International Literacy Day, declared by UNESCO in 1966, is celebrated on September 8th every year. This year’s theme is ‘Literacy in a Digital World’ and it will focus on what kind of literacy skills people need to navigate increasingly digital mediated societies and to explore effective literacy policies and programmes that can leverage the opportunities that the digital world provides.
On their website, UNESCO writes:
“Just as knowledge, skills and competencies evolve in the digital world, so does what it means to be literate. In order to close the literacy skills gap and reduce inequalities, this year’s International Literacy Day will highlight the challenges and opportunities in promoting literacy in the digital world”.
At Nordicom, the International Clearinghouse of Children, Youth and Media has been working on promoting media and information literacy for the past 20 years. This has been done through collaborations and networks, but also through publishing a number of yearbooks and other anthologies. In honour of the day, we’ve compiled a list of some recent publications focusing on (media) literacy in a digital world:
Opportunities for Media and Information Literacy in the Middle East and North Africa, Yearbook 2016
This yearbook fills a gap in the existing body of literature about the progress of media and information literacy work in different parts of the world. It is of particular interest to shed light on a region, the MENA region, where young citizens’ engagement with media has been in focus in news reporting all over the world in recent years and awareness of MIL competencies is gaining ground.
Reflections on Media Education Futures, Contributions to the Conference Media Education Futures in Tampere, Finland 2014
This publication has its origins in the International Conference “Media Education Futures” 2014 in Finland. The event gathered international researchers in the field, as well as national and international organizations and actors in European and global fields of media education.
Agents and Voices, A Panorama of Media Education in Brazil, Portugal and Spain, 2014
In 2014 the Clearinghouse for the first time published a yearbook in Spanish and Portuguese. The anthology deals with common aspects in media education shared by the three countries despite cultural, economic and educational differences. Agents and Voices is a translation from its original languages; Spanish and Portuguese.
Mia Jonsson Lindell