UK major report: Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes

There are some new reports from Ofcom (the UK "watchdog" for the communications sector). The main report, published today, is a substantial 200 page document, and the other 2 reports which I'll mention supplement that one.
Ofcom (2012) Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report Research Document. Ofcom. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/oct2012/main.pdf
The report is "designed to give an accessible overview of media literacy among [British] children and young people aged 5-15 and their parents/carers, as well as an indicative view of media use by children aged 3-4." Key research was 1,717 in-home interviews.
The report is packed with statistics about what kinds of device children access, and where they do so. 91% of children have internet access at home (for the first time, this is not an increase compared with the last report) - some children still do not access the internet anywhere. Unsurprisingly, mobile devices feature heavily, with gender differences in how the devices are used. Also, just picking up on a personal interest, in 8-11 year olds the only "creative or civic" activity that has gone up every year is creating an avatar in an online world (this year 48% had).
For some of the conclusions, I will be lazy and copy from the Executive summary.
" Children are using a wide range of media devices, and internet access is not confined to the desktop PC, laptop or netbook. Those aged 12-15 in particular are spending more time online, are more likely to go online using their mobile phone and are more likely to say that their mobile phone is the device they would miss the most.

"For the first time this report contains indicative data on the media habits of 3-4 year olds. This indicates that many in this age group are using a range of different media devices, including over a third who are going online using a desktop PC, laptop or netbook and 6% who are going online via a tablet computer.
"These trends have implications for how we consider children’s media literacy, as the requirement for media literacy skills begins at a young age, and the types of devices children need to be proficient on, and the opportunities for them to encounter media content, increase.
"Children, particularly 12-15s, are prolific social networkers with large numbers of friends – an average of 92 friends for 8-11s and 286 for 12-15s. This has implications for how children protect and share personal information, given that personal data available to “friends” on social networking sites is likely to be shared with large numbers of people."

2. Ofcom (2012) Websites visited by children: Nielsen analysis. Ofcom. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/oct2012/Annex_3.pdf

The data is "derived from Nielsen's UK panel of households, comprising 45,239 individuals". This is short, but interesting in listing top 25/50 sites for 3 age groups. As with the other reports, data was gathered in 2012.
- 5-7 years old: top ten (1 to 10): Google, Google Search, BBC, Facebook, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing, YouTube, BBC CBeebies, Yahoo!, eBay, Ask Search Network
- 8-11 years: top ten (1 to 10): Google, Google Search, YouTube, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing, Facebook, BBC, YouTube Homepage, Google Image search, Wikipedia, Windows Live Messenger
- 12-15 years: top ten (1 to 10): Google, Google Search, Facebook, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing ,YouTube,Google Image Search, YouTube Homepage, Yahoo!, Wikipedia

3. Jigsaw Research (2012) Parents’ views on parental controls: Findings of qualitative research. Ofcom. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/oct2012/Annex_1.pdf

The research used a purposive sample of parents (in the UK), with qualitative methods including focus groups and journaling (it gives details of the questions etc., useful for other researchers). Parents were more concerned about issues like cyberbullying and "grooming" and the impact of internet use on other parts of the child's life (e.g. exercise, writing), rather than issues to do with access to inappropriate content (partly because they didn't perceive it as a particular problem). Some quotes from the executive summary are:
"Overall, ensuring balanced and safe use of the internet was seen as an important parenting challenge, but one where parents were not always clear on how to get it right. This was because they could not necessarily draw on their own experiences growing up, and also because they felt that the issues and risks were constantly developing and shifting".
"Overall, technical controls were viewed as a supplement to, rather than replacement for, hands-on parenting. Supervision and other forms of parental mediation were felt still to be needed to prevent all of the day-to-day issues as well as risks emanating from children’s internet usage."
Photos by Sheila Webber: Autumn chrysanthemum blooms, October 2012

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Media and Information Literacy: strength through diversity

I realised I hadn't blogged about my video presentation shown at the International Conference on Media and Information Literacy (MIL) for Knowledge Societies in Moscow, Russian Federation in June. As I mentioned before, I was invited to the conference but then wasn't able to attend in person, so I produced a video which was shown at the event. It is just 17 minutes long, and is called Media and Information Literacy: strength through diversity. In it I talk how it is valuable to explore and celebrate cultural and national diversity in information literacy, and this national perspective might also encourage national governments to value it.



