Young people are key actors and part of the solution in the development of media and information literate societies. In engaging them, not just as target groups, voices of youth will resonate loudly in the global celebration of MIL Week as well as the feature event.

As a day that will kick start the Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week 2017 feature event, youth leaders and individuals from around the world will engage in thematic panels and hands-on workshops. This is Global MIL Week Youth Agenda. It is an extension of the UNESCO Global Youth Forum in Paris. Workshops will be innovative and creative, incorporating music, memes, poetry etc.

 “The new information age is boundless: Todays’ young people are millennials and they all belong to the next generation. The mode of knowledge acquisition is vastly different from those of previous generations. This is largely because of the reliance on compelling factors within our digital age that has completely transformed how we operate on a daily basis. Young people tend to reject spoon-fed education and prefer to pursue knowledge through exploration and discovery. The internet has undoubtedly become the nucleus of information.” said Adama Lee-Bah, Head of the Youth Committee of Global Alliance for Partnership on Media and Information Literacy (GAPMIL).

GAPMIL Youth Committee will lead certain actions including activities on social media via MIL CLICKS, a social media initiative launched by UNESCO and partners. MIL CLICKS (Critical-Thinking, Creativity, Literacy, Intercultural Citizenship, Knowledge and Sustainability) is a bid to improve people’s critical thinking competencies online and offline. MIL CLICKS is the nucleus of a social media initiative about non-traditional, creative or innovative ways of acquiring MIL and intercultural dialogue competencies by people in their normal day-to-day use of all forms of media and other information environments.

Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week 2017 celebrations will take place worldwide from 25 October to 1 November. The Global MIL Week Youth Agenda Forum will take place on 24 October at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica. The Youth Agenda Forum will open the celebrations during the Global MIL Week Feature Conference that will take place on October 25-27, 2017, at the Jamaica Conference Centre. UNESCO leads the Global MIL Week 2017 in cooperation with the Media and Information and Intercultural Dialogue (MILID) University Network, GAPMIL, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), and the host for the feature conference, the University of the West Indies. 

Do you want to make your voice heard and collaborate with other young people from all parts of the world? Register now on the Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2017 official website: https://en.unesco.org/global-mil-week-2017.

If you cannot attend in person then participate by following MIL CLICKS on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Contact: a.grizzle@unesco.org and ji.xu@unesco.org