UNESCO MIL Alliance

The MIL Alliance Awards recognize information/library, media and technology specialists, educators, artists, activists, researchers, policy makers, NGOs, associations and other groups integrating MIL (media and information literacy) in an innovative way in their work and related activities. Specifically, the awards recognize excellence and leadership in five sectors: Education, Research, Policy, Advocacy, Media and Communication/Information Industries.

The MIL Alliance Awards are presented every year at the Global MIL Week feature conference.

Michelle Ciulla-Lipkin represents the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), a network in the United States of America that design and implements media literacy education in schools, cities, and entertainment environments. "NAMLE" and its members are currently the primary drivers of media literacy education in the United States. The organization also engages in important international cooperation to promote MIL. NAMLE imparts media literacy best practices to students, educators, parents, organizations, schools, universities and the general public through programming, conferences, networking, and collaboration. Michelle Ciulla-Lipkin tirelessly represents and promotes media literacy. Through MIL related actions, Michelle and NAMLE are putting dents in human rights violations, poverty reduction, cultural diversity, and the environment (United States).

Willice Onyango represents the Youth Cafe Limited in Kenya that aims to steer the organization to equip over 5 million young men and women in Africa with key media literacy and information literacy skills: critical thinking, fact-checking, online safety, social media verification, and quality assessment of online information and their sources. They hope to become a reference point in media literacy for African youth. The Youth Cafe is a youth-led and youth-serving organization that, among other goals, works towards enabling the youthful population in Africa to take charge of Africa's media growth. The organization has published cutting-edge research and advocacy on media and information literacy among African youth, reaching over one million young people in the process (Kenya).

Silvia Bacher represents the “Las Otras Voces, Comunicacion para la Democracia(LOV)” in Argentina. the organization has actively worked to set MIL's political and educational agenda, created programs and established alliances in Argentina, Latin America and Spain. The activities implemented are multi-layered and dynamic. LOV works from three perspectives: political, academic, and territorial (Argentina).

Sam Wineburg, working with Stanford University in the United States of America, supports media literacy "lateral reading" skills and tools to schools. Professor Sam Wineburg and Stanford's History Education Center provide the Stanford curriculum to millions of students in the United States. Their Civic and History lessons help communicate media literacy best practices to students, educators, parents, organizations, schools, universities, and the general public (United States).

The Brazilian professor Carlos Lima has created an educational programme within the Imprensa Jovem (Youth Press) organization that illustrates MIL application in basic education curriculum. The programme allows teachers and students to acquire competencies of MIL through participatory processes in curricular and extra-curricular activities. It approaches different media languages, critical reading of media, Open Educational Resources, ICTs and SDGs – including within the school news agencies (Brazil).

Syed Ommer Amer, founded the "Daastan" institution in Pakistan, which influences media and information literacy in general. The organization runs monthly thematic campaigns that use storytelling as a tool to promote intercultural dialogue, peacemaking through literature as well as the role of and safety of journalists in Pakistan. Recently, Daastan launched the #WeToo short story competition in collaboration with Stories to Action - a global platform working to disseminate verified information for sexual and reproductive health rights in the context of the current health crisis (Pakistan).

UNICEF Montenegro: UNICEF and Montenegro Agency for Electronic Media launched a national MIL campaign in February 2018. Based on the first nationally representative survey about media consumption, it has been conducted among children aged 9-17 and among their parents. UNICEF Montenegro has been continuously raising awareness of Montenegrin citizens about MIL. The campaign "Let's Choose What We Watch" is based on civic engagement of young people in the role of UNICEF volunteers - young reporters who become the "opinion-leaders" on this topic of their peers, families and local communities. One in every two Montenegrin is aware of this initiative. The campaign has gained wide national media attention, but it has also been recognized internationally (Montenegro).

Revista Comunicar: Founded by Dr Ignacio Aguaded, Revista Comunicar (Comunicar) has been within the 10 top scientific publications in the world in the fields of Education, Communication and Cultural Studies. This leading scientific publication devoted completely to media education, covers all the topics within MIL and giving a voice to the Spanish-Speaking scientific community through a bilingual journal that presents works in Spanish and English and strives to continue to be a referent as an international MIL related scientific publication. Dr. Aguaded is one of the fathers of Educommunication as a field of study (Spain).

Frank Baker, has taken the MIL related message to schools in the US, as well as in Singapore, Mumbai, India and Nairobi Kenya from more than twenty years. Creator of the Media Literacy Clearinghouse website resource (since 1998) for educators to understand the importance of young people applying critical thinking to media messages. His tremendous work has been recognized by the National Cable TV Associations (Leaders in Learning Award), the National Telemedia Council, as well as the South Carolina Council for Social Studies (Lifetime Achievement Award) (United States).

