The document discusses several national programs that promote media literacy in India. It describes initiatives like Cybermohalla that provide underprivileged youth access to technology and media training. It also outlines programs by Agastya International Foundation and Central Institute of Educational Technology that introduce rural and school-aged children to digital media and teach media creation skills. Finally, it summarizes UNESCO and UNODC collaborations on integrating media literacy into teacher training and raising drug awareness.

1. DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
NAME- AKASH KURMI
M.L.I.Sc. 2nd semester
TOPIC- MEDIA LITERACY: NATIONAL
PROGRAMS

2. MEDIA LITERACY

3. CONCEPT OF MEDIA LITERACY
 The term ‘media literacy’ came to the forefront in the globe with the advent of radio and the film in the
early twentieth century.
 Media (literacy) education is the process that will induce media literacy ability in the present information
society.
 With the fusion of IT & ICT the application and involvement of media has changed from print to the non-
print or any Virtual form.
 With the arrival of internet and its connectivity, it is easier to overcome the physical and geographical
barriers and to access right information at right time.
 All these transitions in the society changes its features from media scarcity to media abundance.

4. Contd…
 A young person in today’s contemporary society is living in a media environment that is dynamic and
changes rapidly.
 People use different forms of media and frequently engaged in more than one media activity at a time.
 For example: a person working on the computer may be using one of the social networking sites while
she/he may also be listening to music and even simultaneously be chatting in WhatsApp in his mobile.

5. Source: https://www.slideshare.net/courosa/popular-issues-in-digital-media-
literacy?qid=535e582e-c03c-48c3-a975-5aec7414cf46&v=&b=&from_search=1

6. A comprehensive definition of Media
Literacy:
Media Literacy can be defined as the capacity to access, analyze and evaluate
the power of the images, sounds and messages with which we are faced every
day and which play an important role in contemporary culture. It includes the
individual capacity to communicate using the media competently. Media literacy
concerns all media, including television, film, radio and recorded music, the
press, the Internet, any other digital communication technology, alternative and
traditional media.
- Tornero, 2004

7. PURPOSE OF MEDIA LITERACY
 To raise the level of awareness of the different guises taken on by the
messages transmitted by the media that we find in our lives every day.
 To help citizens to recognize how media filter their perceptions and
convictions, mould popular culture and influence personal decisions.
 To provide citizens with the capacity for critical analysis as well as
creative problem-solving capacities, turning them into aware productive
consumers of information themselves.
 To provide access to communication and media with greater ease and
with heightened interactivity.

8. Importance of Media literacy
Media literacy skills can help youth and adults:
- Develop critical thinking skills
- Understand how media messages shape our culture and society
- Identify target marketing strategies
- Recognize what the media maker wants us to believe or do
- Recognize bias, spin, misinformation, and lies
- Discover the parts of the story that are not being told
- Evaluate media messages based on our own experiences, skills, beliefs, and
values
- Create and distribute our own media messages
- Advocate for media justice

9. NATIONAL PROGRAMS

10. 1.Cybermohalla (India)
 The Cybermohalla initiative began in 2001 as a result of the collaboration
between the Sarai project of the Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies and Akur, an NGO from Delhi involving young people living in
slums and working class neighbourhoods in Delhi.
 The Cybermohalla (Cyber-Neighbourhood) is an experimental project
which aims to offer underprivileged young men and women access to
emerging technologies.
 It also aims to “demystify” ICTs and to provide a context for young
participants from these impoverished neighbourhoods to express their
creative ideas and to exert their interpretative energies.

11. Contd…
 Youths work with multimedia tools such as animation, booklets,
broadsheets, HTML, typed and formatted texts, sound scapes, photo
stories, written words, audio and visual juxtapositions and narratives and
storyboards. Using these tools, youths develop their perspectives in
‘mohallas’ and localities.
 Therefore the program thus serves the useful purpose of opening up
“spaces for dialogue” amongst youths and provides them with a forum for
collective participation.

12. 2.Support Media Literacy for Kids in Rural
India by Agastya International Foundation
 This program introduces underprivileged rural school children to the digital
world providing them with a means for self-expression through alternative
and fun learning methods.
 The program benefitted over 4500 children (ages 12-15) from Karnataka
and Andhra Pradesh.
 Exposing them to the forms of media and equipping them to create their
own media enables them to communicate in insightful and imaginative
ways. India's underprivileged youth, who often lack a voice, can share their
unique experiences.

13. 3.Media clubs in schools
 Media Clubs in schools is a Central Institute of Educational Technology, NCERT
project to promote media literacy in India. The project was launched in 2009-2010.
This project in fact is the extension of projects undertaken on media literacy in the
year 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.
 The first phase of the project focused on the mapping of Media Literacy initiatives
across the world.
 This phase was followed by the second phase in which reading material was
prepared for students as well as teachers. School teachers were also trained in
media Literacy.
 The recently launched third phase ( 2009-2010) is the extension of discussion held
in first and second phases with the teachers.
 At present in India there are around 100 media clubs which are running successfully.

14. Contd…
Objectives of the Program:
 To develop amongst students an understanding of importance of communication.
 To develop among students an understanding of the effects of mass media on
themselves as individuals and also upon society.
 To develop skills to deconstruct media messages by making them understand the
constructed nature of media.
 To develop skills to encourage the production of creative media messages.
 To encourage students to express their feelings and thoughts through media messages
they produce.
 To introduce students to various career opportunities in mass media.

