hiding the facts; and, finally, an ethical commitment to honesty and credibility that is established with the public… All these statements or principles are what have made journalism a discourse conducive to understanding the world and support for democratic understanding when it comes to shaping the structures of power. It is this discourse that can build a democratic public sphere.

Well, what is now called journalism is either very weak and has lost its power of conviction or impact on public opinion, or it is a hybrid between the language of conquest, entertainment and the trivialisation of society.

If these standards are perverted by sensationalism, banality or manipulation, journalism will gradually disappear. 

But what can be done? 

I believe that current research helps us a lot. It helps us to critically analyse the situation and look for solutions. 

On the critical side, it is beginning to be recognised that the global, and completely unregulated, emergence of the Internet and social media is not helping to sustain democracies. On the contrary, it is eroding them. It encourages the circulation of falsehoods and the discourse of entertainment rather than scientific thought and the discourse of understanding. It saturates information and dulls meaning. And, above all, it reduces direct sociability and envelops us in bubbles where only echo chambers thrive. I think there is plenty of evidence for all this, although some effects can be debated and we still lack the knowledge to be completely certain about what is going on.

On the constructive and political (also professional) side, the stakes seem to be firm and move in three directions: a) the search for more plural and diverse communicational systems, which are free from economic and political influences, and which can safely face the question of economic survival; b) the regulation of social networks, of the Internet and of AI: for the first time, a certain consensus seems to be spreading on the need for ethical, professional and legal regulation of many aspects related to the media tsunami; and c) the transformation of the political system, especially the functioning of democracies: it seems that communication sciences and political sciences are looking for ways to make the democratic political sphere more transparent, more participatory, less demagogic and to ensure a good distribution of power and an effective resolution of conflicts and problems. 

Is there a solution in sight?

I am optimistic. There is no denying that we face great challenges and enormous obstacles. But research and public debate can help many – and in many ways – to find solutions. 

I think the scientific community is being very active in this regard. There is an explicit and more visible emphasis than ever before on the role of media literacy and journalism literacy. In this sense, we have moved from approaches that were especially related to education and training to involve a broader set of issues. This movement is being promoted by international organisations such as UNESCO, which has made Media and Information Literacy a central focus of its action in the field of information and freedom of expression. The same has happened with the United Nations, which has launched a broad programme of action against disinformation. The European Union has also put media literacy at the centre of the fight against disinformation. The World Economic Forum is also talking about the global risks of disinformation, and so on. In short, it is clear that the problem is a matter of concern.

The solutions and contributions that are being implemented in the academic field are very interesting and offer very valuable information. They range from observatories specialised in the fight against disinformation, EDMO, observatories and reports on pluralism, political initiatives such as those of the Council of Europe, professional and academic networks, such as the UNESCO Global Alliance, the UNESCO network of universities in favour of MIL, or the one being promoted by specific states such as the USA, DCN. 

Taken together, I believe solutions will be found. The problem is whether we will be in time to avoid catastrophes. 

What catastrophes are you referring to?

To the many that may ensue: terror of coexistence, civic conflicts, armed confrontations, erosion of democracy, perversion of the public sphere… All this has to do with the media, communication, journalism and information. And the problems at a time of geostrategic and technological change as important as the one we are living through create a lot of uncertainty.

Is social polarisation an aggravating factor?

A certain degree of confrontation and dialectical conflict is enriching for democracy, for reliable information and, above all, for finding solutions to conflicts. What happens is that this confrontation needs a stable, calm and explicit framework for argumentation and reasoning. All voices must be listened to calmly, exchanges must be equal, discourse must be rational, based on empirical data and respect the facts as much as the interlocutors. If this is the case, debate (even if polarised) is good. However, what we are experiencing nowadays is that debates are moving away from rationality and are based on emotional discourses in which identity, subjectivity and sentiment seem to prevail over any other consideration. Thus, victimhood, fear, emotional impulses, unbalanced by any calculation, are spreading. And even the perspective on reality is blurred: it is not science that is taken into account, but the will of those who want to see reality in their own way… If this happens within a media system where the circulation of information is not filtered or subjected to criticism, where any statement, true or false, spreads at the speed of light, then the problem is serious. Paul Vrilio said that we are moving in the dimensions of an atomic explosion, and that is how information works today. The risk is therefore great, and polarisation is the catalyst for fanaticism and the spread of statements that do not correspond to reality.