There are many presentations and pictures from the Moscow conference online here. Just to take a few examples at random, they include:
- An analysis of concept of information literacy by Serap KURBANOGLU, Hacettepe University, Turkey
- Mapping out media and information literacy by Jarosław LIPSZYC, The Modern Poland Foundation, Poland
- Computer literates and information illiterates by Gordana LJUBANOVIC, National Library of Serbia, Serbia
- Placing media and information literacy at the core of instruction ( Presentation / Paper) by Jagtar SINGH, Punjabi University, Indian Association of Teachers of Library and Information Science, India
- Children and the new media literacy: an Egyptian case study by Samy TAYIE, Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University, Mentor Association, Egypt

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Media and Information Literacy Recommendations from IFLA

In cooperation with UNESCO's Information for All Programme (IFAP), the IFLA Information Literacy Section drafted new Media and Information Literacy Recommendations which are now available in several languages: here http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/ifla-media-and-information-literacy-recommendations. These recommendations were endorsed by the Governing Board of the International Federation of Library Asjavascript:void(0)sociations and Institutions (IFLA), at its meeting in Den Haag, The Netherlands, 7 December 2011. The recommendations will also be a topic at an international conference of Media and Information Literacy for Knowledge Societies on 24-28 June, 2012, in Moscow, Russia.
As already noted on theis blog, UNESCO has combined media literacy and information literacy into Media and Information Literacy (MIL). This new document from IFLA reasserts that MIL is a " basic human right in an increasingly digital, interdependent, and global world". It defines MIL as consisting "of the knowledge, the attitudes, and the sum of the skills needed to know when and what information is needed; where and how to obtain that information; how to evaluate it critically and organise it once it is found; and how to use it in an ethical way. The concept extends beyond communication and information technologies to encompass learning, critical thinking, and interpretative skills across and beyond professional and educational boundaries. Media and Information Literacy includes all types of information resources: oral, print, and digital"

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Another journal special issue! Infolit policy

Library Trends, volume 60 issue 2, Fall 2011, focuses on "Towards policy formulation" on information literacy, a special issue edited by John Crawford. This looks a very interesting issue! This is a priced journal.
- Introduction: Information Literacy Beyond the Academy: Towards Policy Formulation; by John Crawford
- Information Literacy Advocacy-Woody's Ten Commandments; by Forrest Woody Horton, Jr.
- Trapped Between a Rock and a Hard Place: What Counts as Information Literacy in the Workplace and How Is It Conceptualized? by Annemaree Lloyd
- How Information Literacy becomes Policy: An Analysis Using the Multiple Streams framework; by Sharon Weiner
- Empowerment or Instrumental Progressivism? Analyzing Information Literacy Policies; by Andrew Whitworth
- The Concept of Information Literacy in Policy-Making Texts: An Imperialistic Project? by Ola Pilerot and Jenny Lindberg
- Is There a Right To Information Literacy? A Practice in Search of a Policy; by Catherine Haras and Stephanie Sterling Brasley
- Reconnecting Information Literacy Policy with the Core Values of Librarianship; by
Heidi LM Jacobs and Selinda Berg
- A Framework for Analysing and Comparing Information Literacy Policies in European Countries; by Carla Basili
- National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland): Pioneering Work to Influence Policy-Making or Tinkering at the Edges? by Christine Irving
- Think Global, Act Local: Expanding the Agenda for Media Literacy Education in the United States; by Vanessa Domine
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/library_trends/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Winter trees, Sheffield, January 2012.

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Our Space: Being a Responsible Citizen of the Digital World

A substantial online resource: Our Space: Being a Responsible Citizen of the Digital World has been produced by The GoodPlay Project, Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA (which includes luminaries such as Howard Gardner) and Project New Media Literacies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, USA. "Our Space is a set of curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments [e.g.Facebook, Wikipedia]. Through role-playing activities and reflective exercises, students are asked to consider the ethical responsibilities of other people, and whether and how they behave ethically themselves online. These issues are raised in relation to five core themes that are highly relevant online: identity, privacy, authorship and ownership, credibility, and participation." http://www.goodworkproject.org/practice/our-space/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bindweed fence, October 2011

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International Forum on Media and Information Literacy & Fez Declaration

