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8: Media and Information Literacy

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    294882
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    Media and information literacy are essential for quality journalism. There is an overload of information in the internet era, with so much information around, it is necessary to understand and evaluate information to make sure that you are able to select between real, truthful information and disinformation. This can be done by developing your media and information literacy skills.15

    Countries and development organisations around the world are recognising the relevance of media and information literacy. This is because media and information literacy (and these terms also include news literacy, which refers specifically to the ability to find and evaluate news) are seen as sustainable and effective responses to the explosion of disinformation globally. Disinformation threatens the achievement of sustainable development goals – in general, democracy, good governance, and social cohesion. It is also important for journalists to develop media and information literacy skills and knowledge to understand how people understand the media and use the media. This is part of knowing who your audience is. You also need to know the skills they have to access news and information and how they understand and evaluate news and information.

    Various UNESCO publications about media and information literacy emphasise that media and information literacy enable citizens (including journalists) to access, receive, critically evaluate, create, use, and disseminate information and media content of all forms.16 They understand and know their rights in the field of working with information and the media, as well as their individual rights to demand quality information and media systems that are free, independent, and diverse. In their relations with the media, they understand the role and functions of information and media providers as well as the conditions for the implementation of these functions.

    As a journalist, you also need to understand media and information literacy to do your job well, because you work with information all the time. The main advantage of being media and information literate is that you will be able to evaluate information and other media sources. To understand what media and information literacy means, we first need to understand what literacy means. Literacy in the most basic form means to be able to read and write, but in the context of media and information literacy, it refers to knowledge – the knowledge to be able to find media and information; to analyse, evaluate and understand media and information; and to be able to create media and information.

    • 8.1: The five areas of Media and Information Literacy
      This page outlines critical skills for media and information literacy, such as accessing, analyzing, and creating content. It stresses the need to navigate the digital landscape responsibly, acknowledging issues like disinformation and fake news. Importantly, the page advocates for journalists and individuals to refine their abilities to discern unreliable information and assess media trustworthiness, promoting active engagement and critical thinking in media consumption and creation.
    • 8.2: Fake News and Disinformation
      This page addresses the prevalence and impact of fake news, highlighting its motivations like profit and propaganda. It categorizes types of misleading news and offers guidelines for identifying it, stressing the importance of evaluating sources and biases. In South Africa, the rise of fake news perpetuates harm and misinformation, urging users to apply practical tools for discernment.

    Reference:

    1. This section adapted from Muratova, N. (2019). Media and Information Literacy in Journalism: A Handbook for Journalists and Journalism Educators. Available at: https://ru.unesco.org/sites/default/....01.2019_0.pdf. Published by UNESCO under an Open Access under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO, CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO.
    2. United Nations Human Rights Declaration, Article 19 (1948). http: //www.un.org/en/ documents/udhr/index.shtml

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