15. 4.CIET, NCERT initiatives in Media
Literacy
 Central institute of educational technology, a constituent of NCERT, promotes utilisation
of educational technologies especially mass media viz radio, TV satellite communications
and cyber media either separately or in combinations to widen educational opportunities
and improving quality of educational processes at school level.
 The CIET has also contributed to the field of media literacy in a similar way by involving
students in production of programs.
 In collaboration with the five state institute of educational technology institutes namely
Hyderabad, Pune, Bhubneshwar, Ahmedabad and Lucknow , school going children in the
year 2008-2009 were trained in making video programs.

16.  UNESCO is to host an international Expert Group meeting at its Headquarters in
Paris from 16-18 June 2008 to catalyze processes to introduce media and
information literacy components into teacher training curricula worldwide.
 Experts specializing in teacher training, curriculum development, media
education and information literacy representing regions across the globe will
gather to agree upon a framework for a model teacher-training curriculum on
media and information literacy.
5.Teacher-Training Curricula for Media
and Information Literacy-UNESCO

17. Contd…
 The curriculum aims to integrate media education and information literacy in the
initial training of teachers at secondary school levels, and will be designed for
application and adaptation worldwide, according to the needs of each country.
 The framework will assert the desired competencies of teachers in this field and
will focus on raising the awareness of youths in using information and media.

18. 6.Gandhi Media Literacy Program
 Gandhi Media Literacy Program for children was initiated by Gandhi Smriti and
Darshan Samiti in 2003 as part of the centenary year of Indian Opinion, the
journal started by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa in 1903.
 The program is implemented in several schools of Delhi, Chandigarh, Solan
(Himachal Pradesh) and Belgaum(Karnataka).
 The Gandhi Media Literacy Program is aimed to help Parents, Teachers, and
Students to become more discriminating in the use of mass media, to help them to
distinguish between reality and fantasy and separate fact from fiction, think
critically about media messages and help them to consider whether media values
are their values.

19. Contd…
 As part of the Gandhi Media Literacy Program, The Samiti has launched The
Yamuna, a global children’s newspaper. It is presently a quarterly newspaper and
has child reporters not only in different parts of the country but also in other
countries.
 The samiti also organised workshop in the Rastriya Buniyadi Vidyalaya,
Kumarbagh Brindavan Ashram, Bettiah, Champaran in 2006 to develop critical
understanding of the media and imparts media training amongst children and
youth, to help them to develop better communicative skills , competence
development and life-long learning.
 More than 100 girls have been empowered through this program and are now
taking up various social causes. They bring out a quarterly newsletter highlighting
problems of the area.

20. 7.UNODC-Quest program on media
literacy
 The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC) in collaboration with Quest the
school's program of the Indian Express organised the Media Literacy workshop.
 More than 50 teachers from schools in Delhi attended the workshop. The workshop was an
initiative to train them to make their students aware about the harmful affects of drugs and
how media messages need to be interpreted correctly to avoid drug abuse. The objective of
the seminar was to spread mass-based awareness amongst the youngsters, from class 6
onwards.
 The experts from UNODC discussed about the harmful effects of drugs and how things like
cough syrup, eraser fluid and petrol are intoxicating drugs.
 A media literacy kit has been developed by the Quest team, which was given to teachers so
that they can teach the students how to distinguish from reel and real media portrayals.
Similar workshops were organized in Chandigarh and Pune.

21. 8.School KFI workshop on Media and
Education
 The School, Krishnamurti Foundation India, Chennai hosted workshop on Media and Education from
4-6 January, 2002 .
 The workshop was organized to illuminate the issues surrounding the media and its increasing use by
children and adults, and to create openings for educational interventions.
 The workshop was structured in three parts:
1. It aimed at providing perspectives and insights into the functioning of various media, especially the
print media and television.
2. It exposed teachers to tools of analysis that could be applied to understanding the impact of different
media products.
3. It provided space for teachers to begin creating modules for use in the class room. These modules
were aimed at helping children develop a facility in deconstructing the structure and messages of
various media products.
The eventual goal of the workshop was to enable teachers and students to become more informed and
discerning users of the media.

22. 9.Balvani Voice of the Young
 Thirty children were selected from 10 villages of Lalitpur. Aged eight to fourteen, these kids
are being trained to become child reporters by Saarthi Foundation, an NGO working for
children in the area, supported by UNICEF.
 The sketches, text and poems produced by the children depicting the reality of their
surroundings – at home, school and the community at large – reach key decision/policy
makers in the district and the state in form of the bi-monthly magazine Balvani.
 The training aims to sharpen the power of observation and expression of the children
helping them become the eyes and ears of society.
•

23. References
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• http://wikieducator.org/User:ANUBHUTI_YADAV/media_literacy_in_India#Gandhi_M
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• kundu, Vedabhyas (2015). Media and Information Literacy: Definition, Need and
Purpose, Role of MIL in the Society; INFLIBNET Centre, Gandhinagar,. Web. 20 Feb.
2017.pdf http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/ahl.php?csrno=21

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• Media Clubs in schools http://ciet.nic.in/MediaClub/index.html web 25 Feb 2017.
• Teacher-Training Curricula for Media and Information Literacy
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.phpURL_ID=27057&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=
201.html web 26 Feb 2017.
• Tornero, Perez, J M & Varis, Tapio (2010). Media Literacy and New Humanism; UNESCO
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