Every year on October 24 the world marks Global Media and Information Literacy Week, highlighting some promising actions in connection with media and information literacy in the last year and how media and information literacy helped with nurturing trust and countering mistrust.
This year the Global MIL Week 2022 focuses on trust and solidarity as it relates to people, media, digital platforms, governments, private sector, and non-governmental organizations.
On this occasion Qatar University (QU) department of mass communication professors shared their opinions to highlight the importance of media and information at the present time.
In his statement on this occasion, Dr. Noureddine Miladi, Professor of Media and Communication in Department of Mass communications said, "The strategic and crucial artery for each society's progress is its youth. The involvement of young people in such projects is inevitable given the necessity of media and information literacy in the modern world. In its simplest form, media education refers to a complete understanding of the significance of the role that contemporary technology plays in our daily lives and the services it offers in terms of facilitating all areas of managing daily affairs in any industry or professional specialty.”
On his part, Dr. Moez Bin Messaoud, Associate Professor of Strategic Communication in the Department of Media, pointed the vital role that Qatar University plays in disseminating electronic knowledge, highlighting how Qatar University organizes numerous seminars, studies, and workshops to distribute, use, and invest electronic knowledge. The extent to which Qatar University is able to handle the difficulties of making the transition to an e-knowledge society has been made clear by the Corona pandemic, which threw a shadow over several industries. The university has a wealth of competencies that have contributed to the flexible transfer of electronic knowledge and closed the gap between the university and its surroundings' needs. These competencies have helped identify the features, characteristics, and components of the renewed e-knowledge society as well as the variables affecting it.
Dr. Abdel Muttalib Makki, Lecturer of journalism at the Department of Media: "One of the most significant difficulties faced by society in the era of globalization is the propagation of false and misleading news, as well as those that clearly violate principles, morals, laws, and privacy. Numerous studies show that the phenomena of incorrect and biased information has progressed to the point that it has been used as a weapon in political confrontation, particularly in nations that experience civil wars and political instability.”
Dr. Makki added: "The solution is to strengthen international coordination and cooperate to reduce web publishing crimes by not hosting suspicious sites that are not documented and those that use pseudonyms because they constitute the largest source of false information and information crimes.”
Source: Qatar University