Taking place this week, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Global Media and Information Week celebration has seen the simultaneous staging of 900 small and large events around the world. Delivering what it calls ‘a thundering message of the urgency of media and information literacy at all levels of society’, the organisation’s flagship Feature Conference and Youth Forum is being hosted in Nigeria.
Global Media and Information Literacy Week, commemorated annually, is a major occasion for stakeholders to review and celebrate the progress achieved towards UNESCO’s Media and Information Literacy for All goal.
Through the programme, UNESCO supports the development of media and information literacy in order to help ‘enable people’s ability to think critically and click wisely’. This of course, has become particularly important in an age when fake news is rife, and the spread of misinformation – particularly among younger audiences – is causing concern.
The Organization’s efforts are particularly focussed on helping to enhance the capacities of policymakers, educators, information and media professionals, youth organizations, and disadvantaged populations in this area, assisting Member States to formulate national media and information literacy policies and strategies.
You can find out more about the event here.