It has taken several decades and a great amount of academic and social activism, but today one would think that the moment for media literacy1 has finally arrived. Government-sponsored initiatives, national organizations, international conferences, and local school curricula aimed at the development and implementation of media literacy education programs are sprouting up across the world. A few recent examples of the current international trend include: the First International Conference on Media Education in the Middle East (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 2007); the First African Media Literacy Conference (Abuja, Nigeria, July 2008); UNESCO’s International Expert Group Meeting on Teacher Training Curricula for Media and Information Literacy (Paris, France, June 2008); the Commission of Europe’s obligation to measure levels of media literacy in all member states (Audiovisual Media Service Directive, Brussels, 2007); and OfCom’s International Media Literacy Research Forum (London, UK, May 2008).
Recognizing and encouraging this international movement, the Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) is developing several projects focused on media literacy education. The AoC is a United Nations initiative created in 2005 under the initial sponsorship of the governments of Spain and Turkey. Currently there are 77 member states and 13 intergovernmental organizations associated with AoC. The AoC is developing a variety of programs and initiatives that encourage international cross-cultural dialogue around the four main areas of AoC’s focus: media, youth, education, and migration.2 As stated by AoC’s high representative, former President of Portugal Jorge Sampaio, “the Alliance does not intend to duplicate or replicate the work others are already doing. Rather, our goal is to help expand efforts that are already under way.”
In line with this spirit, AoC is developing a series of web-based, thematically structured clearinghouses that are serving as points of encounter and dissemination of existing initiatives relevant to AoC’s main goals. The first one (launched in February 2008) is the AoC Media Literacy Education clearinghouse: www.aocmedialiteracy.org.3 AoC’s overall interest in media literacy comes from recognizing that children and youth from industrialized societies spend at least double the time immersed in electronic media (television, Internet, video games, DVDs, radio, cell phones, etc.) than they do receiving formal education in schools. Much of the media they consume is aimed at selling them products or ideologies. In addition, this generation of young people frequently spends half as much time as the previous generation participating in “family” conversations.4 These developments raise several important questions, such as: Who is educating our youth? Who is imparting ethical and social values to them? Who is supplying them with role models to emulate?
Most school curricula do not take this new paradigm into consideration. Indeed, to the extent that they address new technologies, schools teach primarily technical skills (e.g., how to use computers) but seldom critical thinking skills relevant to digital learning. As important as expanding Internet access is, so too is the development of educational initiatives that teach media consumers how to critically interpret the information they receive. If a peaceful, international, cross-cultural, cross-religious dialogue is to happen; if a democratic civic society is to be encouraged and developed; if a free (local and global) citizenry engaged in civic (local and international) dialogue is to become real; if we want to move beyond social, cultural, and religious stereotypes that fuel local and global conflicts—if we want all this, then we need to develop critical thinking skills and apply them to the new electronic media. This is the impetus for AoC’s interest in and support of media literacy education’s global development.
AoC is aware of already existing and well-developed web-based repositories of information on media education created by, among others, NORDICOM, CLEMI, and InfoLitGlobal. The AoC MLE clearinghouse does not aim to replicate their efforts nor become their competitor, but rather to further support them by providing links to their resources. AoC MLE’s site does not focus on a narrowly defined theory of media literacy but on a wide understanding of the field of “media and education,” embracing what at times may seem to be a confusing or disparate field to some. In addition to media literacy, the site also includes links to organizations, resources, and events relevant to media education policy and youth media. We include information on policy because we think that policy efforts are necessary to help media literacy find its place in contemporary society. We also feel that youth-produced media is an important and significant element of media and information literacy because of the facility with which youth have appropriated new media production technologies.
A unique feature of the AoC MLE site is the fact that it is fully searchable in English, Spanish, and Arabic (to our knowledge this is the first such site available in Arabic). The site is designed as a truly multilingual platform that allows any relevant content available in any language to be posted and published. The Magazine section of the site, published on an ongoing basis, is also multilingual. A very important feature of the clearinghouse is its openness to user-generated content. We feel that the emphasis on participatory culture is one of the exceptional aspects of the AoC MLE clearinghouse.5 By encouraging and welcoming content generated by the site’s users, the clearinghouse becomes more than a good repository of information and emerges as a combination of portal, wiki, and blog. It is a continuously developing, web-based data center on media literacy, media education policy, and youth media, whose main engine will ultimately be its active users. By design, the clearinghouse also encourages the creation of a truly international community engaged in a cross-cultural dialogue around media and education themes.
To manage and encourage the creation of this expanding virtual international community of knowledge gathered through the AoC MLE clearinghouse, we are creating a network of partner organizations that will become the de facto administrators and gatekeepers of new content uploaded by the users/producers of the site. Currently there are thirty partners from around the world already involved with this project. The clearinghouse is now in place to engage the partner organizations as true associates of AoC in the continuous development of the MLE clearinghouse, and for active users to become involved in this process. Please visit www.aocmedialiteracy.org and participate in this global dialogue.
Jordi Torrent is a mediamaker and educator based in New York. He has been a media education consultant for the New York City Department of Education since 1990. Jordi is co-director of Media: Overseas Conversations, a series of annual conferences on media, youth, and education held in New York City. He is the project manager for the Media Literacy Education project of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.
- 1. We will not engage here in a discussion of how to define media literacy (or its different colorations: information literacy, news literacy, digital literacy, etc). Currently there are several—quite similar—definitions of media literacy navigating the world. For a comprehensive European understanding of the concept, please see the results of the European Commission’s public media literacy consultation: http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/media_literacy/consultation/index_en.htm. For a U.S. definition, please read the “Core Principles of Media Literacy Education” according to the National Association for Media Literacy Education: http://www.amlainfo.org/core-principles.
- 2. For more information on AoC, its programs and initiatives, please visit: http://www.unaoc.org.
- 3. In addition to the MLE clearinghouse, AoC has created other web-based resources, such as the Global Expert Finder (http://www.globalexpertfinder.org), a resource for journalists covering stories about cultural, religious, and political tensions between communities and across borders. GEF connects media professionals with leading analysts and commentators on intercultural crises and their likely long-term impact. Other upcoming thematically oriented AoC clearinghouses include “Education on Religion and Belief,” “Youth Programs,” and “Migration and Cross-Cultural Integration.
- 4. For a study on media and U.S. teenagers, see Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8–18 Year-olds, A Kaiser Family Foundation Study, March 2005: http://www.kaiserfamilyfoundation.org/entmedia/upload/Executive-Summary-....
- 5. For a well-framed study on participatory culture, see Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, by Henry Jenkins with Ravi Purushotma, Katherine Clinton, Margaret Weigel, and Alice J. Robison; Digital Media and Learning, MacArthur Foundation, 2007: http://www.digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9...