GAPMIL picks 14 youth ambassadors to expand media, information literacy frontiers

The Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy (GAPMIL) is set to expand frontiers of media and information literacy by engaging purposeful youths across the world.

As part of its groundbreaking efforts to promote international cooperation to ensure that all citizens have access to media and information literacy competencies, GAPMIL also selected 14 ambassadors from 11 countries across the world to promote media and information literacy globally.

The selected ambassadors are Akintunde Babatunde (Nigeria), Bushra Ebadi (Canada), Mohammad Asad (Jordan Amman), Arulselvi A. (India), Nikolao Moulos (Greece) Abdul Mustafazade (Azerbaijan), Muhammed Foboi (Liberia) Mariami Gangniashvili (Georgia); Jerome Roodsam (Haiti), Henry Boniface (Tanzania) Beatrice Bonami (Brazil) and Dhammaratna Jawale (India).

The ambassadors, who join members of Youth Committee of GAPMIL, will seek to use media and information literacy to empower all peoples in line with the goal of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) after 193 countries unanimously proclaimed Global Media and Information Literacy Week at the 40th Session of the UNESCO General Conference held on 25 November 2019.

The selected ambassadors will strive to perfect governance, citizenship and freedom of expression; access to information and knowledge for all citizens; development of media, libraries, and education, teaching, and learning – including professional development in their respective countries.

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A report by GAPMIL stated that the technological advancement followed by the explosion of content creation in the media and especially over the internet creates a strong need for the development of competencies for citizens to purposefully navigate this flood of information.

“The pioneering initiative was launched in 2013 and is now being further developed into the area of youth, through the establishment of Youth Committee of GAPMIL. Young people are the primary agents of the digital revolution – their interaction and engagement with media and information is on multiple levels. Most of the youth are quite tech-savvy, and this makes them one of the primary creators and consumers of media and information.

“However, often, there is no balance – youth lack critical media and information competencies necessary to wisely and ethically participate in the media and technology-mediated world in which they live. And without this knowledge, and understanding of media functioning, it is not possible to meaningfully participate in a society and realize own civic rights. This is proof that to participate globally and attain global MIL competencies goals, youth must be strategically targeted,” the report read.

GAPMIL said it saw a steady growth in the selected ambassadors’ impact in their past works over the years, adding that their projects were completed within a short period of time and limited resources.

It noted that the ambassadors’ past works include leading sessions in major conferences around the world and spearheading researches in major global journals to executing projects like the LIFT Liberia, and planning to deliver on the Africa Campus Talks and BetterUse in Haiti, and leading revolutionary conversations in engaging young people around the world on MIL CLICKS.

GAPMIL noted that it only expect that the ambassadors do better to promote media and information literacy competencies, especially among youth in an era of misinformation and disinformation.