Paper presented at 7th Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue Conference, Kingston, Jamaica, 25th October 2017

1. Towards a Cosmopolitan Media and
Information Literacy:
A UK initiative
Marcus Leaning
Professor of Digital Media Education
University of Winchester
UK
Presented at 7th Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue Conference,
Kingston, Jamaica, 25th October 2017

2. Defining Media
Literacy
History of
Media
Literacy
Defining
Media Literacy
Current techniques continue the critical approach
but involve students participating in creative yet
critical examination of texts. This allows students
to develop the critical analytic side as well as
develop employment related skills.
Later practice developed more ideological analysis and taught students to
decode the media and identify how messages had political values implicit
within them. Students were trained in semiotics and discourse analysis and
later media production techniques to demystify the mechanisms used to
embed meaning.
Early media literacy programmes identified the
media as alien and to be guarded against so as to
preserve extant culture. Media education
considered to be a form of inoculation against the
media. This approach still informs many media
education courses today.
Multiple definitions;
Potter (2010)
identifies 20
different definitions.
Division between
those that identify
specific skills, which
have changed over
time in response to
the emergence of
new technologies
and social practices
and those which
identify the
necessity of
criticality: ML as a
political, social
and cultural practice
(Sholle and
Denski, 1994).
Very much based
upon

3. History of
Information
Literacy
Apolitical
Information
Literacy
Information
literacy seen as
apolitical and an
inherent ‘good’.
Initially
economically
beneficial with
later versions
being understood
as empowering of
individuals. It
draws upon a
scientific
background and is
therefore
regarded linked to
the sciences
rather than the
arts and
humanities.
Information literacy has
been gradually evolving
since Zurkowski’s 1974
report which introduced
the term.
4
SCONUL 1989 Seven
Pillars, adds ‘create’ to
the mix.
1
2
3
A.L.A. 1989 5 step model
know when needed,
identifying info needed,
finding, evaluating and
organising.
5
Penetration of
computers into home
and work life and
lifelong learning agenda
drives greater need for
info lit.
Prague meeting and
WSIS events lead to
new declarations.IL
has four aspects:
seeking, evaluating,
using and creating.
6
Mid to late 2000s
and 2010s
conceptual
convergence with
ML. UNESCOs 2011
MIL curriculum.

4. Media
Literacy
Information
Literacy
Inherently political, the reason for doing
media literacy is to preserve, promote or
bring about a vision of life. Strong on
developing critical skills of interpretation
and their use in production. Historically
concerned with mass media and ignored
interpersonal communication and as a
consequence has a weakness in engaging
with digital media and the interactive
aspects, often uses the same techniques
for digital media as for mass
communications and miss aspects.
Needs greater understanding of digitality.
Inherently a-political, the reason for
doing information literacy is to
empower either for economic or
individual reasons. Focus is upon
personal use of information and
consequently little or no ‘social
critique’ or progressive intent.
Criticality only evident at very high
levels, lower level evaluation is about
validity of information.
Needs greater understanding of
criticality.

5. Add to this…
To meet these issues MIL needs reorienting and to develop an
underpinning that affords a progressive criticality to deal with
the issues of living in an information-rich and increasingly
politically problematic world.
It is asserted that we should turn to cosmopolitanism for
such.
BREXIT
UK leaving the EU with seemingly no plan. Complex
reasons, alignment of independence minded, with
anti-Europe, anti-immigration and right of centre
political factions – high level of financial support
from ‘questionable sources’. Much owed to political
campaigning and the alignment of 7 of the 9 major
newspapers for BREXIT. ‘Real ‘Fake news’’ less than
initially thought in Brexit and less than US.
Most shared story during was from national (but
right wing) press.

6. Cosmopolitanism
Cynic School of
Greek philosophy-
Diogenes –
‘citizen of the
world’
1
‘there is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither
bond nor free, there is
neither male nor
female: for all are one in
Christ Jesus’
3
2
‘The
cosmopolitans
carry the
designation
citizens of the
world in the most
authentic and
eminent sense.
They regard all
peoples of the
earth as just so
many branches of
a single family,
and the universe
a state,
in which they [the
cosmopolitans]
are citizens,
together with
innumerable
other rational
beings, in
order to promote
the perfection of
the whole.’
Instead we should recognise
that difference exists
between people, afford such
differences equal value and
respect and seek to learn
from the differences
in human lives (Appiah,
2010).
Involves the rejection
national outlook and ethnic
and religious
fundamentalism and other
forms of essentialism (Beck,
2006).
Halpin (2002) sees cosmopolitanism as
a ‘utopian device’ through which we
can think about our actions and which
we can use to plan
future action.
MIL should articulate and be
oriented towards delivering critical
cosmopolitanism.
5
Diogenes St Paul Christoph Wieland
Critical cosmopolitanism has an
inherent recognition of difference
(Delanty, 2006, 2009) and offers a
form of social critique that can be
used to address 21st century
political challenges.
4

7. R
e
f
e
r
e
n
c
e
s
Appiah, K. A. (2010). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers (issues
of our time). New York: W. W. Norton.
Beck, U. (2006). Cosmopolitan vision. Cambridge: Polity.
Delanty, G. (2006). The cosmopolitan imagination: Critical cosmopolitanism
and social theory. The British journal of sociology, 57(1), 2547.
Delanty, G. (2009). The cosmopolitan imagination: The renewal of critical
social theory. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Halpin, D. (2002). Hope and education: The role of the utopian imagination.
London: Taylor &
Francis.
Potter, W. J. (2010). The state of media literacy. Journal of Broadcasting &
Electronic Media, 54(4), 675696.
Sholle, D., & Denski, S. (1994). Media education and the (re)production of
culture. Westport: Bergin & Garvey.