Dear all,
You might have seen that the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee has just published its long-awaited preliminary report on disinformation and fake news; see https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/363/363.pdf . This follows from a lengthy inquiry (to which the CILIP Information Literacy Group made a submission) that has been running for a year and a half.
Importantly, the report includes a chapter on what it terms digital literacy - although in reality this equates largely to information literacy. The chapter, which focuses heavily on social media, states at the outset that "Children, young adults, and adults—all users of digital media—need to be equipped in general with sufficient digital literacy, to be able to understand content on the Internet, and to work out what is accurate or trustworthy, and what is not". It goes on to recommend that, as an integral part of the school curriculum, digital literacy should become the fourth pillar of the education process, alongside reading, writing and maths.
It is good that these issues are recognised in a weighty and authoritative publication - although perhaps inevitably, the findings on digital literacy are somewhat crowded out by the report's more attention-grabbing chapters on areas such as data targetting in election/referendum campaigns and Russian interference in the electoral process.
A second report is expected in October, although it's not entirely clear yet what this will cover, or whether it will expand on what the preliminary report says about digital literacy. You can keep up to speed with developments on the Committee's web page at https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/fake-news-17-19/ .
Best wishes,
Stéphane
Stéphane Goldstein
Executive Director
InformAll
39 Esmond Road
London NW6 7HF
tel: +44 (0)7913 464393
email: [log in to unmask]
Skype: stephanegoldstein
Twitter: stephgold7
website: www.informall.org.uk
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