Cooperation is the key for broad-based media education in Finland

Safer Internet Day (SID) was celebrated all over the world on Tuesday, 6 February 2018 under the theme: "Create, connect and share respect: A better internet starts with you". Here, the Finnish Safer Internet Centre provides an overview of its activities in support of the campaign.

Date 2018-03-02 Author Finnish Safer Internet Centre Section awareness, sid

The theme of SID 2018 illustrates aptly the variety of different aspects in which the internet is related to our daily lives. This is an important notion when considering the ways in which we can support and develop the skills and competences, such as media literacy, that are necessary for full participation in the digital era. To support people's rights for equal possibilities in developing the citizen skills of today, it is important to work together.

In the digital era, media literacy is not important just for some, but for all

In Finland, Media Literacy Week (MLW) was celebrated in place of the SID campaign. The aim of the week is to advance the media literacy skills of children and young people, as well as to support professional educators, guardians and other adults in their important media educational tasks. The week is planned and carried out in co-operation with over 50 partner organisations from all sectors of society, from governmental organisations to NGOs and businesses.

Media literacy is important for all. Through the broad-based cooperation it is possible to reach educators and experts from different fields. This year, MLW was celebrated in over 2,000 local institutions (such as schools, kindergartens, libraries, youth work centres and museums) across the country.

Working together helps to discover broad variety of perspectives

Media literacy is a broad concept that covers a variety of different topics. Cross-sectoral cooperation enables us to take into account various aspects that are important in developing media literacy. Together with MLW partner organisations, 36 campaigns was carried out during this year's Media Literacy Week. The topics varied, for example, from fake news and information literacy to digital rights, and from the countering hate speech to wellbeing, safe and wise use of the web and building positive encounters and empathy online.

As one of the campaigns, a new educational resource "Hunting for reliable information (Luotettavan tiedon metsästäjät)" was published. The material helps to discuss the significance of media in information transfer and practice assessing the reliability of information. The material consists of two linked sections concerning media and science. To take into account the variety of perspectives related to these topics, the material was planned and conducted in cooperation with several expert organisations.

Media education is not just a one-week event

Even though this successful campaign takes place only for a one week, it's important to remember that media literacy is too important a topic to be forgotten for the rest of the year. This is why Media Literacy School, our web portal to support educators, is open 24/7 with access to information and resources.

See the Finnish Safer Internet Day profile page for further information.

Find out more about the work of the Finnish Safer Internet Centre (SIC), including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services.

Images copyright of the Finnish Safer Internet Centre.

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