MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY
Why, then, is it necessary to be media and information literate? Media and information literacy is defined by UNESCO as:

A set of competencies that empowers citizens to access, retrieve, understand, evaluate and use, create as well as share information and media content in all formats, using various tools, in a critical, ethical and effective way, in order to participate and engage in personal, professional and societal activites”(“Media and Information Literacy,” 2013).



Because media play a significant role in knowledge, identity, and community formation, we must learn how to interact with them in a critical manner. Since we “cannot escape the ubiquity of media,” it is necessary for us to learn how not to be passive consumers (Wilsonn et. Al, 2011). In terms of media as educational tools, we must also learn how to discern the information they present to us and be vigilant about the messages that they relay. Apart from enabling us to engage with media in a critical manner, a key factor in media and information literacy is the creation of media materials, which you will learn in the latter parts of the book. 

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