MEDIA LITERCY AND INFORMATION LITERACY: CONCEPTUAL CONVERGENCE INTO A COMPOSITE NOTION OF MIL

Abstract

Researchers, educationalists, educational policy-makers, education technologists have been recently focusing much of their attention on what it means to be literate in a densely mediated society. Therefore, we have raised the following questions: what has the conception of literacy – just as a mere ability to encode / decode a text – developed into today? What aspects are considered to be most pertinent to literacy as a complex phenomenon in contemporary research? What is the rationale behind combining two concepts – information literacy and media literacy – into the complex notion of media and information literacy (MIL)? The method applied in this research is state-of-the-art review which addresses current matters in comparison with previous research. In this paper, we have drawn much on institutional definitions of media literacy and information literacy (those adopted by UNESCO and the European Commission). The conceptual frameworks of these entities have been considered along with academic research in the field of literacy. Skilfully filtering information and critically appraising its quality – in any kind of messages and in any type of media – is vital. Synthesizing overlapping types has proved to be useful because overarching composite concepts like media and information literacy well reflect the complex nature of mediated world and encompass the needed skills, knowledge and attitude towards various sources of information and information quality.