International Center for Media and the Public Agenda at the University of Maryland, United States

This report is the first in a series of three on the status of United States (US) and international understanding of and funding for media literacy. From the Executive Summary:

"Media literacy training gives the public the tools to be active citizens. It helps people understand the value of news, defend their access to free information, decipher the messages they receive, use their rights of free expression to make their voices heard, and participate in the process of governing. In regions of the world that lack independent media, citizens cannot elect their best representatives, accurately monitor industry, or judge how to foster healthy development because they are often starved of information and do not know how much trust to place in news sources. Media literacy training is a tool the development sector can use to educate citizens and other stakeholders to better understand the role of information in a democracy and pressure governments to be accountable and to root out corruption. A media literate citizenry is essential to building and sustaining democracy....Teaching the public to be media literate does not mean telling people what to think or do. Rather, creating a media-literate society is a step toward finding better ways to communicate and toward solving humanity’s most difficult political and economic problems....

Some of the key arguments for funding media literacy are:

• Support for media helps mission-critical ideas (such as healthcare information) get to the public. Media literacy efforts can then be incorporated into those projects, so that the ideas being communicated will be understood.
• Media literate citizens understand the value of media acting as watchdogs in their societies. Such citizens are also able to thoughtfully monitor the news and information that reaches them. It is more practical to teach the public to be on guard against rumor mongering or hate speech than to try to control the ever-expanding supply of news.
• Funding media literacy supports a shift in tactics that are suited to the new digital information age, which is increasingly a 'pull', as opposed to a 'push', world. Some of the most effective U.S. development programs are those in which funders resist 'pushing' their values and instead help citizens 'pull' reliable news and information that contribute to their communities and their lives.

This report offers a number of suggestions for agencies, foundations, and organizations.... Among the recommendations are the following:

• Create a funders’ consortium. ....The goal would be to invest development funds more strategically.
• Require that coordination among funders, implementers, and in-country partners be written into project proposals. Such efforts would improve communication and coordination among funders.
• Track the delivery of media literacy programmes in larger projects. ....media literacy programmes should be identified and tracked better so their costs and outcomes can be evaluated.
• Measure the level of media literacy in developing countries. The International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) should add media literacy as a sixth criterion to the five currently used in its Media Sustainability Index (MSI).....
• Do more research on media literacy and create an international center to connect information and efforts....
• Expand the pool of donors funding projects that include media literacy components...."

Strengthening Independent Media Initiative (SIM) Resources: Media Development & Media Literacy website accessed on November 23 2009.