What is Media and Information Literacy (MIL)

Media and Information Literacy (MIL)  is extremely important for us today: it makes critical thinking possible. A media and information – literate individual is able to distinguish between reliable sources of information, determine the role of media in culture and be responsible for his/her understanding of the influence of mass communication, while switching between different media platforms.

Media and Information Literacy is a multidisciplinary concept which is coming from two fields:

  • Media Literacy

    Originated within media and civic studies

  • Information Literacy

    Emerged from library and information science

Thus, MIL topic has been in the centre of ongoing debate in the research world ever since its creation, and the definitions of it vary.

As any literacy, MIL is considered to be a set of competencies and skills, which in MIL case stand close to the concepts of online and offline media, critical thinking, media use, information and source awareness, digital citizenship and active participation, among others. MIL skills in particular are the ones that are promoted to tackle social challenges such as mis- and disinformation, extremism, cyberbullying and hate speech online, cybercrime of various kinds (sextortion, data theft, violation of human rights etc.).