What about scientific discourse?

Paradoxically, the more and better science is practised, the more stereotypes, clichés and superstitions that seemed to have been overcome reappear in popular discourse (and that of certain elites). It is as if we were experiencing a certain involution. In the face of this, the media and journalism must make science and its methods more popular and spread them throughout all areas of society. Involve citizens in the decisions of scientists and in the consideration (and regulation of the impact of technology). This is important and a matter of survival.

When it comes to doctoral programmes such as Communication and Journalism, it is very important – and I give this as an example – that in the choice of the objects of study, in the implementation of methods and in the presentation of results, doctoral students get used to discussing not only with experts and researchers, but also with ordinary people, with those who live and suffer, sometimes, the effects of communication. I think this is a more participatory and creative way of doing science. And of communication research. 

To address some of the topics that will be presented at the Summer School 2024, what will happen with AI and journalism?

We don’t know. We are beginning to think of AI as both a boon and a risk. Let’s start with the risks. The minor risk is substitution, that AI will replace some of the tasks that journalists have been doing up to now. And the greater risk is that they will supplant them (which is a covert and disguised substitution). If the supplanting happens, journalism is ruined, it will be nothing, just a machine generation of discourse.

This is what AI research must shed light on: where are we going? where do we want to go? where should we go? and how do we get to the destinations we set out for?

At the moment the research we can do is very weak. We do not have the resources that the big technology platforms are mobilising. We cannot do research either on them (hardly) or with them (hardly at all). So we are disarmed, at risk. I think this is one of the big problems we need to solve soon. Otherwise the drift of technology and the application of AI in journalism and media will be authoritarian. 

With all that you says, it’s a bit scary about the future world.

As researchers we should be alert, but not afraid. The siege of falsehood and superstition has been constant in humanity, as has the siege of abusive power and inequality. Today we have methods to combat these evils. We have new risks, but more collective intelligence to deal with them. We have to live with falsehood, hypocrisy and lies, which are inherent to social life. But the struggle for truth, for respect and reliability is our best antidote. 

We can live with lies without giving up the fight against them. Journalism and science can be at the forefront of this movement, and research can accompany it with all its knowledge and intelligence.

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The Yearbook 2016 offers a local, as well as a national and global perspective on media and information literacy. The different parts of the book draws on relevant research findings as well as theories and practises of MIL – focusing on this year’s theme: ”Media and Information Literacy: Reinforcing Human Rights, Countering Radicalization and Extremism”.  

The year 2016, being the first year of implementing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, has provided a renowned emphasis on human rights-based approach to development, wrote the editors in the preface of the yearbook. Further, the increased levels of national and global conflicts, as well as new forms of extremism and radicalisation have led to questions on the role of MIL in this global environment.

Alton Grizzle, UNESCO’s Programme Specialist, writes in the yearbook’s introduction: ”2016 is the first year of the implementation of the sustainable development goals. A renewed emphasis on a Human Rights-Based Approach to all forms of development is apt and timely”.

The 2016 yearbook contains five parts:

• Community Empowerment and Sustainable Development
• Hate Speech and Incitement
• Radicalisation and Extremism
• Human Rights and Gender Equality
• Inter-religious and Intercultural Discourses in the Media

Read and download the Yearbook on UNESCO’s website.

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The year 2015 is a pivotal year as it marks the end of the period during which the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were to be reached and the year in which new global development targets are to be set.

The MILID Yearbook 2015 provides a case for media and information literacy (MIL) as a tool for open and inclusive sustainable development. It draws on research findings, theories and practices of MIL, and developments focusing on the theme identified for the 2015 MILID Yearbook: Media and Information Literacy for the Sustainable Development Goals.

This third MILID Yearbook is a joint initiative of the UNESCO-UNAOC University Cooperation Programme on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue (MILID) published by Nordicom’s International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media.

