MIL for Development and Democracy PDF

TOPIC 2 MIL FOR DEVELOPMENT A ND DEMOCRACY This Learning Resource Material constitutes Fair Use of Copyrighted Works as defined in Sec. 185 of RA 8293, which states, “The fair use of a copyrighted work for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching including m...

TOPIC 2 MIL FOR DEVELOPMENT A ND DEMOCRACY This Learning Resource Material constitutes Fair Use of Copyrighted Works as defined in Sec. 185 of RA 8293, which states, “The fair use of a copyrighted work for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching including multiple copies for classroom use, scholarship, research, and similar purposes is not an infringement of copyright. xxx” INTRODUCTION We see images (pictures and text) every day all around us in books, newspapers, magazines, billboards, on television, movies, inside jeepneys and buses, and most of all online. We can’t escapethem. For advertising alone, the average person is now estimated to encounter between 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day on traditional and new media. Before the concept of MIL, the word "literacy" usually describes the ability to read and write. Reading literacy and media and information literacy have a lot in common. Reading starts with recognizing letters. Pretty soon, readers can identify words and, most importantly, understand whatthose words mean. Readers then become writers. With more experience, readers and writers develop strong literacy skills that they can read the subtext for critical analysis. But is basic literacy enough? In the context of MIL, literacy is defined as Functional Literacy. This refers to the practical skill set needed to read, write, and do math for real-life purposes, so people can function effectively in their community. If we don’t have individuals with mathematical knowledge, reading and writing skills, or analytical abilities, we won’t have functioning businesses, governments, or communities. In other words, we need functional literacy to have a functional society. Media and Information are such a part of our everyday lives that much like air we easily forget about them. But in this era of fake news, misinformation, digital hyper-commercialism, and technology addiction, it is apt to say that MEDIA IS EITHER INCOMPLETE OR INFLATED.Therefore, it is important that we have a grip on media and information rather than the other way around. The bottom line, media and information share one thing: someone created it. And it was created for a reason. Understanding that reason is the basis of media and information literacy. And UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) set the global definition: MIL, as a whole, is defined as: a set of competencies that empowers citizens to access, retrieve, understand, evaluate and use, create, as well as share information and mediacontent in all formats, using various tools, in a critical, ethical and effective way, in order to participate and engage in personal, professional and societal activities. Generally, MIL should spur citizens to become active producers of information and innovators of media and information products, as well as critical thinkers. The world is changing at a startling pace. Advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) during the past decades have enabled us to transform the ways information circulates and, increasingly, the way we interact, access information, communicate, create new knowledge, learn, and work. This transformation has created new waves of opportunities and challenges for freedom ofexpression, media development and citizens’ engagement. While technology has boosted global development, it has also made it even harder for millions of people, not only from emerging economies, but also from developed countries, to engage with media and be part of global knowledge societies. This helps to reinforce inequality between countries, and – within countries – inequality between communities and individuals. The digital age has made it easy for anyone to create media. We don't always know who created something, why they made it, and whether it's credible. This makes media literacy tricky to learn and teach. Nonetheless, media and information literacy is an essential skill in the digital age. However, levels of illiteracy are now being increased by this so-called digital divide, which affects not only those who are illiterate, but also those who may be literate and how they effectively applytheir competencies at different stages of their life. And this digital divide is not just physical, material and technical; it also includes knowledge. In order to tackle these challenges and help to bridge these divides, a new approach to literacy is needed that is more situational, pluralistic and dynamic, drawing attention to its information, communication, media, technological, and digital aspects.  Media and Information Literacy for all should be seen as a nexus of human rights. Therefore,UNESCO suggests the following Five Laws of Media and Information Literacy. In essence of course, the 5 Laws focus on competencies that address knowledge in all formats andresonate with our own professional values and standards. In summary they assert: Law 1: Information and/or media are critical to civic engagement and sustainabledevelopment and equally relevant in all forms; Law 2: Every citizen is a creator of information and knowledge; Law 3: Information/media messages are not always value neutral and truth should be madeunderstandable; Law 4: Every citizen has a right to access and understand new information, knowledge, ormessages; Law 5: Media and information literacy is acquired as a process. They are inspired by the Five Laws of Library Science proposed by S. R. Ranganathan in 1931. The Five Laws of MIL are intended as guides, together with other UNESCO resources, for all stakeholders involved in the application of MIL in all forms of development. CHAPTER 1: DEFINING MEDIA PURPOSES OF MEDIA In the 21st century, media has become more than just a medium of communication. It now includesmass media of all kinds and the continuously evolving technology. Mass media is such a part