Digital Media Literacy and UNESCO

New Media Networks worked with colleagues from Golant Media Ventures and the UK National Commission for UNESCO (UKNC) to create, develop and deliver a sequence of UK round-tables on Digital Media Literacy for UK Government policy makers, media practitioners, media educators and researchers, media managers and UNESCO. This work entailed consulting with the Deputy Head of the Information Society and Media Unit of the European Commission, the Deputy Director General of WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) and the UK’s Ambassador to UNESCO.

UNESCO considers digital media literacy to be part of a wider definition of ‘literacy’ in the 21st Century. Additional to technical skills it includes understanding, critical reading, the ability to analyse and reason, and social participation. The UKNC is working to support and develop UNESCO’s and the UK’s vision of a media literate world, focusing on two priorities:
• strengthening the internationalist dimension of media literacy in the UK
• raising awareness and understanding among UK Government of the importance of media literacy for democracies