I should have reported before that an International Forum on Media and Information Literacy (MIL) was held in Fez, Morocco, 15-17 June 2011 through partnership between UNESCO, the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University (Morocco), the Islamic Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO), the Arab Bureau of Education for the Golf States (ABEGS) and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and other partners.
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=31456&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
They produced the Fez Declaration on Media and Information Literacy as a result of the forum. They assert that "today’s digital age and convergence of communication technologies necessitate the combination of media literacy and information literacy in order to achieve sustainable human development, build participatory civic societies, and contribute to the consolidation of sustainable world peace, freedom, democracy, good governance and the fostering of constructive intercultural knowledge, dialogue and mutual understanding" and make various recommendations: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/news/Fez%20Declaration.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Tracery, September 2011

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UNESCO Media & Information Literacy: report 3

This continues my report from the meeting, held on 11th August in San Juan, Puerto Rico, about developing Media and Information Literacy indicators (the meeting was organised by IFLA and UNESCO).

Jesús Lau (Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, México) gave the main presentation before our small-group discussion about the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Indicators which are under development. Lau (who I am pleased to say got his doctorate in my own department, at Sheffield University) has led key information literacy initiatives with UNESCO.

He started by identifying some initiatives that provided a rationale for UNESCO being interested in MIL. Examples are its own Education for All (EFA) and Information for All (IFAP) programmes, and action lines from the World Summit on the Information Society C 3 “Access to information and knowledge”, C 7 “e-learning” and C 9 “Media”. Lau felt that “Inclusive knowledge societies require tools to measure media and information access and especially use” and there was currently a lack of data for decision making in this area. Some of the related statistics (e.g. number of books borrowed in libraries) were not good indicators for MIL.

Lau introduced a cycle which he felt that applied to bothIL and ML: an iterative cycle with Creation/ availability; Distribution/ supply; Information supply; Distribution/ use MIL skills. Lau also presented a “contellation” of info-communication skills (including onformation literacy, ICT and media literacy, literacy, oral communication, and reasoning). He saw the core skills of MIL as being: Access; Evaluation/ understanding ; and Use. Media Literacy (ML) has a mediating role in active citizenship (e.g. governance), public health (e.g. as regards risky behaviours) and aesthetics (e.g. creativity and self expression). Information Literacy (IL), on the other hand, he viewed as focusing more on the “Information Quality” elements (such as data/information reliability).

Lau felt that “both literacies aim to develop the same skills” (which he illustrated with a slide depicting convergence of IL and ML) but IL has in the past tended to focus more on academic side of things (as opposed to everyday behaviours). He also identified that some cultural factors will be more important than others, or will define attitdes to MIL, in different countries.

Lau moved on to talk about some principles of indicator development, and the practical options for developing MIL indicators. The first two options he presented were: independent survey specifically for MIL (expensive); and as a set of questions in an existing survey (for example PISA, national education surveys etc.). The remaining two options meant collecting no data specifically about MIL, but using existing statistics: either combining index of international indexes and international surveys; or index of secondary international indicators (e.g. statistics about creating/distribution of information like books).

Lau mentioned a number of pieces of work which the current MIL work is building on, some of which UNESCO has sponsored itself. These are some of those items (I’ve blogged most of them at some point, I think, some of them more than once!).

- Catts, R. and Lau, J. (2008). Towards Information Literacy Indicators. Paris: UNESCO.http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/towards-information-literacy-indicators

- Horton, F. (2007) Understanding Information Literacy: a primer. Paris: UNESCO. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=25956&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

- ITU (2010). Measuring the Information Society. Geneva: ITU. http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-d/opb/ind/D-IND-ICTOI-2010-U2-SUM-PDF-E.pdf (ITU is the United Nations agency for telecommunications)

- Lau, Jesus (2005). International Guidelines for Information Literacy for Lifelong Learning. The Hague: IFLA. http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/guidelines-on-information-literacy-for-lifelong-learning

- Partnership for 21st Century Skills. http://www.p21.org

- Thompson, S. (Ed)(2003). Prague Declaration: Towards an Information Literate Society. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=19636&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

- UNESCO (2005). Beacons of the information society: Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning. Alexandria: UNESCO. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=20891&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Photos by Sheila Webber: The first picture shows the tiny straw baskets which our Puerto Rican hosts gave us (on a printout of the presentation) and the second shows some of the participants coming from lunch, Lau is second right.

