This year marked the 13th anniversary of Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week, a major occasion for stakeholders to review and celebrate the progress achieved towards Media and Information Literacy for All. Global MIL Week 2023 focused on digital spaces and gave the opportunity to explore paths for strengthening multilateral cooperation with digital platforms and other stakeholders. It highlighted some promising action in connection with media and information literacy in the last year and how it helps to nurture trust and counter mistrust.
"Think, before you click!" emphasises the importance of critical thinking, one of the key competencies of media and information literacy, and a much-needed skill in today’s environment marked by the digital revolution. Digital networks have become the preferred platforms for expression, protest and interaction, forming the “global village”. In 2023, it is estimated that 60% of the world's population, or 4.75 billion people, have expressed themselves, informed themselves and asked questions on digital social networks.
“We face a paradox, however: while the digital revolution has enabled the spread of democratic ideals and the diversity of cultural expressions, it now poses serious challenges for our democracies, as disinformation and hate speech proliferate on social networks, particularly revolving around international conflicts and crises”, said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO in her message on the occasion of Global MIL Week (24-31 October 2023).
To meet this challenge, media and information literacy has become an essential skill for the twenty-first century, and one to which UNESCO is strongly committed, in line with its mandate.
MIL Week 2023, on the one hand, promoted widely the concept of media and information literacy to the public, and on the other hand, highlighted the efforts that different actors in Albania are making to advance MIL in the educational system, as well as in the media environment.
Bringing together journalists and youth for interactive MIL workshops
The EU-funded project ”Building Trust in Media in South-East Europe: Support to Journalism as a Public Good”, aims – amongst other things – to adopt MIL policies and integrate them into formal education to support the MIL skills of women and men, and notably youth, to think critically. Within its framework, a series of events were organised by the Albanian Media Institute (AMI), in partnership with the Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-University Education (ASCAP) and the support of the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA).
Eleven events were organised by AMI, including open discussions with journalists, workshops and training sessions with pupils on MIL, mock newsrooms and a MIL competition for youth. Participating students were presented with opportunities to identify and understand the knowledge and skills needed to be rulers, beneficiaries, and users rather than passive victims of the mechanisms of the digital world, including the algorithms, used to influence and manipulate individual and collective decision-making.
Through “A Journalist in my school” activity, over 150 pupils and teachers from 5 schools in Durres, Kavaja, Elbasan, Pogradec and Lezha, were instructed by journalists on different challenges in the digital age, such as conspiracy theories, cyberbullying and online hate speech, Artificial Intelligence (AI) - algorithms and social media, fake news and disinformation.
Students were given the opportunity to encounter and be challenged with different fields of knowledge, issues, problems, perspectives, etc., related to the big world of media and information. They were given the opportunity to become familiar with the dangers that are an essential part of this world in which they live.
The reel makes peers aware of the impact that the individual has on the media. Shifting the focus of young people from problems creates space for continuous development. The energy of young people makes the media more desirable for society!
Social Media as a tool for MIL education: A youth perspective
Within the “Mock Newsrooms”, pupils from Tirana learned and practiced the skills of citizen journalism and increased their knowledge with a visit to the A2CNN channel TV newsroom.
“I gained specific experience of the technical aspects of news production, including the role of producers, reporters, editors and camera operators, all working to deliver the news accurately and quickly, sometimes in the face of tight deadlines and unforeseen circumstances”, said Kiara Krroci, a pupil from “Sinan Tafaj” High School in Tirana.
The MIL celebrations organised by the AMI ended on 10 November with the AMI awards for the best composition and stories produced by youth and posted on their YouTube, TikTok and Instagram pages. During the competition, AMI received 41 applications with animated videos, tutorial videos, short movies, essays, reels and memes, on a wide range of topics, such as privacy and security in the use of AI for video making, AI for learning (physics AI Chatbot), cyberbullying, media activism/social media use, and click bait headlines vs. news.
Seven young students were awarded prizes for their work. Among them was Elian Bilibashi, high school student at "Petro Nini Luarasi" (Tirana), who posted a reel on his school's page, calling on young people to be active and use media for community engagement