In September the ninth UNESCO Global Media and Information Literacy Feature Conference will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden. Local hosts are Region Västra Götaland, University of Gothenburg and Swedish National Commission for UNESCO. The Feature Events – the Feature Conference and Youth Agenda Forum – are usually held during the Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week celebrated from 24 to 31 October. This year, to benefit from the synergies with the Gothenburg Book Fair the Feature Events will thus take place between 24-26th September.
The theme of this year’s conference is MIL Citizens: Informed, Engaged, Empowered. MIL provide citizens in all aspects of life with key competencies necessary to fully benefit from fundamental human rights, to find and share information, to express opinions and learn about others and ourselves. In hosting the conference, Region Västra Götaland would like to put forward the role municipalities, county councils and regions can take in engaging in MIL related work, which is relevant e.g. with regard to empowered citizenship, democratic participation and life-long learning.
The theme will be reflected in the panel discussions and paper presentations throughout the conference with examples from e.g. policy work, recent research as well as case studies. The program is currently under development and will soon be presented. Global representation among the presenting speakers is strived for in each session.
The Global MIL Feature Conference serve as an arena for dialogue and multi-stakeholder cooperation and will focus on the current global status of research and practice concerning media and information literacy. Possible participants are intergovernmental organizations, development organizations, research community, educators, media professionals, library and information professionals, policy makers, regulators, and practitioners around the globe.
The Youth Agenda forum is a one-day conference, designed and led by youth open to all public. This year it will actually take place at the first day and in the same venue as the Gothenburg book fair. The forum will include panel discussions, workshops etc. with youth participants from around the world as well as local schools and organizations. For more information and current updates.
