Media and information literacy are not only critical for information
dissemination, informed society but also for peaceful co-existence in order to
build democratic ethos and also enjoying the dividends of democracy.
A recent survey on Google by Lynn and Becker put Nigeria at 67.76
percent ahead of Cameroon, Somalia, Morocco, Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic
of Congo, Gabon, Belize, Mauritius, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nepal,
Guatemala, Cape Verde, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nicaragua and Nepal. Nepal was at
the lowest rung of the ladder in terms of intelligence quotient (I.Q).
Leveraging on the Intelligence Quotient (I.Q) of Nigerians as it
relates to using the social media for information literacy, UNESCO has said it would
soon train bloggers, social media influences, content-creators in order to help
them to do their jobs on the Internet for a more informed society.
This idea was mooted at the Global Media Literacy and Information
Conference organised by UNESCO in Amman, Jordan under the parsonage of His
Excellency, King Abdullahi II Ibn Hussein, the king of Jordan who played host
to the Global Media and Information Literacy conference in the region.
On why this group should be trained to inform their online audience
and the general public, Prof. Deena Abi Thiab, Head of Jordan Programme Office,
UN-Habitat says, “There is still much to learn from content-creators, bloggers,
social media influences in the area of media and information literacy as we
can’t afford to throw away the baby with the bath-water. They should be seen as
critical catalyst toward achieving the goal of information dissemination on the
media space.”
“What i think we should rather do is to equip and train them so that
they can be well-equipped to do their job and also to better inform their audience.”
This view is not different from what Dir. Sunday Baba, the
representative of the Honouranle Minister of Information and National
Orientation (NOA) at the UNESCO conference, “we need to equip content-creators,
and those who are posting stuffs on the social-minded with skills so that they
are better-equipped to do their job and make them custodian of the right
information for a well-informed society.”
He opened that by giving them the needed skills, hate-speech,
dis/misinformation, fake news would reduce drastically and the narrative would
change to enhance our democratic values.
Speaking further, he said, since most Nigerian youths are adept in
social media skills and are always online posting one thing or the other, the
onus lies on us to train them to become better in their roles of informing the
public.”
On what really gave rise to the proliferation of dis/misinformation
on the social media by content-creators and others, Dir. Farouk Osmar,
Secretary-General, National Union of Journalists, Somalia, spilled the beans by
saying “Content-creators are dominating the media by the day while traditional
media are lagging behind in their role of information dissemination and
awareness.”
This he noted has given rise to some overnight journalists and emergency
reporters who misinform and mislead the public through their posts. He also
said that since the journalist who should be at the forefront of informing,
educating the public are slacking in their responsibility, they are in turn
giving a leeway for those who are not in the mainstream media to take over.
Still on this, Mrs. Nesrine Slapui, a journalist, writer and
filmmaker in Morocco and France explains that the role of Journalists or the
media is to “inform the people on how to inform themselves and to ensure the
transparency of information. She opened that “it is about checking news to
inform the people’ and not the other way round as the content-creators, bloggers,
social media influencers are doing.
On what the ethics of online reportage should be, she said, “fact-checking,
critical-thinking, informed decision that won’t be counter-productive on their
audience should be the ideal of news and information sharing.
Unlike the traditional media, content creators, social media influencers,
bloggers are too much in a hurry to post their content without checking and
verifying the source.
But during the MILWeek (Media and Information Literacy Week 2024) in
Amman, Jordan, UNESCO announced that all these anomalies would soon be a thing
of the past as efforts have bene put in place for effective media education and
literacy so that people are not dis/misinformed and the veracity of what is
posted online is properly checked before posting them.
In this regard, UNESCO has made available an online course, “The
Authoritative Voice” and “Each one for another.”
The courses have been designed in partnership with the Knight Centre for
Journalism, USA.
On the overall aim of this program, UNESCO said it is to “equip
digital content creators with essential media and information literacy skills by
identifying their strengths, weaknesses and needs. The course will also empower
digital content creators and strengthen and help them in information sharing.”
On why these courses have been designed, UNESCO said “we have seen
the need to design this course y to train content creators - bloggers, social
media influencers and journalists because digital content creators
significantly inference public opinions, trends and consumer behaviours.”
“Despite this, there is a lack of comprehensive research into their
motivations, ethics and accountability. As the UN agency with the mandate of
promoting freedom. of expression, access to information and mass media,
information literacy, UNESCO aims to understand the dynamics of digital
contents.”
According to UNESCO, “this initiative will lead to development of a
comprehensive survey. By leading tips effort, UNESCO seeks to enhance content-creators
and informed digital citizens.”
Apart from these courses, there are many other courses like: “Media
Literacy: Fostering a Cognitive Emotional Approach,” “The Need for Media
Literacy: A Comprehensive Learning Experiences” among others. All thse courses
are available on the UNESCO website as an e-learning courses.”
