The Chair aims to contribute to promoting news literacy, empowerment and better information and thus fostering quality journalism. Will mainly work on the augmentation and enhancement of Media and Information Literacy, one of the priorities of UNESCO under the Communication and Information Sector.
Given the growing multiplicity and variability of information sources nurtured by different phenomena such as big data (data driven journalism), complex mobile communication devices (mobile and participant journalism and blogging), information consumption (rise of browsing and information creation and consumption due to mobile, better fixed and Wi-Fi connections) – along with attendant factors such as rising misinformation, disinformation and distrust in media and journalism, increasing critical thinking and media knowledge of citizens are continuously set as priorities in order to achieve a more active citizenship and better participation in the public and private spheres. And in turn achieve higher trust in reliable media and support the appreciation of quality journalism. These come as essential dimensions of media and information literacy that call for a profounder attention.
Specific objectives
- Promote MIL in a shifting communication and information landscape for quality journalism (sharing the impact of MIL on the best practices in quality journalism, ethics, media trust, engaged audiences, etc).
- Advance the role of MIL in preparing critical citizens who are able to identify trusted media.
- Reflect on the current trends that formulate today’s journalism in order to identify action lines and research problems, specifically the potential role of MIL in this realm, to be addressed by the Chair.
- Set up strategies to cooperate with libraries and strengthen current agreements with information providers and disseminators.