of our everyday lives that much like air we easily forget about it. To be media and information literate,knowing how we use media and understanding its purposes in daily life is extremely important. A. TO INFORM (feeds your mind) When mass media is used in this way, mass media can be an extremely powerful. People need to know. There’s a saying that Knowledge is Power. People become informed about general and universal facts through textbooks read in schools, and current events in the community and in the world through news, mostly via social media. B. TO PERSUADE (makes you take a side) This may mean to persuade a person to buy something, as in the case of advertising, or thismay simply be to persuade a person to feel or think a certain way. Features and editorials are written in magazines and newspapers to argue a case. Live debates or talk shows discussing social issues also help the audience form an opinion. Radio and television and even film were used as propaganda by the government during war. These days, the persuasion techniques are more subtle. Social media is also filled with partisan debates. C. TO ENTERTAIN (feeds your heart) Sometimes the best way to engage a large audience is through humor or an interesting story.Much of television and film these days are created as escape vehicles. A lot of companies have tried to sell their products by entertaining through their advertising. In urban areas, radio stations exist mostly to urban listeners while they serve as development toolsin rural areas. But melodrama or sentimental themes are also forms of entertainment. Peopleenjoy tearjerkers because they serve as a catharsis to the soul. D. TO ENLIGHTEN (moves you to do something) The mass media forms that most often try to achieve this goal are books and film, and publicservice messages. Most of the philosophies of modern society can be traced to great literaryworks and classic films. Novels and songs have sparked revolutions. Documentaries do notonly inform, persuade, and entertain an audience, but also to enlighten them about a currentsituation resulting into an advocacy. To enlighten means being moved so much that one iscompelled to take action or do a personal change.  What comes to mind when you hear that word? Most dictionaries and books would generally defineMedia as the communication ways or tools used to store and deliver information or data. Images and texts are media. Were you thinking of the same thing? Perhaps, not really. And that is because the term Media, though officially defined as a means of communication, is often used in several contexts. CONTEXTS OF MEDIA A. Media as INSTITUTION According to Merriam-Webster, an INSTITUTION is a significant practice, relationship, or organization in a society or culture. It is also an established organization or corporation (such as a bank or university) especially of a public character. As structures ormechanisms of social order, they govern the behavior of a set of individuals within a givencommunity. Therefore, a Media Institution is a company or organization that is accountable forinformation. If a Media company has reached Institution status, then it means that it has become a convention-setter in society alongside traditional social institutions such as the church, school, government, and family. In the Philippine context, oftentimes, when people utter the word “media” they mean giantnetworks such as ABS-CBN or GMA with the addition of TV5. For the longest time, it hasbeen a duopoly of the first two media giants, making it easy to assume that these media institutions through all their media products have played a major role in the formation of contemporary Filipino culture. Media as Institution are the gatekeepers of information, purveyors of thought, and influencers. B. Media as DATA STORAGE In the 21st century, the term media is also being used as a physical device or component in a computing system that receives and retains information relating to applications and users. In computers, a storage medium is any technology -- including devices and materials -- used to place, keep and retrieve electronic data. The plural form of this term isstorage media. There are two types of storage devices used with computers: o Primary storage device, such as RAM, and o Secondary storage device, like a hard drive. Secondary storage can be removable,internal, or external storage. Examples of computer data storage: Magnetic storage devices In the early 2000s, magnetic storage is one of the most common types of storage used withcomputers and is the technology that many computer hard drives use: Floppy diskette, HardDrive, Magnetic strip, SuperDisk, Tape cassette, Zip diskette. Optical storage devices Another common storage is optical storage, which uses lasers and lights as its method of reading and writing data: Blu-ray disc, CD-ROM disc, CD-R and CD-RW disc, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW disc. C. Media as COMMUNICATION CHANNEL We need to understand first that Media is just another way for humans to communicate. Therefore, we need to study the science of communication before anything else. In its simplest form communication is the transmission of a message from a source to receiver. Harold Lasswell (1948) said that the convenient way to describe communication is to answer these questions:  Who? Says what? Through which channel? To whom? With what effect? On the surface, this one-way transmission model looks quite adequate to explain the scienceof communication involving mass media. That is if the transmission is smooth. A year later, Shannon and Weaver, engineers working in the Bell telephone company, improved the one-way linear model by including the dysfunctional factor: NOISE. In human communication context, noise is ANYTHING that disrupts the smooth flow of communication. Noise may interrupt the reception which affects the effect. Originally, noise was only meantin the context of the electronic transmission. From this premise, Noise is understood to beblatantly disruptive. However, Noise can also be non-physical and unobservable such as negative first impressions, cultural differences, and undiagnosed learning deficiencies. 