Sourcing Information

The proper use of information made available by media and various information providers depends on people’s abilities to understand their information needs, and to locate, retrieve and evaluate the quality of the information they can access. Today, there is an extremely wide and diverse selection of information material, content, and resources available, particularly on the Internet, varying greatly in accuracy, reliability, and value. In addition, this information exists in a variety of forms (e.g. as text, image or statistic, electronically or in print), that can be made available through online repositories and portals, virtual and real libraries and documentary collections, databases, archives, museums, etc. The most important factor, however, is that the quality of this information can range from ‘very good’ to ‘very bad’.

Before evaluating information sources, it is important to think about what the information is for. This will help you to identify credible information sources. The key questions might be:

What source or what kind of source would be the most credible for providing information in this particular case? Which sources are likely to be fair, objective, lacking hidden motives, showing quality control?

We can think of information as being held by media and other information providers, such as libraries, museums, archives and the Internet. These information providers have a number of roles, including to:

• inform
• educate
• facilitate teaching and learning processes
• provide access to all types of information (often free of charge, plural, reliable and without restrictions)
• serve as a gateway to information
• promote universal values and civil rights, such as freedom of expression and information
• serve as society’s collective memory
• gather information
• preserve cultural heritage
• entertain

• Survey the media to find resources or media texts that are examples of the functions listed above. Identify texts that illustrate these roles on a local, national and global level.
  Survey college/university or public libraries to find books or other resources available which provide information about democracy, other parts of the world, different cultures, social and economic life, etc. Explore questions such as: Who decides on the level of resources that should be allocated to libraries? Who decides which books should be included in the library and which should be excluded? Who decides which books are more important than others? Are libraries serving their purposes? (A similar activity could be organized for museums or archives)
• The media play an important role in helping to encourage the development and building of a nation. Discuss how undue restrictions that might be imposed on media can prevent the media from exercising this function. Think about the content of media in your country. How many different points of view can you find on development, nation building and national interests and from which perspective?
• Search the web to find stories relating to the deliberate destruction of libraries, museums or archives or certain books due to war, ethnic conflicts, etc. How can you verify that this story is true? Given that this is the first unit, teachers may not have been exposed to the requisite skills to answer this question, so should not spend too much time on it but move on to the other questions. How could the destruction of media, libraries, archives and other information providers, resources available and services offered by those institutions affect people, their history or culture? What are some other implications, based on your observation, of such actions?
• What is public demain information? Research how public domain information is treated by two government institutions in your country. Debate the adequacy (or lack thereof) of information provided by these institutions. Are there national policies for how information should be made public? Does access to information laws exist in your country? Are these being used? What are citizens’ entitlements as mentioned in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
• Based on the answers provided from the activity suggested above, indicate the outcomes for media and information literacy (what the media and information literate person should be able to do). What does each individual term mean?
• Make a list of media that are present in the daily lives of students and teachers today. What are the key roles and functions that each of these media perform? What do you think it means to be ‘literate’ when it comes to using the media and other information providers? What knowledge, skills and attitudes are necessary?
• Keep a journal for one day in which you record your daily use and interaction with media and information providers, such as public and private Internet information providers. What patterns emerge in your personal use? How many hours do you spend engaged with media and technology such as the Internet, television or radio? What roles are these media and other information providers playing in your life?
• Take a walking tour of your school or neighbourhood. List the examples of media and other information providers that are present in these environments. Which of the roles listed above do these examples illustrate?
• Imagine that you wake up one day and there are no more media, libraries, Internet and cell phones. In addition, all newspapers, magazines, radio stations and TV channels have disappeared. Analyze in small groups what would happen to citizens:
  • How would they be informed now?
  • How would they communicate news, facts, and events?
  • What would happen with the decisions you usually make?
  • What would you – personally – most miss in such a situation?
  • What would society lose with this kind of problem?
• Write a ‘letter to the editor’ with your conclusions on the value of the media and information in a democratic society.

IMPORTANCE OF MIL FOR CITIZENS

Media and information literacy (MIL) brings together disciplines that were once separate and distinct. MIL is concerned with giving people an understanding of the importance of media and other information providers in order to:

• make informed decisions
• learn about the world around them
• build a sense of community
• maintain public discourse, and
• engage in lifelong learning

Further, MIL should spur citizens to become active producers of information and innovators of media and information products, as well as critical thinkers. MIL should incite them to use new and traditional media for self-expression, creativity and greater participation in their country’s democracy and the global information network.

• Consider the characteristics of MIL described in Figure 1 in the Media and Information Literacy Curriculum and Competency Framework for Teachers (Part 1). Discuss each characteristic. Write down what each of these means to you. Do you think this description is complete? What do you think should be included?
• Consider the following terminologies linked to different literacies relating to MIL and being used by various actors around the world:
  • Media literacy
  • Library literacy
  • Computer literacy
  • Freedom of expression literacy
  • Internet literacy
  • Digital literacy
  • News literacy
  • Cinema literacy
  • Games literacy

  Using the Internet or a library, research various definitions of each of these terminologies.

• What do you observe about the relationship between and among these individual terminologies or notions of MIL? Write one paragraph describing what would be your rationale for combining media literacy and information literacy as MIL.