Media and Information Literate Citizens: Think Critically, Click Wisely!

"Ensuring citizens have the skills needed to think critically about media and information in the digital age is no doubt one of the defining challenges of our time."

This curriculum is designed to provide education systems in developed and developing countries with a framework to strengthen media and information literacy (MIL) training. It is intended for educators and learners in formal, informal, and non-formal learning spaces, both online and offline.

Launched by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partners, this is the second edition of a UNESCO curriculum first published in 2011 (see Related Summaries, below). This second edition draws attention to how MIL can contribute to people's critical engagement with information to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also seeks to respond to developments in the social and digital domains, including artificial intelligence, privacy issues, the increasing importance of social competencies such as digital citizenship, education for sustainable development, cultural literacy and intercultural competencies, science literacy, and the exponential rise in disinformation and online hate speech.

As explained in the curriculum document, "MIL equips citizens with the following competencies: the ability to understand information for public good; the ability to critically engage with information, media, and digital communication for participation in sustainable development goals; and the ability to seek and enjoy the full benefits of fundamental human rights."

The curriculum focuses on a range of required core competencies and skills, which are designed to be integrated into the existing education system without putting too much of a strain on overloaded education curricula. The 14 modules in the curricula provide an outline of topics, learning objectives, content, pedagogical approaches and activities, and assessment possibilities that can be adapted by educators, all social actors, and institutions to the contexts of their respective countries.

The curriculum consists of two parts:

• Part 1: Curriculum and Competency Framework - looks at the definition of MIL and how the curriculum is meant to work and be implemented, including information about the intended audience and recommendations for adapting and integrating the curriculum for different contexts. It also discusses some of the core competencies that are required in this digital age to engage with content and that will be covered across the 14 MIL curriculum modules.
• Part 2: Modules
  1. A Foundational Module: An Introduction to Media & Information Literacy & Other Key Concepts - considers MIL as relevant to and overlapping with a variety of disciplines/field. Built on four pillars - critical thinking, self-expression, participation, and creativity - the module explores questions such as: What is information within the wider mix of content? What are the media and digital communication companies? What are digital technologies? Why teach about all of these? Why are they important? What is media literacy, information literacy, and digital literacy? Why MIL?
  2. Understanding Information and Technology - discusses the roles and functions of traditional and online news content providers, which include empowering individuals and societies to exercise their freedom of expression and information, enabling individuals to recognise falsehoods, build civic agency and citizenship, demand transparency and accountability, and practice information ethics. The module further gives an overview of the roles of the news media, then and now: to seek and speak the truth, to make sense of issues and events, to serve as a watchdog against abuses, to work as an enabler of public debate, to facilitate citizen participation, and to amplify people's voices.
  3. Research, Information Cycle, Digital Information Processing, Intellectual Property - focuses on developing an understanding of the information cycle, research skills, and respect for intellectual property in the context of academia, MIL, library skills and the digital ecology.
  4. Media and Information Literacy Competencies to Tackle Misinformation, Disinformation and Hate Speech: In Defence of Truth-Seeking and Peace - reinforces several previous modules spotlighting for readers how MIL competencies and tools can be brought to bear on seeking and defending truth, preventing the spread of false information, and creating an inclusive, participatory, and open society.
  5. Audiences as Citizens - explores several key questions: (i) How does global citizenship affect the ways we might consider the notion of audience in relation to content, institutions, and technologies? (ii) How might a producer/author's background and experience influence the understanding of a text in all forms? (iii) What are the other factors shaping how content is interpreted, including cultural, educational, and identity variables? (iv) How could the construction of a text guide or a MIL model strengthen a critical interpretive process? (v) How do audiences use the communications ecology in their daily lives, and what is the impact?
  6. Representation in Media and Information: Highlighting Gender Equality - asks: Who benefits from the acceptance of discriminatory representations, and who loses? How do images influence the way we see ourselves and others? How do they influence our knowledge and understanding of the world beyond our immediate experience? What are the implications for gender equality and other forms of inequalities?
  7. How Media and Technology Influence Content - addresses how various types of media technological forms (including digital) afford differences in the way messages are conveyed. It also looks at the language styles these media employ. One goal is to help educators understand how their interpretation of information or ideas from content providers can be more mindful of how people interact with the type of languages used.
  8. Privacy, Data Protection and You - consists of four units that provide explanations, pedaegogical examples, and resources in connection with the basics of privacy in MIL, data creation and use, the relationship between privacy and development, and ethics and institutional obligations for protecting people's privacy and data.
  9. Internet Opportunities and Challenges - provides educators with tools to engage learners in learning experiences that will guide them towards an understanding of their digital footprints, how interactions in the virtual world have real-world implications, and their role, agency, and ethical obligations as digital citizens who participate in global discourse when accessing, using, and creating media and information on the internet.
  10. Advertising and Media and Information Literacy - explores what goes into the creation of effective advertising, given the prominent role of advertising in our societies today, and how to evaluate advertisements as source of information. It also covers the mechanisms that allow citizens to provide feedback on ads to industries and government officials.
  11. Artificial Intelligence, Social Media and MIL Competencies - helps the reader acquire a basic understanding about the technical operations and applications of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, as well as the economic and social context. It suggests how MIL competencies can enable more optimal use of AI in societies.
  12. Digital Media, Games and Traditional Media - introduces educators and learners to the role new institutions and converging technologies are playing in the widening participation of citizens in social, economic, and political change. It explains how new digital and electronic forms of media (online news, blogs, Wikipedia, YouTube, social networking applications, video gaming, etc.) have evolved from traditional media and how they are enabling greater access to information and knowledge, sustainable development, freedom of expression, good governance, and participation in democratic processes.
  13. Media, Technology and the Sustainable Development Goals: The MIL Context - complements other modules in making the case for MIL as a tool for open and sustainable development.
  14. Communication and Information, MIL and Learning: A Capstone Module - serves as a capstone by drawing on content covered in the earlier modules. It explores links between communication, information, and learning (including learning theories) and suggests how MIL can enhance this relationship. It ends with a discussion on managing change in order to foster an enabling environment for MIL.