October 24-31 marks the 11th Global Media and Information Literacy Week, an annual event proclaimed by the UN. This year, the theme of the Week, which unites local events around the world, was “Nurturing Trust: A Media and Information Literacy Imperative”. The central event of the Week is an international conference, which analyzes the progress towards the goal of “Media and information literacy for all” achieved at the global level over the year. In 2022, the main event of the Week is held in Abuja (Nigeria).
The Global Week and the international conference combine events and discussions on the following themes:
- Promoting media and information literacy as a viable development intervention to nurture trust, social protection, and collective solidarity.
- Accelerating the pace of people’s access to media and information literacy competencies in parallel with the growth pace of universal digital connectivity.
- Working to entrench media and information literacy as a key component for the exercise of fundamental human rights.
- Popularizing the new UNESCO Global Standards for Media and Information Literacy Curricula Development Guidelines and the complementary resource “Media and Information Literate Citizens: Think Critically, Click Wisely (Second Edition of the UNESCO Model Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Educators and Learners),” and the tool Addressing conspiracy theories: what should educators know.
- Developing innovative ways to bridge inequalities in accessing media and information literacy.
- Partnerships and funding to strengthen trust and solidarity in media and information literacy development at all levels of society.
- Encouraging and promoting media and information literacy (MIL) policy at organizational, institutional, national, and international levels in ensuring equitable and ethical access to quality information.
UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education traditionally takes an active part in the conferences of the Global Media and Information Literacy Week. On 24 October 2022, the Special Session “Young girls in digital technology – the place of Media and Information Literacy for critical thinking” was attended by Ms. Tatiana Murovana, the Programme Specialist of the Institute, presenting a report “How do we get more girls into high-tech: the role of [the right] critical thinking”. On 27 October, the Director of UNESCO IITE, Mr. Tao Zhan, will moderate the Session “Media and Information Literacy in the age of AI and Metaverse”.
As a result of the conference, the Abuja Declaration on Financing Media and Information Literacy will be adopted.