VOL. 2 NO. 6 - JUNE 30,2021

UNESCO MIL ALLIANCE
N E WS U P D A T E
EDITORIALNEW TRENDS OF MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY
The new trends in Media and Information Literacy (MIL) emphasized the importance ofcreative thinking and of innovation together with critical thinking to empower people in theircitizen rights. MIL theory and methodology teach us to carefully analyze messages andreality in a more objective way, without prejudices or cultural barriers such as those related
to ethnicity, race, religion, different cultural identities, gender and migration.
Today an emerging theme is the creation or transformation of the cities we live in in MIL
Cities. Sometimes this manifests itself implicitly, sometimes explicitly. New trends in MIL alsoemphasize the importance of assessment and assessments with specific metrics.
All this associated with the creation of digital platforms, new applications(apps) and the useof social networks, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality(VR) and other new technologies.
As MIL initiatives multiply, new challenges continue to arise. One of the most important is tocreate new tools to face the "infodemic" generated by the COVID 19 pandemic. Also toprovide MIL education in a sustainable way and generate mental health. That is, aneducation that generates hope and helps us to be healthy in the new blended ecosystems inwhich digital contacts predominate at the expense of face-to-face life.
MIL today has new challenges and opportunities, which require new policies, strategies, tools
and experiences that must be implemented together with the five agents of social
innovation: governments, companies and private startups, academia, artists and citizens.
Some of these ideas and trends you can check in the news that we are now posting here.
Felipe Chibás Ortiz
Associate Professor of the University of São PauloCoordinator of the research group Thot-CRIARCOM
Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean Chapter, UNESCO MIL ALLIANCE

NEWS
1.UNICEF has partnered with Future Africa . South Africa observed Youth Day on 16
June and commemorated June as Youth Month. The partnership, hosted by Future
Africa, is known as “YEaH”. More athttps://www.futureafrica.science/index.php/programmes/core-p/unicef-yeah-project
2. Misinformation Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: From Laws and Regulations to Media
Literacy was published on June 1st through the University of Westminster Press. Amongthe co-authors were Mr. Wallace Gichunge and Dr. Chido Onumah,
https://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/chapters/m/10.16997/book53.a/3. MIL Alliance ISC present in the Communication Talk webinar organized by theInternational Communications Club in Dhaka, Bangladesh with Jesus Lau and Wallace
Gichunge. The title of the talk was "Enhancing Media and Information Literacy Globally".
More at https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?
v=513120986436918&ref=watch_permalink
4. Media and Artificial Intelligence Literacy (MAIL) The first one is the Media andArtificial Intelligence Literacy (MAIL) Project conducted by the Hong Kong Federation ofYouth Groups (HKFYG). More at
http://medialiteracy.hk/%e9%97%9c%e6%96%bc%e6%88%91%e5%80%91/
5.Second Program is the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Project co-organizedby the Hong Kong News Expo and the Education Bureau. It is mainly a teacher training
program. Ten seminars have been held More details at
http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/In_Focus/Lee_text.
pdf
6. First Journey of Citizenship and Digital Literacy in times of disinformation andpandemic. UNESCO and the Public Defender of Argentina, held event, on the 8th, 9th and10th of June. Discussed the MIL Curriculum and the MIL Cities Metrics. Divina Frau-Meingsand Tessa Jolls inaugurated. More at https://youtu.be/V1Fvg9PAOMg
7.UNESCO MIL ALLIANCE of Latin America and Caribbean, Faculty of Communication ofthe Russian Federation and Thot-CRIARCOM created the channel MIL Cities network –UNESCO concept in the You Tube and MIL Talk webinar with 4 continents wererepresented. The first MIL Talk was in memory of Irina Zhilavskaya, who left us lastmonth. More at https://lnkd.in/g3fuBp6

NEWS
8. The Takorama 2021 festival was held between 01/03/2021 and 25/06/2021. In thisevent films awarded by the children. We was 340.418 participants, 10,161 teacher and326,165 children from 115 countries. More at https://www.films-pour-enfants.com
9. ASOE Acting for Safer Online Environment: information literacy intervention forpreschools. The Public Journalism Club in Armenia is leading a project to provide media
literacy training to preschool teachers. More at https://pjc.am/?lang=en
10. 5th Thessaloniki International Summer Academy on Media. The School ofJournalism and Mass Communications of Aristotle University Thessaloniki (AUTh), Jean
Monet of European Union Public Diplomacy along with other partners will organize. Moreat https://www.joursummerschool.org/
11. UNESCO actions for inclusive education: The UNESCO chair of the University ofMacedonia held this event on May 24, May 31, and June 7. Felipe Chibás was a main
keynotes
andspeakonUNESCO
MIL
CitiesNetwork.
Moreathttp://unescochair.uom.gr/?p=967
12. .NAMLE Conference Now Accepts Applicants. Attend the virtual conference for theNational Association for Media Literacy Education. July 16-18, 2021. More details at:https://namleconference.net/
13. Tangible and Intangible Impact of Information and Communication in the Digital
Age was held 17 to 18 June 2021, within the framework of the XII International IT Forumand the UNESCO Intergovernmental Information for All Programme. More athttps://itforum.admhmao.ru/event/en/1/program/151?
fbclid=IwAR1cxzIVLYU1xyV25TzvmySUaApjAW8M4M_1S4Gt1B_PYXruMKymW4W9J-M
14. Cartoons MIL in the Virtual Reality (VR), Professor at the University of São Pauloand famous cartoonist Dorinho Bastos released on June 9 his vision from Smart cities toMIL cities in VR cards. More at http://ceacom.com.br/mil/vr/index.html
15- UNESCO organized the webinar "Talking with the UNESCO Media and Information
Literacy Alliance Awardees". It was a dialogue with the six awardees of the UNESCOMedia and Information Literacy (MIL) Alliance Awards 2020 moderated by Mr. Alton
Grizzle, UNESCO Programme Specialist. More at: https://fb.watch/v/19X7zTUMm/

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UNESCOALTON GRIZZLE, PROGRAMME SPECIALIST IN MEDIA AND INFORMATIONA.GRIZZLE@UNESCO.ORG