MediaTech

Social media is known as a continuously evolving life-changing episode in our personal and professional lives. No one has ever thought that one day they will encounter such a startling thing in their lives which will lead them to a revolutionary world where they can better socialize, interact with people professionally/ personally and can easily access /dig out any information in fraction of seconds. Gone are the days when Facebook and MySpace dominated the web but now everything has gone mobile as we live in an increasingly mobile world. Everyone is attached to their mobile devices all the time including marketers, students, families, friends etc. Sharing real-time photos, videos, and information has become a trend; people are extremely crazy about these days. We would come to know the power of these mobile-enabled social networking apps when we see people are actually touching the new skies of success in their businesses, getting better career opportunities and moreover finding their

  In 2010, Americans could turn on their television and find 24-hour news channels as well as music videos, nature documentaries, and reality shows about everything from hoarders to fashion models. That’s not to mention movies available on demand from cable providers or television and video available online for streaming or downloading. Half of U.S. households receive a daily newspaper, and the average person holds 1.9 magazine subscriptions (State of the Media, 2004) (Bilton, 2007). A University of California, San Diego study claimed that U.S. households consumed a total of approximately 3.6 zettabytes of information in 2008—the digital equivalent of a 7-foot high stack of books covering the entire United States—a 350 percent increase since 1980 (Ramsey, 2009). Americans are exposed to media in taxicabs and buses, in classrooms and doctors’ offices, on highways, and in airplanes. We can begin to orient ourselves in the information cloud through parsing what roles the media fills in so

  Media and Information Literacy (MIL), defined as the ability to access, analyze, and create media, is a prerequisite for citizens to realize their rights to freedom of information and expression. A rights-based approach is pursued to define MIL in general, and Digital Media and Information Literacy (DMIL) in particular. Different projects initiated by DW Akademie are drawn on to show the importance of the aspects of creation and engagement. They illustrate that various stakeholders need to be involved so that citizens can critically access, use, and participate in the flow of information on a broad scale. Media development supports MIL projects because they help people make their own choices and realize their human rights. To achieve this, MIL projects may include training and skill-oriented workshops. But they need to work on other levels, too, and support structural reforms on behalf of informed and active citizens.