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In the current hypermedia age, the borders of information are increasingly indistinguishable. There now exist few, if any, limits to how far, fast, and wide messages may travel. Across the globe - from the growth of community internet in rural Europe and the Middle East,1 to the expansion of cell phone technology in India2 and Africa, our media-saturated world is shrinking.
At the same time, the convergence of media platforms has enabled access to information on a global scale. New media technologies have allowed for wide and unfettered consumption of information in many parts of the world.3 Such progress has brought the world closer together. From recent public health scares, to the economic recession, and continuing efforts to combat climate change, we can no longer ignore the need to understand the role of information in defining issues globally.
Beyond specific issues, the global expansion of media has allowed for new understandings of culture. Nations that are increasingly dependent on one another for economic, political, and social stability must often cultivate public awareness of such relationships through media. This entails an understanding of cultures and communities far removed from physical and geographic familiarity. The current global media environment, as a result, will continue to have significant effects on how individuals, societies, and nations view and interact with one another.
Within this new landscape exists the opportunity for a new type of global citizenship: one that hinges on preparing future citizens for lives of inclusive and active participation in global dialogue. Writes UNESCO's Benito Operiti:
The challenge is not just to provide criteria and instruments so the child or youth can critically face off to the media, but also to understand that the media contextualize and often determine the ways that people exercise their rights culturally, politically, economically, and socially.4
What are the best practices for enabling new understanding of global culture through media?
In the present, cultivating media literacy education for global authences must embrace much needed educational responses to an increasingly borderless and open media environment. It is no longer an option to ignore the media's increasingly central role in framing identity. Media literacy can enable future generations to recognize both the power and potential of media to bridge cultural and ideological divides.
DEVELOPING MEDIA...