Media literacy
Empowering citizens
![F. Isaacs Participant of media and information literacy training in Windhoek, Namibia.](/sites/default/files/styles/max_325x325/public/article_images/sw-odoy-bu2-learner-web.jpg?itok=-iavemnK)
MIL training courses empower citizens to use and engage competently with different types of media. Three steps are important for achieving media literacy:
- People must know how professional media work and how media outlets make decisions. Important standards include indicating the sources, conveying a diversity of view points and providing facts. Citizens who pay attention to these things can tell which websites are reliable and which are more likely to be spreading fake news.
- For citizens to engage in public discourse, they must be able to make themselves heard. Therefore, it is not enough to be informed about how to consume media; a basic knowledge of producing content is valuable too. It includes technical skills, starting with simple smartphone photography, for example.
- The final step is to have a broader understanding of the media landscape. Such an understanding allows people to assess the environment they live in, to claim their rights and to demand media quality. (jo)