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Media and Information Literacy Indicators: Bangkok report

A booklet has just been published which provides a summary of the outcomes of the Bangkok meeting which discussed Media and Information Literacy (MIL) indicators, organised by UNESCO, as well as introducing the concepts of MIL. I haven't had time to look at it properly and I may blog again when I have read it. The meeting I attended on Thursday (which I'm still posting about) was a follow-on from thr Bangkok meeting.



Moeller, S., Joseph, A., Lau, J. and Carbo, T. (2011) Towards Media and Information Literacy Indicators: Background Document of the Expert Meeting 4-6 November 2010, Bangkok, Thailand. Paris: UNESCO.

http://www.ucm.es/BUCM/boletin/doc17043.pdf

Photo by Sheila Webber: La Rogativa (statue group) San Juan, Puerto Rico, August 2011

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Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers

The Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers was published in July 2011. "This UNESCO model MIL Curriculum and Competency framework for teachers is intended to provide teacher education systems in developed and developing countries with a framework to construct a programme for turning out teachers who are media and information literate." At the moment it is just in English, but it will be translated into other key languages.



Part 1 provides the MIL Curriculum and Competency Framework and Part 2 outlines 9 core modules for the the curriculum for teachers plus some optional modules. There seems to be rather more that could be specifically designated media literacy than could be specifically designated information literacy: "Information Literacy and Library Skills" is just module eight of nine, though evaluating information critically is a thread that runs through all the modules. ML is also rather more prominent than IL in the "MIL competencies". I haven't pondered this in depth yet, but I wonder whether one issue is of having been too successful in presenting IL as something "straightforward" that has "steps", since the modules seem to engage with ML at a more complex level than they do with IL.



Some time, and an international team, were involved in production of this curriculum, and since getting teachers to understand about IL is (everyone seems to agree) vital, then this initiative is to be welcomed. Also, since it comes from UNESCO, it will get international attention. Finally, there is good material in it!



I think a worthwhile effort would be to aim to devise some further modules that introduce teachers to more complex IL issues (e.g. IL in different cultures and contexts) to match the challenge and detail of some of the ML modules.



The page with the link is

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/publications-and-communication-materials/publications/full-list/media-and-information-literacy-curriculum-for-teachers/ and the actual pdf is at

Wilson, C. et al. (2011) Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers. Paris: UNESCO. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001929/192971e.pdf

Photo by Sheila Webber: Sculpture on the Unversidad Politecnica de Puerto Rico campus

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UNESCO Media & Information Literacy: report 2

This continues my report from the meeting, held on 11th August in San Juan, Puerto Rico, about developing Media and Information Literacy indicators (organised by IFLA and UNESCO).

There had been a meeting of both Media and Information Literacy (MIL) experts in Bangkok in November to discuss MIL indicators: the report from that is just published & I will do a separate post on that. Then there were two follow up meetings, for IL experts (the one I attended yesterday) and for ML experts. The second presentation on 11th August was a short report, via videolink, about this meeting of the Media Literacy experts, held in Istanbul in July. This meeting had been linked to the conference of The International Association for Media and Communication Research. The programme for the event is here: http://www.univ-paris3.fr/73959597/0/fiche___actualite/.



The Media Literacy participants at the Istanbul meeting had welcomed the initiative, but with some caution and qualification. They called for a period of constructive critique and felt that developing the MIL indicators should be a long term strategy, rather than rushing things through. They thought there should be in-country adaptions of the indicators (recognising cultural differences), though without compromising principles such as free speech. It was noted that there was a tension between intellectual property rights and notions of freedom of information. Other points to emerge from this media literacy experts meeting included:

- Ethics tied to citizenship (that was the note I made yesterday during the presentation: I think it was stressing the ethical aspects of media literacy in relation to citizenship);

- Criticality was an essential part of MIL;

- Media Literacy had a political dimension.

In the short question period at the end I picked up on this last point. It was confirmed that this was one of the messages from the media literacy experts meeting, and indeed it is my perception that this is more explicitly a theme with ML experts than with IL experts. Personally I think that IL also has a political dimension, and it is a good idea to surface this, rather than pretending that IL is "neutral".