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This first seminar is also part of the work of the UNESCO MILID network to develop a Global MIL Research Agenda (MIL Research Agenda) 2024-2028. This agenda is an initiative of the “UNITWIN Cooperation Programme on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue” of UNESCO, together with the MIL Alliance and the many UNESCO Chairs, as well as entities and projects working in the sector in relation to the Organization; and its mission is to become a vector that facilitates the connection between the field of research and the field of social and political action in media literacy. In this sense, it is emerging as a conceptual framework of reference that will allow researchers, public policy makers and other actors in the sector to share experiences and knowledge and to make concrete efforts.

The UAB’s Gabinete de Comunicación y Educación is also working along the same lines, and many of its initiatives aim to offer resources for raising awareness and promoting media literacy in a wide variety of journalistic and non-journalistic scenarios. Initiatives such as the project “CrAL – Creative Audiovisual Lab for the promotion of critical thinking and media literacy”, which, together with five European institutions, strives to provide the educational community with the necessary tools to combat insufficient media literacy, cultivate students’ critical thinking and help them understand the responsibility and power of their voice.

The initial meeting in Bellaterra served, then, to elaborate this first research agenda for Spain and its results will contribute to the elaboration of the subsequent global agenda. The ten research challenges identified by the experts during the meeting were the following:

• The impact of the media environment on children and youth: benefits, risks and MIL policies.

• MFA and public space, the future of democracy.

• Equality, equity and social inclusion in the new media environment.

• MIL information and quality content.

• Education, training and MIL policies.

• The impact of AI.

• The need to update the conceptual framework of MIL.

• MIL as a driver of a new intercultural dialogue.

• Governance and transparency and the development of media technology.

• The need to develop a new system for transferring MIL research to society.

In this sense, José Manuel Pérez Tornero, Professor of Journalism and Director of the UNESCO Chair in Media and Information Literacy and Quality Journalism, urged to continue working to ‘refound’ the framework of media and information literacy. “The last decades have seen decisive changes in the media environment that we have not yet been able to assimilate: the digital transformation, the irruption of the Internet and the web, artificial intelligence, the successive crises of capitalism, climate change, the transformation of production, etc. Therefore, the object of research, theoretical approaches, concepts and working methods have to be renewed and adapted to the challenges of this new situation. If we work together, we will succeed. The Global MIL Research Agenda is the best way to achieve this”, said Tornero.

José Miguel Túñez López, professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, highlighted the transdisciplinary nature of the meeting, as well as the need to include the entire population in the objectives of the proposed initiatives: “MIL is a necessity in all social strata and needs a progressive knowledge that raises it from a necessity to a preferential focus of action in the design and execution of public policies that allow the projection of more egalitarian societies and help to re-understand the emerging values that support the concept of public value”.

Dr. Carmen Marta Lazo, Professor of Journalism and Director of the Predepartmental Unit of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the University of Zaragoza, highlighted the growing awareness of the need for media literacy and pointed to the incursion of artificial intelligence, social inequalities and the consequences for mental health as the main challenges to be faced in the coming years. “The digital divide in different typologies (age, territorial and social) makes it difficult for all vulnerable groups to participate in e-administration and in the e-administration and digital culture in a solvent way, which has repercussions on social inequalities”, said Lazo.

Juan Francisco Jiménez Jacinto, Director of the Department of Communication at the Universitat Abad Oliba CEU, insisted on the need for the Academy to serve as a reference and provide solutions to achieve the objectives of the MIL Agenda. “The main contributions should come from research that defines the magnitude of the challenges we face, presenting an accurate map of the reality in order to address targeted solutions’ and added ‘Dissemination is key in the visibility of the advances that the Academy determines so that there is an effective transfer of knowledge to citizens”.

Santiago Tejedor, director of the Gabinete de Comunicación y Educación of the UAB, agreed on the importance of forging an alliance between universities, researchers and teachers from all over Spain to “promote work to redefine the strategies that address media literacy”. “The new contexts and new technological developments, led by AI, demand networking, collaboration, horizontal and multidisciplinary work. Added to this is the importance of taking advantage of all the work carried out in previous decades, which is of great value, but which requires new reflections”, added Tejedor at the end of his speech.

