The agreement, entitled “Network of Universities on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue” (UAC-MILID), during the First Forum on “Media and Information Literacy” held in Fez (Morocco) in June 2011, was signed by UNESCO, the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC), the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and six other universities: University of the West Indies (Jamaica); Cairo University (Egypt); University of Sao Paulo (Brazil); Temple University (United States); Beijing University (China); The University of Queensland (Australia) and Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University (Morocco).

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, supported by Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, is responsible for setting the annual calendar of activities, organising a yearly meeting and coordinating a publication including articles on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue.

UNESCO and UNAOC have created the UNESCO-UNAOC  UNITWIN Global Chair on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue (“UNESCO-UNAOC MILID UNITWIN”).

UNESCO-UNAOC MILID UNITWIN specific objectives include:

• Act as a Observatory for critically analyzing: the role of Media and Information Literacy (“MIL”) as a catalyst for civic participation, democracy and development; for the promotion of free, independent and pluralistic media; as well as MIL’s contribution to the prevention and resolution of conflicts and intercultural tensions and polarizations.
• Enhance intercultural and cooperative research on MIL and the exchanges between universities and mass media, encouraging MIL’s initiatives towards respecting human rights and dignity and cultural diversity.
• Develop within the participant universities educational and media production practices that contribute to dissolving prejudice and intercultural barriers and favour global dialogue and cooperation among citizens as well as social and political institutions around the world. In addition to the international dimension, these practices will be reflected at the local level in the 8 cities or neighbourhoods in which the partner universities are located.
• Promote global actions relating to MIL (including adaptation of the UNESCO MIL Curriculum for Teacher Education and other relevant tools, publications, congresses, seminars, teaching resources, and faculty and students’ exchanges) that could contribute towards stimulating dialogue and understanding among people of and within different cultures and societies.
• Create a virtual centre to research on, and study and develop MIL initiatives aimed at the creation of projects and publications linking universities and research centres.
• Promote and support other global media initiatives that could reinforce civic participation through open, free and independent media and information systems that favour intercultural dialogue and cooperation.
• Encourage and support citizen participation as well as educational and cultural institutions whose initiatives promote media and information literacy, cooperation and intercultural dialogue.

UNESCO-UNAOC MILID UNITWIN current universities also include: University of Guadalajara (Mexico); Western University (Ontairo, Canada); University of Gothenburg (Sweden); Punjabi University (Patiala, India); Ahmadu Bello University (Nigeria); University of the South Pacific (Suva, Fiji); Nnamdi Azikiwe University (Nigeria); University of Calabar (Nigeria); University of Jos (Nigeria); Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan); University of South Africa (Pretoria, South Africa); Bergen University College (Norway); Lagos State University (Nigeria); Universidade do Minho (Braga, Portugal); University of Latvia (Riga, Latvia); Sholokhov Moscow State University for Humanities (Russia); Moulay Ismail University (Meknes, Morocco); School of Journalism and Public Relation (Skopje, Macedonia).

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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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