Two other colleagues raised questions:

- Whether countries would really pay attention to any MIL indicators. The answer was that by putting on UNESCO's agenda, it would get attention, even if not from all countries.

- Whether UNESCO could articulate why ML and IL are joined and also why other literacies are not being addressed. The response from the UNESCO side was that these two literacies are most linked with the remit of communication and information. Therefore it seemed (to me) that there was a certain pragmatism, and inclusion of other literacies in the future was not ruled out.

Photos by Sheila Webber: Sculpture on the Unversidad Politecnica de Puerto Rico campus, and a poster with the University's mission, that I saw posted up in several places.

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UNESCO Media & Information Literacy: report 1

On Thursday (11th August) I participated in the meeting organised by the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) Information Literacy Section and UNESCO IFAP (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Information For All Program) on Media and Information Literacy Indicators and Government Action Recommendations. It was held at the Universidad Politécnica de Puerto Rico, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I will do several separate blog posts about it.



The day started with a presentation via video link from Mr Janis Karklins, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information at UNESCO. The picture above shows the video feed. He identified reasons why UNESCO is working on literacy issues. Namely, in order to succeed in fast changing societies, and tackle the challenges of the knowledge economy, people needed various literacies. These literacies should support diverse people to succeed. Information Literacy was still seen as part of people’s basic human right which helped people achieve their personal and professional goals.



UNESCO felt that they needed to look at a combination of literacies, and felt that it would be “interesting from a conceptual point of view” to link the two essential literacies: media literacy and information literacy. They had already done work in both these areas. Mr Karklins presented a diagram which showed overlapping circles: information literacy, media literacy, digital literacy, computer literacy and “other types of literacies” (the examples given for "other" were financial and health literacy).

The strategy for Media and Information Literacy (MIL) includes the Teachers’ curriculum for media and information literacy (published in July: I was sure I had blogged this, but I don't seem to have done so. I wil put this in a separate post), establishment of an international clearinghouse for MIL, strategy statements for MIL and developing indicators for MIL.

The point of the indicators would be to use them internationally. It was hoped that the MIL indicators would be a tool for countries’ self-assessment and a benchmark or standard for MIL. The main challenges include:

- Finding a balance between IL and ML;

- Getting agreement on definitions;

- Identifying the indicators themselves!

The process started in 2007 with the publication by Lau and Catts: Towards Information Literacy Indicators, then in November 2010 there was the first meeting of MIL experts, then some further conceptual work, and now two separate meetings (one with media literacy experts, held in July, and one with IL experts i.e. the one I just attended).

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IL in schools; Media Literacy

I don't think I've mentioned the Argentinian blog Alfin en la escuela (information literacy in schools) http://alfinenlaescuela.blogspot.com/. It is in Spanish.

One publication it just highlighted is a new Portuguese-language publication, the proceedings of the First National Congress on media literacy and citizenship, held at the Universidad de Miño, Portugal, 25-26 March 2011. It includes numerous papers on media literacy, digital literacy, information literacy etc. The proceedings are at http://www.lasics.uminho.pt/OJS/index.php/lmc/issue/view/38/showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: Botanic Gardens, Sheffield, July 2011

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Children learning about media literacy #csnl2011

Another post from the Centre for the Study of New Literacies Conference which took place in Sheffield 8-9 July. Becky Parry (Institute of Education, University of London) talked about an intervention in which young children were involved in media production, as part of the project Developing Media Literacy: towards a model of learning progression. This project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. "The specific aim of the project is to develop a model of learning progression in media education. This model will seek to specify what children of different ages might be expected to understand about media; and how their learning could develop over time, and in the course of a sequence of learning activities". This is done through involvement of teachers and pupils in investigating what media literacy means and finding effective ways of developing media literacy. The project website is at http://www.ioe.ac.uk/study/departments/lkl/21807.html
The researchers had found that media literacy teaching often focused on looking at the different ways texts are constructed, so pupils could understand media language, with sociological aspects were not so much addressed. Traditional classroom news activities tended to be about analysing and rewriting news articles, or quizzes, fact finding exercises etc. These did not seem to be developing all the critical aspects of media literacy.
The intervention that Parry was talking about involved 9-10 year old pupils. The children gathered and presented news stories (asking who/what/when/where questions, like reporters), for a news product that was going to be seen by their peers and by their parents. Therefore it was a "real" exercise: this appeared to increase their commitment to it (Parry compared it to another activity which was just a simulation, which pupils hadn't worked so hard at).
The pupils did not just gather and present news stories, they also set and enforced regulation and bought and sold advertising. Two children were the “accountants” and two were "regulators". The 2 regulators developed rules e.g. for inaccurate reporting, swearing, bad advertising, and there were fines (Parry showed some pictures of the set of regulations and fines they developed). This again brought reality into the exercise, and it also meant the pupils had discussions about these ethical and economic issues. Partway through the exercise, the teacher introduced a picture of a “UFO”, which gave a buzz as they tried to decide whether it was “news”.
One of the issues that Parry emphasised was is that this research methodology provided an insight into the process of the pupils' learning and decision making. From a learning and teaching point of view it was giving them more real understanding and curiosity about how news is constructed.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hydrangea, Rutland Hotel, Sheffield, July 2011

