23 October 2021, Malaysia – The Media Education For All (ME4A) movement joins media literacy groups around the world to empower local communities with critical thinking skills in UNESCO’s Global Media Information Literacy Week, happening from 24th to 31th October 2021, with the theme “Media and Information Literacy for the Public Good”.
The Global Media Information Literacy Week is led by UNESCO and members of UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance, the 2021 Global Media and Information Literacy Week will be spearheaded by South Africa. It is celebrated every year to offer opportunities for all stakeholders to evaluate the progress towards accomplishing media literacy for all.
ME4A, Malaysia’s media literacy movement for educators that recently won Best News Literacy Project in the prestigious Asian Digital Media Awards, calls for all levels of society to join the fight against misinformation and disinformation.
“It is not enough for educators and journalists to be equipped with media and information literacy (MIL) skills,” said David Chak, ME4A project lead and Arus Academy co-founder. “We want to involve more people and increase MIL awareness for public good.”
Starting this Sunday, ME4A offers a series of multilingual events lined up for the Global Media and Information Literacy Week leading up to an open day on the 30th October. (See attached list and poster for events’ details)
All the events are set to be featured in UNESCO’s global celebrations map together with other countries – showing Malaysia’s commitment to empower critical thinkers and smarter media users across ages, professions, and borders.
Come and learn how to be aware of biases, ways to verify information, and take part in insightful discussions with journalists, activists, researchers and educators on why we need to step up in media and information literacy at home, school and community right now.
ME4A will also be launching a professional network for media literacy educators and announce outstanding educators who have won in its Media Education Academy Challenge competition held recently.
One of the judges, Dr Sarina Yusof, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Languages and Communications, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris is impressed by the quality of entries submitted in the nationwide competition.
“Many teachers and lecturers are gaining their first exposure to media and information literacy, and they have demonstrated that it is feasible to incorporate these critical skills into everyday classes and lectures in any subject area, regardless of their previous experience. We have made great progress as educators in this nation, but much more work remains ahead of us,” said Sarina.
Get involved as part of a media and information literate Malaysia. Join Malaysia’s celebration by registering at ME4A’s website: https://arus.cc/globalmilweek . Admissions to all virtual events is free.
