About MILID Foundation
What is the MILID Foundation?
To be a global voice in efforts to promote media and information literacy for all (SDG 4.6)
MILID Foundation is an international not-for-profit organisation advancing media and information literacy for all through research, education, and participation.
WHY WE EXIST
Our Vision
To be a global voice in efforts to promote media and information literacy for all (SDG 4.6).
HOW WE WORK
Our Mission
To build, one person/group at a time, a media and information literate, enlightened, inclusive, and equitable world.
Introduction.
Media and information literacy (MIL) empowers people to develop themselves and their societies through enhanced capacities in communication and information. It is an essential tool for people’s development, so that they can benefit from today’s information environment, mitigate the problems of potentially harmful content and reinforce rights to information and freedom of expression.
Media & Information Literacy enables people to show and make informed judgments as users of information and media, as well as to become skillful CREATORS and PRODUCERS of information and media messages to mitigate the harmful effects of misinformation and disinformation.
According to UNESCO
Critical thinking through information, media and digital competencies, combined with free expression and access to information are needed to:
- Preserve knowledge societies;
- Address the spread of disinformation and misinformation;
- Enable people to engage with information while respecting the rights of others;
- Align with international human rights standards,
- Support democratic societies, and;
- Combat expressions that cause harm to human rights and the public good.
In the current ecosystem of complex and sometimes contradictory messages and meanings, it is hard to conceive of the public good being advanced, if the public is disempowered in the face of opportunities and threats. Capacity building is needed of our competencies in order for each individual to understand the stakes – and for the public to contribute to and benefit from information and communication opportunities. Specific knowledge and skills are needed, and UNESCO aggregates these under the banner of media and information literacy.
Think Critically, Click Wisely: The MILID Approach
Against this background, it is necessary to focus on how citizens can develop MIL competencies as key to a vision of information as a public good. The expansion of information technology has shown that the challenges of false, misleading, and hateful expressions go much wider – affecting our identities, our sense of human solidarity and peace, our democratic systems, and progress on human rights and sustainable development.
MILID Foundation is, therefore, a call for action, to galvanize ideas and programmes relevant to the realization of the notion of not just access to media and information, but the ability to think critically and click wisely as an antidote to the new global reality of information disorder. It is our belief that media and information literacy contributes to the public good and should be life long learning opportunity for every citizen to improve knowledge, skills, and competencies to function effectively in an ever-expanding new media and digital environment.
Intercultural & Interreligious Dialogue
In face of the global scourges of violent extremism, xenophobia and discrimination, the promotion of a culture of peace and dialogue at the local, national, and international levels has become more than ever crucial to the security and well-being of our societies. Teaching the values of reconciliation, tolerance and respect between cultures, religions and beliefs, should be a priority for media and information providers as well as educators.
Today’s world is marked by rapid advancement of communication technology. It allows us to think and connect in new, unconventional ways. The mass production of new communication tools has dramatically changed, and continues to change, our lives. This new “digital life style” is not only redefining our self-perception, but it is also re-shaping our relationship with others and our interaction with the environment.
MILID Foundation seeks to empower citizens, harnessing the power of online platforms to strengthen intercultural and interreligious dialogue, utilizing some of the latest communication tools to bridge divides among individuals.
The aim of MILID’s intercultural and interreligious dialogue intervention is to strengthen the links between research, policy, and participation in order to enhance the process of learning, educating and networking on Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue for peacebuilding and reconciliation, thus contributing to the implementation of the Agenda 2030, and more specifically SDG 16: “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.”
Relying on the principles and competencies promoted by media and information literary, MILID seeks to connect with the global conversation on the challenges and opportunities for living in a landscape of diversity in our age of global communication and exchanges; prevent intercultural and interreligious tensions and crises, combating stereotypes, misperceptions, discrimination, and xenophobia; and support innovative grassroots initiatives that contribute to intercultural and interreligious dialogue and understanding, mutual respect and cooperation across divides.
