Media and information literacy (MIL) is a key term defined as knowledge, understanding, and experience of various media forms. As a stage of a more complex process, knowledge therefore means more than being initiated into a certain field, a stage of a process involving an interrelated set of competencies, doubled by critical thinking.
There are two parts of the MIL structure which need to be considered: on one hand, media and information, on the other hand, literacy, both of which have enriched their meanings in light of recent technological and societal developments. Media and information syntagma may include a wide range of formats, whether it is text, audio, audio video or multimedia, as well as various forms of content, either informative, entertaining, or interactive, and therefore produced by journalists, communicators or even by the user himself. The second term, literacy, enriched its meaning with an understanding approach; the simple acknowledgement of a certain piece of information will be insufficient to define the term. In a complex environment, media and information literacy is referred to as a combination of competencies: knowledge, skills and attitudes. As indicated, MIL also involves capabilities of actively interacting with the information and/or the media content, at least in the form of an active reception of the message: watchdogging the watchdog by critically processing the content.
Passive exposure to information might be the opposite of MIL. In conjunction with the digital word, MIL competencies, as inventoried by the UNESCO guide, will consist of: searching, critically evaluating, using content wisely, and contributing with specific forms of interaction. Conceptually, MIL can be classified in terms of core and subsidiary skills; the first category can be split in three others: (1) access/retrieval of media and information; (2) evaluation/understanding of MI; and (3) assessment and evaluation, organization and synthesis. According to the UNESCO guide, MIL core skills refer to: (1) access, (2) evaluation/understanding and (3) use. The subsidiary skills refer to: (1) identify need/express/search/locate, (2) analyse/induction/deduction (understand)/process, and (3) apply/learn/ethics/communicate/reproduce/produce. From the purpose perspective, MIL is defined as an essential dimension of moral and civic education, which plays a crucial role in democratic societies. In UNESCO’s view, MIL covers competencies that enable people to critically and effectively engage with information, but not only with information, as this field has been highly challenged and widened by technology. The Council of Europe refers to MIL as being composed of Information Literacy and Media Literacy, along with ICT and Digital Literacy.
