13 April 2017
The Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week will be celebrated from 25 October to 1 November 2017 under the theme “Media and Information Literacy in Critical Times: Re-imagining Ways of Learning and Information Environments”. UNESCO and partners launch this call for academic papers and case study/project-related presentations for the Global MIL Week 2017 feature event, the Seventh MIL and Intercultural Dialogue Conference, which will be held from 24 to 27 October 2017 in Kingston, Jamaica, hosted by the University of the West Indies.
People around the world face many challenges and major alterations taking place in the realms of politics, economics, development and social life. On one hand, people have not fully grasped the increasing value of information and media of all forms. On the other hand, it has become more difficult than ever before to make sense of the abundance of information, misinformation, and fake news, charged with agendas and hidden messages.
This does not concern only media but all forms of information including research findings on which important policy and decisions are based. Therefore, understanding the media and making sense of information environments, which together form the core of MIL, becomes an essential aspect of the learning and education of all people.
The feature conference of Global MIL Week will discuss how MIL can bridge the gap between learning in formal education environments and learning in other information environments. In other words, building bridges between learning outside of the classroom and learning inside the classroom. It will explore how stakeholders interpret ways of educating citizens in MIL. It will focus on the global status of research and practice about the significance of MIL to transform present and future information and learning environments, and related policies. In addition, the conference will contribute to making learning a process of social change, which fosters human rights online and offline and enables global citizenship based on critical civic participation and intercultural dialogue.
UNESCO invites all stakeholders including researchers, practitioners, information, media and technology professionals, educators, leaders of NGOs or associations/networks, and decision makers etc., across the world who are interested in participating in the Global MIL Week feature conference to submit papers or presentation about MIL-related research, initiatives, programmes, policies and other types of work and new ideas.
Topics for papers and presentations should be within the fields of MIL and its connection to information and learning environments; media development, ICTs, freedom of expression and hate speech, human rights and violent extremism, education and youth, sustainable development, research, policy development, creative cities, music as a powerful media of communication etc. Papers submitted for the 2017 MILID Yearbook Call for Papers can also be presented in connection with this feature conference’s call for papers/presentations.
The deadline for submissions is 20 June 2017. A diverse scientific committee will evaluate and select papers and presentations based on relevance to the themes outlined. The authors of selected papers and presentations are invited to present at the Global MIL Week 2017 feature event in Jamaica.