5 GENERAL TYPES of NOISE or BARRIERS: Technical (pertaining to channel interruptions) o Ex. choppy mobile phone signal Environmental (pertaining to external elements) o Ex. traffic noise just outside the school building Semantic (pertaining to language problems) o Ex. a Tagalog would refer a “langgam” to a crawling insect while aBisaya would mean bird Socio-Psychological (pertaining to pre-conceived notions and/or culture bias,and may also include learning disabilities) o Ex. a student finds it hard to understand the subject because he heardprior feedback that the teacher is challenging  Physiological (pertaining to physical handicaps) o Ex. a person with a lisp And these barriers or noise will raise the following questions: How accurately was the message transmitted? How precisely was meaning conveyed? How effectively did the received message affect behavior? But then again, even with this improvement in the model, another problem is that it suggeststhat the receiver is passive. The word “communicate” is from the Latin term communicare which means to share, and from another Latin term communis which means working together. Given the origin of the word, communication then must be active. The first two models usethe terms “sending” & “receiving” to define communication. These days, we prefer the word “share”. It connotes something that two or more people do together rather than something one does or gives to someone else. Here’s where Berlo’s SMCR Model (1960) comes in. The most well-known and most citedmodels. In his book Process of Communication (1961), he added the element of FEEDBACK. Berlo’s model is basically an expansion of the Shannon-Weaver model, which is considered the first model of mass communication. In this model, Berlo identifies the 6 Elements of the Communication Process: SOURCE = encoder = sender = communicator RECEIVER = target = audience = listener/reader MESSAGE = idea = purpose = intention (translated into a code or asystematic set of symbols) CHANNEL = platform EFFECT = the outcome of a communication or the response; sometimes theeffect is NOT the desired outcome. This can be OVERT (obvious/visible) orCOVERT (non-observable). FEEDBACK = response = non-verbal cues = similar with EFFECT but thistime it’s encoded back With the addition of the FEEDBACK which is also a message, communication now becomes a reciprocal and ongoing process with all involved parties engaged in creating shared meaning. So now we know that communication is the process of creating shared meaning. Because communication in this model is an ongoing and reciprocal process, all the participants or “interpreters” are working to create meaning by ENCODING and DECODING messages. A message is first encoded, that is, transformed into an understandable sign and symbol system. And that brings us to the next and more complicated paradigm of media D. Media as CONTENT & CULTURE So now we have reached the important but also most complex part. "The medium is the message" is a phrase coined by McLuhan which means that the form of a medium embeds itself in any message it would transmit or convey, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. McLuhan was talking about the effects of technology, not about the technology itself — a telephone or a radio or a computer — but what and how the technology affects people and societies. In his book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964), he said: “The medium is the message because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. The content or uses of such media are as diverseas they are ineffectual in shaping the form of human association. Indeed, it is only too typical that the “content” of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium.” Let’s repeat that: THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE! Technically, in this case, Media is also CONTENT or INFORMATION which is generally the message – the facts, data, or knowledge obtained from a source. If media is the message itself then it needs a LANGUAGE to convey meaning. At this point, we have agreed that communication is the process of creating shared meanings. A socially constructed shared meaning is called CULTURE. According to anthropologists, culture may be seen as the learned, socially acquired traditions and lifestyles of the members of a society, including their patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling and acting embodied in symbolic forms which they use to communicate,perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life. In short, creation and maintenance of a common culture occurs through communication, especially mass communication. When we talk to our friends; when a parent raises a child;when religious leaders instruct their followers; when teachers teach; when grandparents pass on recipes; when politicians campaign; when media professionals produce content thatwe read, listen to, and watch, meaning is being shared and culture is being constructed andmaintained. In other words, CULTURE is the world made meaningful; it is socially constructed and maintained through communication. It limits as well as liberates us; it differentiates as wellas unites us. It defines our realities and thereby shapes the ways we think, feel, and act. Given that definition, it cannot be denied that Media as Content is Culture in itself. And because culture can limit and divide or liberate and unite, it offers us infinite opportunities to use communication for the common good – if we choose to do so. People’s communication is affected by culture. People create culture. So, what came first? Essentially, we allow Media (mass communication) not only to occur but also to contributeto the creation and maintenance of culture. Everyone involved has an obligation toparticipate responsibly. For people working in the media industries, this means professionally and ethically creating and transmitting content. For audience members, it means behaving as critical and thoughtful consumers of that content. Now isn’t that the reason why we’re studying Media and Information Literacy? CHAPTER 2: DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOCRACY When