News consumers: speakers call for media literacy
Keeping in view the spread of information from various sources including social and other media, the speakers at a training workshop stressed the need of media literacy for all news consumers in order to make them able to access and analyze information. The two-day workshop on Tools for Media Information Literacy (MIL) was organized by Individualland Pakistan and Information for All (IFA) at the Pakistan Scientific and Technological Information Center (PASTIC).
Professor Dr Muhammad Akram Sheikh, Director General (DG) DG PASTIC-IFA speaking on the occasion said that media literacy is very important for all news consumers to make them aware of their media environments and increase critical thinking about media’s constructions of reality.
While briefing the participants about United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO’s) MIL work in Pakistan, UNESCO’s representative in Pakistan, Vibeke Jensen said, “UNESCO has been working with various local stakeholders to promote MIL in the country. One of our most recent endeavors was focused on use of MIL for the prevention of violent extremism in Pakistan.”
She said that media literacy has become major tool to excess to retrieve, understand evaluate as well as share information. “By using these tools in a proper way we can participate and engage in societal activities,” she said.
Gulmina Bilal Ahmad, Executive Director Individualland Pakistan was of the view that “Media literacy is fast becoming a must, as it can help them in becoming smart social media users with the ability to identify fake content and develop and disseminate their own content.”
In the workshop, trainers focused on the discussion on MIL in Pakistan. Moreover, tools to understand fake and doctored images, fact checking and social media monitoring were also discussed.
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