OVERVIEW

Global Media and Information Literacy Week is celebrated every year from October 24th to 31st to raise awareness about the importance of media and information literacy in a digital and interconnected world.

It was established by UNESCO in 2012, but it was recognized by the United Nations General Assembly only in 2021.

Media and Information Literacy can help people navigate, access, evaluate and use information effectively and ethically, recognizing misinformation and disinformation while understanding their rights and responsibilities online.

HISTORY – TIMELINE

FIVE FACTS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

TONS OF USERS – The internet boasts over 4.54 billion users.
ALIAS – The average person has about seven social media accounts.
SOCIAL MEDIA USERS – There are over 3.725 billion active users on social media.
DOWN TIME – On average, people stand about 142 minutes on social media every day.
SHEER PROCESSING POWER – Apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger process over 60 billion messages daily.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

  • It provides key skills and competencies that enable people to effectively engage with the media and other sources of information;
  • The observance also helps develop problem-solving skills and learning skills helping people to become productive citizens;
  • Media literacy enables students to become more informed media consumers as well as responsible media creators;
  • In a similar vein, teaching media literacy encourages pupils to think creatively;
  • This holiday supports the distribution of accurate, relevant, multilingual, accessible, clear, and science-based information;
  • The commemoration emphasizes that the huge digital divide and data imbalances that exist between and within countries can be resolved in part by increasing people's abilities to search, collect, and distribute information in the digital space.

CONCLUSIONS

Global Media and Information Literacy Week is a reminder that access to information alone isn’t enough, because we must know how to interact and question it wisely.

On this week, the world comes together to promote Information as a tool for empowerment, inclusion and peace. By investing in this topic, we can build more resilient and inclusive societies that are able to face digital age’s challenges.

Source: https://nationaltoday.com/

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