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MLI Workplan 2023

The MLI Workplan for 2023 has been agree d and we are asking MLI members to consider how they might be able to support some element of the broader Workplan.

The big news is that the Be Media Smart campaign will return for a high profile week later in the year so there is a particular call to members to think about how they might support the campaign.

At the MLI Steering Group meeting in February, four Workstreams were agreed for MLI for 2023. They are:

  • Coordination: To be an acknowledged first port-of-call in relation to media literacy in Ireland and to provide support and advice for media literacy stakeholders (national and international).
  • Communication: To foster discussion and debate around all aspects of media literacy in Ireland with a view to helping to identify emerging issues, gaps in provision, opportunities for collaboration.
  • Innovation: To inspire, encourage and facilitate the development of new media literacy projects, programmes and interventions, and encourage evaluation and sustainability.
  • Promotion: To use the strength, reach and expertise of MLI members to collectively highlight media literacy related issues and sign-post to sources of support via multi-stakeholder public awareness campaigns. To promote the work of MLI members at a national and international level.

In addition, three ‘priority topics’ were agreed for the next 12 months. The purpose of these ‘priority topics’ is to give some strategic direction to the work of MLI and link the work of MLI back to the media literacy skills and competencies outlined in the BAI Media Literacy Policy. However, MLI can also address other media literacy topics if deemed necessary.

The three priority areas are:

  • Topic 1: Critical Understanding – Addressing matters such as countering Disinformation, improving trust in media, journalists as curators of information in our society, agendas and interests, business models.
  • Topic 2: Creative Participation – Addressing matters such as production techniques, story-telling etc.
  • Topic 3: Digital Citizenship – Addressing matters such as ethical and effective participation, digital civility.

Following the Steering Group meeting, these Workstreams and Priority Topics were presented to the Working Group Panel with a view to developing a set of tasks which would form the basis of the MLI Workplan for 2023.

To achieve this ambitious workplan, the core MLI team are seeking support from as many MLI members as possible. To help members identify where their skills might be useful, we have created a draft list of the skills and resources that we are likely to need, and at what point during the year we are likely to need them. Please see the slides for more information.

In particular we are looking for MLI members to volunteer in the following areas:

  • Media Literacy policy expertise: We are looking for a small number of members to volunteer to participate in a Media Literacy Policy Working Group. The purpose of the Working Group would be to provide advice and guidance in relation to media literacy policy on an ad-hoc basis. For example, when MLI might want to respond to public, or a targeted, consultation.
  • Website and social media management expertise: We would like to form a small group of MLI members who are experienced in website and social media management to help manage our public facing communications. Experience with WordPress would be helpful but training can be provided. It is expected that the time requirement for this would be no more than a couple of hours per month, per person.
  • External Communications expertise: In addition to the website and social media channels, we are also looking for support producing the monthly Newsletter, as well as other external communications tasks such as writing press releases, and media plans. This will be on an ad-hoc basis throughout the year but is likely to be more intense in the run-up to the Be Media Smart Week in late autumn and around the launch of MLI Awards, and the announcement of the winners.
  •  Event Management expertise: We plan to develop between three and four events this year, including a flagship face to face event in the autumn to mark the start of Be Media Smart week. Volunteers with experience in event management (online, hybrid and face-to-face) would be most welcome. We will also start planning for our first face to face Awards ceremony this year.
  • Expertise /Experience / Advice on the Priority Topics: We are hoping to use the priority topics as a focus for our events, as well as our communications, so we are looking for members who have ideas for, experience of and/or contacts linked to the three priority topic areas of:
    • Critical Understanding
    • Creative Participation
    • Digital Citizenship
  • MLI Awards: Following the delivery of the pilot year of the MLI Awards, we will be looking for additional volunteers to help deliver an expanded awards programme in 2023, with potentially up to eight categories. In addition, to reviewing the pilot year activity and making recommendations for Year 2, it is likely that we will need an extended judging panel for the 2024 Awards.
  • Training and Development expertise: We would like to offer MLI members more opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge, as well as offering signposting about skills development to the public. If any MLI members have experience in delivering training, or facilitating workshops, we would like to explore some opportunities with you.
  • Evaluation expertise: We would like to continue to encourage and support members to develop evaluation frameworks for their activities, and we would like to ensure that we have evaluation frameworks in place for all MLI activities – especially the Be Media Smart campaign and events. If you have experience in this area, please get in touch.
  • MLI Ambassadors: We would like to create a small pool of MLI members who could be called on to promote the work of MLI on occasion. This may involve participating in panel discussions, interviews and seminars.
  • Be Media Smart campaign: One of the most ambitious aspects of the 2023 Workplan is the proposal to run a Be Media Smart week in late October to coincide with Global Media and Information Literacy Week. To achieve this we will need a significant amount of support from around May to November. This will include support in the following areas:
    • Media planning –  creating media plans, coordinating the delivery of media assets, securing media space across the membership and overseeing delivery of assets in a timely manner.
    • Content creation – reviewing and potentially updating Be Media Smart assets as well as identifying existing resources such as toolkits, that could be used as part of an outreach programme.
    • Community Outreach – we need to identify and engage community leaders to help us deliver the Be Media Smart message in a targeted way.

Please email martinachapman@mercuryinsights.com and cc info@medialiteracyireland.ie if you think you might be able to help with any of the above tasks or if you have ideas or suggestions about how else you might be able to help MLI deliver its work programme for the year.