Critical Thinking and Media Literacy Online Seminars

6 January 2021

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The Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) in cooperation with SALTO PI launches a series of 6 online seminars aiming at readjusting youth (information) workers thinking about media literacy and critical thinking! Eye-opening presentations and practical workshops where participants can learn theory and tools for their own work with young people.

January 12, 2021: Introduction to Media and Information Literacy: Promotion of critical thinking and democracy in youth work
January 19, 2021: Talking about inclusion: Access and digital divide in youth work
January 26, 2021: Evils of online: Cyber bullying, hate speech and cybercrime
February 2, 2021: Era of disinformation: Fake news, internet trolls and photo manipulation impacting youth
February 9, 2021: The role of media and information literacy in preventing youth radicalization and extremism
February 16, 2021: Changing media landscapes and young people as content creators

The seminars will be organised on Tuesdays, at 14-16.30 CET time.

Each of the seminars consists of short theoretical lectures and/or practice-oriented interventions by experts and a participatory working session for the participants for discussion, sharing and mapping lessons learnt for one’s own work back home.

More information about the full agenda of each seminar can be found at
www.salto-youth.net

Digital divide usually refers to the different gaps existing in society in terms of access to digital technologies (eg. computer, smart phones, Internet). The gaps are related to the demographics (age, education, economic status) but also to regions (depending on the level of access and affordability of Internet and technology there are significant differences between the global regions). Recent focuses have looked at digital divide in terms of those who can benefit from ICT and does who don’t from a wider perspective – including access to different digital (public) services, emerging technologies as well as opportunities for improving digital competences.

The technical, cognitive, social, civic and creative capacities that allow us to access and have a critical understanding of and interact with media. These capacities allow us to exercise critical thinking, while participating in the economic, social and cultural aspects of society and playing an active role in the democratic process. This concept covers different media: broadcasting, radio, press, through various channels: traditional, internet, social media and addresses the needs of all ages.

MIL refers to the essential competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) that allow citizens to engage effectively with media and other information providers and develop critical thinking and life-long learning skills for socialising and becoming active citizens. An M.I.-literate person is used as an abbreviated version of Media and Information literate person.

MIL refers to the essential competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) that allow citizens to engage effectively with media and other information providers and develop critical thinking and life-long learning skills for socialising and becoming active citizens. An M.I.-literate person is used as an abbreviated version of Media and Information literate person.

Any communication that incites violence based on group specific hate of a defined group of people because of their collective characteristics (ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or other).

False information or propaganda published under the guise of being authentic news. Fake news websites and channels push their fake news content in an attempt to mislead consumers about the content and spread false facts via social networks and word-of-mouth. The official term used for fake news is information disorder.

False information created with the intent to harm a person, group or country. It can include imposter content, false context, manipulated content and fabricated content (Wardle and Derakhshan, 2017). Misinformation becomes disinformation when the creator or multiplier of the information has the intent to mislead the recipient (Karlova and Fisher, 2013).

The ability to examine and analyse information and ideas in order to understand and assess their values and assumptions, rather than simply taking propositions at face value (c.f. also reflective thinking).