The European Media and Information Literacy Forum 2014

Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy (GAPMIL)

During the Plenary session “Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy (GAPMIL),” the speakers delivered many thoughts and recommendations to help improve the quality of MIL around the world. Speaker Carolyn Wilson proposed that we treat MIL as a composite concept that has many factors. She mentioned a plan as an example, which aims to improve the quality of MIL in the region. The plan includes four factors: identification, education, communication, and collaboration. The first factor entails identifying key strategic partnerships, while education means targeting key organizations and government ministries. Communication entails raising awareness about GAPMIL and MIL online and offline. The last factor suggests collaboration with partner organizations and initiatives.
Maria-Carme talked about the importance of partnership. She stressed on the fact that we together, need to identify common goals and establish a common plan. To Maria, “It’s important to stop working in silence and sit together and talk.” MIL is an empowering tool once it brings people together. She also said that we could learn from each other once we partner and create “a network of a network.” It’s even more important when you consider partnership to train people how to be literate and check the credibility of the information and the resources.
Chido Onumah also talked about the benefits of GAPMIL and gave recommendations to improve it based on his experience in Nigeria and Africa in general.

According to Chido, Africa is the only continent where MIL is not implemented properly. A lot of initiatives should take place to help solve this problem, so what’s Chido suggesting? He first proposed the idea of hosting more conferences and forums regarding Media Literacy and Africa because these initiatives provide people with insights of what is happening around the world. He also talked about the idea of “global mapping of MIL,” which is a strategy that requires highly literate countries to agree on expanding, distributing, and transferring knowledge of MIL to the least literate countries.

http://junior-reporters.org/2014/05/28/global-alliance-for-partnerships-on-media-and-information-literacy-gapmil-2/