In a bid to promote media literacy globally, the Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy (GAPMIL), has selected 14 ambassadors from 11 countries across 5 regions of the world.
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) and Mariami Gangniashvili (Georgia).
Others include; Jerome Roodsam (Haiti), Henry Boniface (Tanzania) Beatrice Bonami (Brazil) and Dhammaratna Jawale (India).
The Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy (GAPMIL) is a groundbreaking effort to promote international cooperation to ensure that all citizens have access to media and information literacy competencies.
According to GAPMIL report, 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.
“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.
While highlighting the work of the ambassadors, GAPMIL said it would help in steady growth within a short period of time towards leading sessions in major conferences around the world and spearheading researches in major global journals to executing projects
It, therefore, added that the ambassadors will engage in leading revolutionary conversations which will have young people on MIL CLICKS around the world.