What are the 3 most important characteristics of a media and information literate individual?

Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is a “combination of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices required to access, analyse, evaluate, use, produce, and communicate information and knowledge in creative, legal and ethical ways that respect human rights” (Moscow Declaration on Media and Information Literacy, 2012).   

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines it as the "set of competencies to search, critically evaluate, use and contribute information and media content wisely; knowledge of one’s rights online; understanding how to combat online hate speech and cyberbullying; understanding of the ethical issues surrounding the access and use of information; and engage with media and ICTs to promote equality, free expression, intercultural/interreligious dialogue, peace, etc." (UNESCO, 2016).            

Like digital citizenship, media and information literacy has been explained by a range of definitions and different terminologies. Whether we use digital media literacy, information literacy, internet literacy or any of the other different expressions, the main idea is that literacy encompasses the ability to engage meaningfully with media and information channels.

Media, information channels and the ubiquity of the internet may leave the impression that the digital age has turned everyone into media users and that the digital can be found everywhere, including in schools. This impression is false and, moreover, schools are the notable exception. School is the one place where it is absolutely crucial to train future citizens to understand, to criticise and to create information. It is in schools that the digital citizen must begin and maintain constant critical thinking in order to attain meaningful participation in his or her community.

Media and information literacy is an ambitious goal in the 21st century because of the challenge of teaching users to critically judge, reflect and use the extremely broad range of available media. Not only must users become media literate with respect to traditional media and the representation of image, users now must become media literate with respect to the wealth of new technology available and the development of applications allowing entirely new ways of transmitting information.

Without media and information literacy, across the varied types of media now available, our children cannot act as responsible citizens, digital or otherwise, and the question of who will teach this to our children has not yet been established.

Generally speaking, if schools are the training grounds for critical thinking, analysis and judgment making, is it not logical that media and information literacy become cornerstones of the educational curricula?
 

What are some of the dimensions of media and information literacy?

Media and information literacy (MIL) is an umbrella concept that covers three often clearly distinguished dimensions: information literacy, media literacy and ICT/ digital literacy. As UNESCO highlights, MIL brings together stakeholders including individuals, communities and nations to contribute to the information society. Not only does MIL act as an umbrella, it also encompasses a full range of competences that must be used effectively in order to critically evaluate the different facets of MIL.
 

What will media and information literacy mean to our children?

Children and young people today are particularly savvy when it comes to finding and using media for entertainment and recreation. But how many of those children can use those same devices to find meaningful answers, conduct evidence-based research, spark a debate or follow the news?

Children and young people are confronted with all types of content and they should, indeed they must, be able to discern what is of value and what is not; what is real and what is not. Discernment goes beyond fake news and relates to their ability to process and interpret information.

Research is under way to investigate the learning potential of existing and emerging communicative technologies for children aged 0-8 years old. The DigiLitEY project specifically rests on the premise that “the early years provide crucial foundations for lifelong literacy learning, therefore it is important to ensure early education policy and practice across (all) countries are developed in order to equip our youngest citizens with the skills and knowledge needed in a digitally-mediated era”. Initiatives such as DigiLitEY and the Joint Research Commission project on 0-8-year-old children and digital technology should provide interesting conclusions and guidelines on media and information literacy in the near future.

Whether children are playing online games or watching endless videos, the ability to understand the stakes within the medium and potential implications beyond would serve our children well. They need to be able to process, analyse and make good decisions on their own, and media and information literacy can help children develop those skills.
 

Confusion between media and information literacy and digital citizenship

Rather than simply using cognitive, emotional and social competences as the basis of MIL, it is useful to apply some of the other media-related competences from the Council of Europe’s “butterfly” competence framework to the concept of media and information literacy (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Four steps underpinning the process of inclusion

An information literate individual is able to:

• Determine the extent of information needed.
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently.
• Evaluate information and its sources critically.
• Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base.
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.
• Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally.

(Information literacy competency standards, 2000)

Information Literacy Competencies

Know

• Decide what is required to answer this question/what is required to do the assignment/what the question, assignment, etc. means to you

Access

• Select appropriate search tools and information sources
• Design search strategies
• Implement search strategies to find information
• Assess and select search results/found information
• Manage and record relevant search results/found information
• Refine search strategies, if necessary, by repeating "know" and/or "access" processes

Evaluate

• Recognize and summarize main ideas from search results/found information
• Identify/create evaluation criteria
• Assess search results/found information with evaluation criteria
• Judge in comparison to existing knowledge
• Refine search strategies and/or evaluation criteria, if necessary, by repeating "know," "access" and "evaluate/incorporate" processes

Use/Incorporate Ethically/Legally

• Apply new information ethically and legally
• Integrate and synthesize new and existing information ethically and legally into paper, project, performance, etc.
• Acknowledge new information used in paper, project, performance, etc. without plagiarizing and by appropriately attributing and citing sources
• Share paper, project, performance, etc. with others using appropriate communication medium, format, technology, etc.

Remember

• Transfer knowledge gained from this process to future questions, assignments, etc.

(Information Literacy Criteria courtesy of Milner Library Illinois State University)

Another definition from UNESCO:

"Information literacy means the set of skills, attitudes and knowledge necessary to know when information is needed to help solve a problem or make a decision, how to articulate that information need in searchable terms and language, then search efficiently for the information, retrieve it, interpret and understand it, organize it, evaluate its credibility and authenticity, assess its relevance, communicate it to others if necessary, then utilize it to accomplish bottom-line purposes; Information Literacy is closely allied to learning to learn, and to critical thinking, …"

(Information literacy: a primer, 2007)

Created by Name / Updated on September 25, 2017 by Name