discussing issues regarding democracy and development, we often forget that media-literate citizens are a precondition. An important prerequisite for the empowerment of citizens is a concerted effort to improve media and informationAdDU Senior–High literacy skills that| Media School help to andstrengthen Informationthe critical Literacy abilities | Page 7 of 170and communicative skills that enable the individual to use media and communication both as tools and as a way of articulating processes of development and social change, improving everyday lives and empowering people to influence their own lives. Media and information literacy is needed by all citizens, and is of decisive importance to the younger generation – in both their role as citizens and participants in society, and their learning, cultural expression and personal fulfilment. A fundamental element of efforts to realize a media and information literate society is media education. But when issues such as these are discussed, all too often the frame of reference is the media culture of the Western world. There is an urgent need for the agenda to open up much more to non- Western ideas and intercultural approaches than is the case at present. Internationalization is both enriching and necessary with regard to our common interest in broader, more all-inclusive paradigms. A. WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT? In simple terms, development is a process that creates growth, progress, positive change on a personal, professional or societal level. It involves assimilating novel skills, knowledge, and encounters to fortify individual prowess and catalyze positive impacts within communities. Furthermore, development orchestrates the transformation of societies, establishments, and nations via calculated endeavors, inventive strategies, and environmentally-friendly practices. Its mission is to surmount challenges, cultivate opportunities, and cultivate affluence for individuals and communities alike. Development epitomizes a fluid expedition necessitating continual education, adeptness at adapting to active contexts, and the pursuit of holistic well-being for individuals and collective entities. But development is not enough. That is why the United Nations has adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. All UN member states recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. AdDU Senior High School | Media and Information Literacy | Page 8 of 170 B. WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? Democracy, derived from the Greek words "demos" (people) and "kratos" (power), signifies the "power of the people." In the context of Media and Information Literacy, democracy is understood as a system where informed and engaged citizens have the ability to participate meaningfully in decision-making processes. This participation is not merely about the majority's rule but involves respecting and incorporating the interests and voices of minorities to ensure governance that truly reflects the collective will of all people. MIL promotes transparency and accountability by encouraging citizens to question the sources and motivations behind the information they receive. This scrutiny fosters a culture of accountability, ensuring that those in power act in the best interests of the public. Additionally, MIL encourages the appreciation of diverse perspectives, ensuring that minority voices are heard and considered in the democratic process. By fostering critical thinking, ethical engagement, and active civic participation, MIL creates a well- informed, engaged, and critically thinking citizenry. This is essential for meaningful participation in democratic processes, ensuring that democracy truly represents the collective will of all people. Through these contributions, MIL strengthens the foundations of democracy and supports its ongoing vitality and resilience. C. MIL AND SUI GENERIS LEADERSHIP Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU) promotes a unique leadership style known as "sui generis," focusing on developing competent, compassionate, and socially committed individuals. Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is crucial to this approach, shaping informed, ethical, and engaged citizens. MIL equips students with critical thinking skills, enabling them to navigate the complex media landscape and make sound decisions. This foundation ensures leaders can distinguish credible information from misinformation, crucial for positive societal impact. Ethical and compassionate engagement, emphasized through MIL, fosters leaders who act with integrity and empathy, considering diverse perspectives. AdDU's dedication to social justice aligns with MIL's promotion of transparency and accountability, empowering students to hold power accountable and advocate for equitable policies. MIL also fosters civic responsibility, encouraging active participation in public policy and community engagement. By promoting cultural sensitivity and inclusivity, MIL helps future leaders appreciate and respect diversity, ensuring leadership that genuinely represents and serves all society members. D. CONCLUSION Media and Information Literacy is indispensable in the context of development and democracy. It creates a well-informed, engaged, and critically thinking citizenry capable of meaningful participation in democratic processes. By promoting transparency, accountability, inclusivity, and ethical engagement, MIL helps to ensure that democracy truly represents the collective will of all people. Through these contributions, MIL strengthens the foundations of democracy and supports its ongoing vitality and resilience. As an Atenean, MIL is fundamental to the sui generis leadership cultivated at Ateneo de Davao University. By developing informed, ethical, and engaged learners, MIL supports AdDU's mission to form leaders who are competent, compassionate, and committed to social justice. Through MIL, AdDU nurtures a unique leadership style equipped to address contemporary challenges while upholding transparency, accountability, and inclusivity. AdDU Senior High School | Media and Information Literacy | Page 9 of 170