Prof. Dr. Alexander Victorovich Fedorov is one of the most influential professor and researcher in Russia in the field of MIL (20 books on media education and media literacy and more than 400 articles in Russian, English, Canadian, French, German, and Norwegian media studies and media literacy journals). He is also a scientist, teacher, media education specialist and film critic. He won the International Media Research Competition of the National Association of Media Researchers (NAMMI) (Russia).

The Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation (PYALARA) is a youth-oriented organization established since 1999. The organization seeks to activate and empower young Palestinians both young men and women and equip them with the necessary skills and tools that would enable them to address their issues, needs and rights. PYALARA has adopted a comprehensive intervention package whereby all social sectors were targeted. The Ministry of Education has partially integrated items from the MIL Handbook developed by PYALARA into the curricula and other Arab countries are looking into their work to reproduce the MIL experience (Palestine).

NewsWise is the first UK-wide, free news literacy project for 9-11-year-olds. The programme offers age-appropriate resources, relevant real-life contexts and news stories boosting children’s confidence and understanding and skills in news literacy. NewsWise publish open access evaluation data and free school resources and regularly advocate for MIL education in both UK and international debates. They are also developing and testing a successful pedagogical model, demonstrating how MIL can be embedded in the primary curriculum linking to critical literacy, wellbeing, relationships, and digital literacy (United Kingdom).

Jane Tallim and Cathy Wing of MediaSmarts received the top prize. They have been central to MIL in Canada since they joined MediaSmarts in 1995. They both served as co-executive directors from 2008-2018. During that time, they were responsible for Young Canadians in a Wired World, one of the world’s largest and longest-running research projects on youth and the Internet. They also developed the resource, Use, Understand and Create: A Digital Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools (Canada).

Hemmo Bruinenberg introduced a visual literacy project called Ithaka Film Festival led by his organization the Video Bakery and the Ithaka International Transition Classes. Over a three- day period, immigrant and refugee students make their own film with professional equipment from extensive research to the media creation and production (the Netherlands).

The Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM), Mexico. UAEM initiated a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) aimed at promoting information literacy to fight disinformation. The University is using e-learning and ICT to meet not only the needs of its students and educators, but also of the wider society in Mexico and in the Spanish Speaking part of the world (Mexico).

The Media Initiatives Centre (MIC) received the top prize. MIC’s media.am website is the main platform for media critique and analysis in Armenia. MIC develops lesson plans, tips, educational games for schools and works closely with the Ministry of Education to integrate what the organization calls media literacy (ML) into school program. The Ministry of Education approved its “Media Literacy” teachers’ handbook. MIC’s has created “Media Battle”, a media literacy computer game, which has been translated into Ukrainian, Belorussian, Romanian. MIC also cooperates with libraries and museums combining media aspects with information and library for a comprehensive approach lending to the composite concept of MIL promoted by UNESCO (Armenia).

Professor Jesus Lau received the second-place award. He has been a key actor in promoting and advocating MIL in education in Mexico, in Latin America and at the international level. He has been an active contributor to the fields of information science and library and information science since 1977. His research focuses on information literacy and the development of information competencies, and this work has expanded to include competencies in Media and Information Literacy (Mexico).

The Media Support Center Foundation in Kyrgyzstan is a pioneer in the field of Media Information Literacy (MIL) development in the Central Asian region. It has created a mechanism for MIL integration in the education system. The Centre played a lead role in the development of curricula and resource books for teachers, and it developed and piloted programs for high school youth. The most innovative part of the project is an online platform for students and teachers named “Media Sabak”. It provides opportunities for online learning and testing in MIL, where participants can share the results of their learning and earn a certificate. An upcoming project is the establishment of Media Literacy regional centers for support and mentorship (Kyrgyzstan).

Ms. Divina Frau-Meigs and Ms. Bérangère Blondeau from France’s University of Sorbonne Nouvelle, were hailed by UNESCO’s Alton Grizzle as being “academician, advocates and practitioners of MIL”. One example of this pair’s work is a DIY - Do It Yourself – MIL MOOC. It provides life-long teacher training in MIL, a field not taught at university though part of public policies in many countries (France).

Mr. Thomas Röhlinger founded Radijojo World Children's Media Network in 2003 in Germany. Since then he has been working on empowering children using MIL for intercultural dialogue, peace, health, environmental education and North-South cooperation. Working on four continents, Radijojo has been creating an educative children media safe haven, free of commercial, religious, political propaganda or hate speech (Germany).

The Child and Youth Media Institute (CYMI) in Thailand was founded in 2006, developing systems to create and disseminate positive media for the benefit of children, young people, families and society at large. The work of the Institute is embracing the government sector, media proprietors and producers, business and social sectors, communities, families, as well as children and young people (Thailand).