Experts participating in the consultation forum on media and information literacy held yesterday at Rotana City Centre Hotel Doha.
Doha Centre for Media Freedom, in cooperation with Unesco Doha-Office yesterday organised a multi-stakeholder consultation forum on media and information literacy at Rotana City Centre Hotel Doha.
Experts discussed the latest developments and ways to face the challenges and overcome the difficulties in the field of media and information literacy.
Member of the Executive Committee and Acting Director of DCMF, Abdulrahman bin Nasser Al Obaidan said the aim of organising the forum is to exchange modern ideas and visions that promote the implementation of the media and information literacy in Qatar and the Arab region, in light of the digital revolution that we live in today.
He added that the forum looks forward to reviewing the various ideas, forming practical mechanisms to ensure the optimal application of the latest content in media and information literacy, through the presentations that the experts will provide and the papers that will be discussed.
Representatives of Qatar Ministry of Education and Higher Education as well a number of educational institutions and experts from Arab region and the world are participating the two-day forum.
Addressing the forum, Marion Desmurger, Senior Programme Assistant, Unesco gave an overview of Media and Information Literacy and its relevance for the region and Qatar.
She said that smartphones have become a powerful means of communication today.
“Due to very quick technological changes, social media and other factors that have happened in the past 20 year, we are all overwhelmed with the information.”.
“This is particularly important in a country like Qatar where access to information and technology is very high as everybody in the country has access to phone and internet,” adding that the media is shaping our perspective about the world today more than ever before and because it has such an important part in our lives, all of us have to make sure that we understand how it works.
“With social media today and technological changes, we are all able to be both consumers of information and producers.”
“Media and information literacy is central to provide youth with set of competencies to access, understand, evaluate, create and share information in all formats in a safe, critical and ethical way,” she said.
Organisers said that one of the main objectives of the forum is to discuss how media and information literacy education can be strengthened in Qatar, including in formal and non-formal education settings, based on regional best practices and also to identify areas for synergies and cooperation for exchange of knowledge and best practices at the national between academics, teachers, decision-makers.
The forum aims to provide youth with a set of competencies to access, understand, evaluate, create and share information in all formats in a safe, critical and ethical way. It is also a means to strengthen the Centre’s ongoing efforts to promote Media and Information Literacy.