In addition to the aforementioned professionals, the meeting was attended by: Andrés Armas from Alfa-Media, Javier Marzal from the University Jaume I of Castellón, Dr. Félix Ortega from the University of Salamanca, Almudena Barrientos from the Complutense University of Madrid, Bella Palomo from the University of Málaga, Simón Peña, Amor Pérez, Rosa Franquet, Juan José Perona, Evaristo González and the researchers of the Gabinete Cristina Pulido and Besanya Santiago.

After the success of this first meeting, the Gabinete de Comunicación y Educación, through its projects and initiatives, and the UNESCO MILID Unitwin Cooperation Programme, together with teachers, communicators and journalists from different Spanish organisations, will continue working to strengthen the establishment of media literacy policies and initiatives that help to develop the critical capacity of citizens and respect for democratic values.

The Gabinete de Comunicación y de Educación is a consolidated group specialised in scientific research and dissemination, which belongs to the Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Recognised by AGAUR(Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca) of the Generalitat de Catalunya as a Consolidated Research Group on the basis of its trajectory, projection and development, it develops projects and research in the field of convergence between communication and education. Since its creation, it has developed initiatives aimed at integrating, with awareness and freedom, communication technologies in the so-called global or knowledge society. Under the direction of Santiago Tejedor, the Gabinete organises different Master’s Degrees, such as the Master’s Degree in Travel Journalism (on-site and online), the Master’s Degree in Communication and Education, the Master’s Degree in Environmental Communication and the Master’s Degree in Political and Electoral Communication Management. The group has a wide and varied collection of publications, in the form of scientific articles, books and book chapters, and other works, which is constantly being renewed. It also has a laboratory for teaching innovation projects, transfer and new formats that are conceived and developed from a perspective based on creativity and multidisciplinary work.

The Gabinete organises every year an academic expedition that travels around the world with students from different universities and careers. This is the Tahina-Can Expedition, which has been awarded as the best educational project in Spain. It also has the portal Tu Aventura, the educational platform InfoEDU and the newsgames and science project Reporter@s de la Ciencia.

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This UNITWIN Network is composed of eight universities from different geographical areas. The main objectives of the Network are to foster collaboration among member universities, to build capacity in each of the countries in order to empower them to advance media and information literacy and intercultural dialogue, and to promote freedom of speech, freedom of information and the free flow of ideas and knowledge.

Specific objectives include acting as an observatory for the role of media and information literacy (MIL) in promoting civic participation, democracy and development as well as enhancing intercultural and cooperative research on MIL. The programme also aims at promoting global actions related to MIL and intercultural dialogue.

In such a context, a MILID Yearbook series is an important initiative. This first MILID Yearbook is a result of a collaboration between the UNITWIN Cooperation Programme on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue, and the International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media at NORDICOM, University of Gothenburg.

Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue are printed in a limited edition. It can also be downloaded here as a PDF, free of cost.

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Given the increasing multiplicity and variability of information sources fed by different phenomena such as big data (data-driven journalism), complex mobile communication devices (mobile and participatory journalism and blogging), information consumption (increased browsing and information creation and consumption due to mobile). The need for better fixed and Wi-Fi connections), together with associated factors such as increased misinformation, misinformation and mistrust in media and journalism, increased critical thinking and citizens’ knowledge about citizens are continuously set as priorities for achieving a more active and better engaged citizenry in the public and private sphere. And, in turn, achieving greater trust in trustworthy media and supporting the appreciation of quality journalism. These come as essential dimensions of media and information literacy that require deeper attention.

Specific objectives:

• Promote MIL in a changing communication and information landscape for quality journalism (share MIL’s impact on best practices in quality journalism, ethics, media trust, engaged audiences, etc.).

• Advance MIL’s role in preparing critical citizens who can identify trustworthy media.

• Reflect on current trends shaping journalism today to identify lines of action and research problems, specifically the potential role of MIL in this area, to be addressed by the Chair.

• Establish strategies to cooperate with libraries and strengthen existing agreements with information providers and disseminators.

Activities

Current journalism and communication practices are subject to fluctuating and complex production and consumption scenarios. New players are entering the media and information landscape. Mobile technologies, data flows, programming skills, etc. are changing the way we create and consume information. As powerful as this scenario is, it also brings risks and challenges. For this reason, the Chair aims to serve as capacity building and knowledge transfer in the fields of interest.