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Medien- und Informationskompetenz

Bibliothek & Information Deutschland produced (in February 2011) a (German-language) brochure of recommendations, to contribute to the thinking of a German parliamentary Committee of Enquiry. The title is: Medien- und Informationskompetenz – immer mit Bibliotheken und Informationseinrichtungen! Empfehlungen von Bibliothek & Information Deutschland (BID) für die Enquete-Kommission "Internet und digitale Gesellschaft" des Deutschen Bundestages. [Media and Information Literacy: from library and information services! Recommendations from Bibliothek & Information Deutschland to the parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the Internet and digital society]. Published by: Bibliothek & Information Deutschland (BID) Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Bibliotheks- und Informationsverbände e.V. http://www.bideutschland.de/download/file/BID_Positionspapier_Medien-%20und%20Informationskompetenz_Enquete_Internet.pdf
The document advocates the value and key role of libraries, pointing out the extent to which libraries are already supporting information literacy, digital literacy and e-learning. It makes recommendations at the national, federal and regional level, for formal and adult education, and it gives examples from practice.
If you can speak German you may also be interested in the Commission's website. For example, there is a project group on media literacy (the consultation phase of the group has finished). http://www.bundestag.de/internetenquete/index.jsp
Photo by Sheila Webber: March 2011

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Always Connected: The new digitial media habits of young children

Just published, a new study "We reviewed seven recent studies — several never before released — about young children and their ownership and use of media. By focusing on very young children and analyzing multiple studies over time, we were able to arrive at a new, balanced portrait of children’s media habits. We also introduce portraits of children’s digital media use from a smaller qualitative study conducted by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center to add some tint and texture to the quantitative findings." Note that the study was co-sponsored by the Sesame Workshop, so the Workshop's activities are mentioned more than once.
Gutnick, A.L. et al. (2011) Always Connected: The new digitial media habits of young children. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center. http://joanganzcooneycenter.org/upload_kits/alwaysconnected_final.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Blossom on the old wall (photoshopped), Blackheath, March 2011.

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International women's day & Media and Information Literacy

Today is International Women's Day. UNESCO launched the 2011 edition of Women Make the News, "a global initiative aimed at promoting gender equality in the media ... The theme for this year, Media and Information Literacy and Gender, aims to improve understanding about gender perspectives in the media and information systems."
In particular UNESCO is asking for people to contribute their stories about using Media and Information Literacy (MIL) to raise awarness about gender and equality issues. I think the idea is that media organisations should show how they address the issue, and also that part of MIL education should be sensitivity to gender issues when evaluating information and news. "... share your thoughts on how MIL can help women and men understand gender equality and to challenge the media to address this issue. Are you promoting or do you have plans to promote MIL in your media organization? How are you doing this? Do you think MIL can help to address gender equality? What programmes or activities have you implemented in your countries and communities? What were some of your challenges? How did you involve the media, women and men? What are some of the creative ways you have used MIL to mainstream gender issues?"
This is the website for Women Make the news (it has a link to contribute your story, on the right side of the page): http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/crosscutting-priorities/gender/women-make-the-news/
MIL is defined (in the Guidelines for broadcasters on promoting user-generated content and Media and Information Literacy (p10) as "the ability to ‘interpret and make informed judgments as users of information and media, as well as to become skilful creators and producers of information and media messages in their own right’"
Picture: International Women's Day on Minerva island, in Second Life