MIL research and policy engagement lead to an impact on good practices in journalism and foster critical and participatory capacities in citizens (empowerment) through wiser consumption/use and production of information and content, and thus investigate the actual media and information landscape (new trends, uses, challenges, threats/risks, ethics, etc.).

1. Postgraduate teaching programme: Master in Education and Communication; Master in Travel Journalism; online Master in Communication and Education (Spanish); online Master in Communication and Education (English); online Master in Travel Journalism; online Master in Political Communication; MIL MOOC (Spanish and English versions).

2. Short-term training: MILID Summer School; PhD Summer School (by the Department of Journalism in which the Gabinete de Comunicación y Educación participates, presenting all the work of its PhD students, with most of the research relevant to MIL).

3.      Research: specific research to be established by the Chair (on strategic issues related to MIL and quality journalism. This research will be carried out alongside current research conducted by the Chair); Current and future research projects carried out by the Chair (conducting a feasibility study to develop an International MIL Institute and active contribution to research conducted by the UNESCO-UNAOC MILID Network).

4.      Visiting lecturers: conferences and workshops (currently, Gabinete de Comunicación y Educación organises annual events on media and information literacy and intercultural dialogue (MILID), travel journalism, news TV, etc., and participates in the annual UNESCO MILID Week, ECREA Conference, MEDEA, etc.); Short-stay visiting lecturers (1 to 3 months). ); Short stay visiting professor (1 to 3 months) (These visits include professors from Cairo University, Arab Academy, University of Latvia, University of Minho-Portugal, among others).

5.      Institutional development: Oi2 Observatory (UAB-RTVE) (an observatory created through the Chair established between UAB and the Spanish television RTVE to carry out research on innovative practices in journalism/news and in media and information). OLCAMI (Observatorio Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Alfabetización en Medios y Información; it is the result of the first Media and Information Literacy Forum held in Mexico in 2014. The objective of OLCAMI is to monitor and document good MIL practices in Latin America and the Caribbean); EMILO (European Media and Information Literacy Observatory; created as a result of the European research project EMEDUS, European Media Education Study, coordinated by UAB).

The Chair will contribute to developing new knowledge on practices, trainings and trends that could help draft and propose scenarios for the implementation of techniques, programmes, curricula, guidelines, etc. to improve the competence of citizens in the media and the quality of journalism.

In terms of capacity building, the Chair is conceived as a platform from which the issues shaping current journalism practices will be studied to get a more complete picture of the potential increased role of the MIL. Examples of significant current trends are big data; data-driven journalism; blended research journalism and mobile and participatory journalism etc. With new media players posing new challenges, this Chair aims to address the different concerns that these challenges pose to media and social media scenarios, as well as equipping stakeholders.

“The Spanish UNESCO Chair on MIL for Trustworthy Media and Quality Journalism” seeks to study the different phenomena currently surrounding MIL in order to improve trust in the media and support quality journalism.

The objective of this Chair is to reinforce the results achieved by UAB as a result of its active participations within the UNESCO-UNAOC International University Network on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue. Consequently, research will continue and will focus on the study and generation of MIL assessment schemes, MIL competency mapping tools, as well as the development of projects related to the relationship between ethics, empowerment, gender equality, participation and journalism.Through this Chair, the UAB seeks to strengthen current alliances with information providers, such as RTVE (Radiotelevisión Española), Planeta (publishing group), UNESCO, UOC publications, etc., to highlight good practices around the world with the aim of reaching more countries.

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Another of the objectives of this work is to raise awareness of media citizenship, the role of the citizen in the different paradigms of the city, the integral development of Media Literacy in the corporate and vehicular sector of transmedia communication and new ways of working in MIL Cities. Digital education and ethics in communication are presented as a key tool against disinformation.

Santiago Tejedor, director of the Gabinete de Comunicación y Educación, together with Felipe Chibás and Karin Miliani, writes the chapter “Cultural barriers to communication in the transformation of the campuses of the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona and the Universidad de São Paulo into MIL Cities Universities”.

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