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Ofcom Media Literacy Bulletin

The February 2011 edition of the Ofcom Media Literacy Bulletin is online, with news about research and events (the emphasis is on digital media literacy and internet literacy). Ofcom is the UK's communications regulator. If you are in the UK, and have a media literacy event or news item, it is worth emailing them, for them to mention it, as well as keeping track of the bulletin for news. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/media-literacy/medlitpub/bulletins/issue42/
Photo by Sheila Webber: New nettles, Hailsham, March 2011

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Media Literacy

A news story by Donnelly (2011) published last week on the Center for Social Media website aims to summarise some issues around media literacy, and in particular draws on a report, Digital and media literacy: a plan of action, (Hobbs, 2010) "A White Paper on the Digital and Media Literacy recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy". I have only skimmed the Hobbs report in a superficial way, but (unsurprisingly) it does engage with the subject in a more thoughtful way than is possible in Donnelly's brief article (in particular Hobbs doesn't do the irritating thing of implying that media literacy is a broader field encompassing information literacy). However, the Donnelly article is useful for summarising issues and providing some interesting links.
The Hobbs report includes recommendations for numerous stakeholders, including the President of the USA, youth groups ... and librarians.

- Donnelly, K (2011) Special Public Media 2.0 Showcase Series on Digital and Media Literacy. Center for Social Media. http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/future-public-media/public-media-showcase/special-public-media-20-showcase-series-digital-and-media-. Interestingly for something on media literacy, there is nothing on this web page that gives a date for the article, but the home page dates it 24 February ;-)
- Hobbs, R. (2010) Digital and media literacy: a plan of action. Washington: The Aspen Institute. http://www.knightcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Digital_and_Media_Literacy_A_Plan_of_Action.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield University campus, February 2011.

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Meeting on indicators for media and information literacy (MIL)

UNESCO organised a meeting working on a framework of indicators to measure media and information literacy (MIL) internationally. The meeting attended by representatives of 17 countries, and held on 4-6 November 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. It involved specialists from the field of media, information, education, curriculum development, psychometrics and statistics. A document had been prepared by Susan Moeller, (Professor, Director of International Center for Media and the Public Agenda, University of Maryland), Jesús Lau (Director of USBI VER Library, Mexico), Ammu Joseph (independent journalist from India) and Toni Carbo (Teaching Professor and iSchool Program Leader, Drexel University Center for Graduate Studies). It was decided that there should be two types of indicator:
"Tier 1 Indicators: intended to measure enabling factors that influence how individuals acquire MIL competencies and how well public and private institutions promote media and information literacy"
"Tier 2 Indicators: intended to measure MIL competencies for all individuals in a society with additional consideration for teacher trainers and teachers in-training and in-service."
There is a report at http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=30968&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html which also says that "The initiative to develop indicators to measure media and information literacy was spearheaded by the UNESCO Communication and Information Sector in cooperation with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the UNESCO Office in Bangkok. UNESCO is presently validating an action plan that was prepared and proposed by the participants of the meeting. The report of the meeting will be published by the end of this year."
Photo by Sheila Webber: I think I may have featured this photo before, but my university just grubbed this rose out of its flowerbed in one of their "neatening" exercises, so this is a memorial to how pretty it was ;-(

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IFLA Report: Posters on media literacy

This highlights a poster presented at the WLIC/IFLA conference being held this week in Gothenburg (http://www.ifla.org/en/ifla76). Heike vom Orde emphasises how young people can learn media literacy by learning about media (learning to analyse it, produce it, and understand more about the social context) and learn with media (learning to access it and communicate with it). Click on the picture to see it larger.

There is a short paper from Heike on this topic from the INFORUM 2010 conference: “We have evidence; they are learning!” How to enable students to become media literate users of information resources
http://www.inforum.cz/pdf/2010/vom-orde-heike-1.pdf
If you can speak German there is also a relevant powerpoint which Heike recently presented at the 99. Deutscher Bibliothekartag, Medien- und Informationskompetenzförderung durch Bibliotheken: Anmerkungen aus Sicht der Kinder- und Jugendmedienforschung [Libraries developing Media and Information Literacy: observations from the perspective of media research concerning children and young people] http://www.opus-bayern.de/bib-info/volltexte/2010/903/

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