Public Policies on Media and Information Literacy and Education in Latin America: Overview and Proposals

FINQUELIEVICH SUSANA, FELDMAN PATRICIO, FISCHNALER CELINA

Moscu

Conferencia; the International Conference on Media and Information Literacy (MIL) for Knowledge Societies; 2012

Information For All Programme (IFAP), UNESCO

1. Public education policies in Knowledge Society: trends inLatin AmericaWhat are the general characteristics of current public policies for Mediaand Information Literacy (MIL) in Latin America Knowledge Societies? Whatare their priorities? How do they respond to Latin American citizens’ needs?This paper briefly reviews state-of-the-art public policies and strategies in thisarea in Latin America, using desk research methodology. The selected casestudies are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.Identified tendencies in the diverse models are then compared. Based onthese comparisons, the authors suggest proposals to be considered in theimplementation of public policies for MIL in Latin America Knowledge Societies.Countries were chosen as case studies based on their position in the InternetPenetration Index (Internet World Stats, 2012), as well as other reasons. Thosewith the highest indicies in the region were Argentina (67%), Chile (59%),Uruguay (56%), and Colombia (56%). Although Brazil (39%) and Mexico (37%)do not have the highest indicies in relative terms, they do in absolute terms asthey are the region’s largest and most populated countries: of the 40% Internetpenetration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), 30% corresponds toBrazil and 16% to Mexico. While not among the highest, Peru (34%) was alsoincluded as it was one of the first LAC countries to implement initiatives towardsMIL and e-inclusion, which were later replicated in other countries.The emergent Knowledge Societies form a virtuous circle, in which theprogress of knowledge and technological innovations, mutually determined,generate further knowledge and technological innovations in the medium- andlong-run. As a consequence, knowledge production and knowledge-basedsocial, economic and political practices undergo a considerable acceleration(UNESCO, 2005). Nevertheless, information and communication technologies(ICT) tools are a necessary but not sufficient component for developingInformation Societies.Issues concerning information and knowledge are related to other nationalstrategies. Their transdisciplinary nature makes them transversal to othersubjects (e-government, e-health, education, security, etc.), as well as to anumber of social agents: government, private sector, universities, NGOs.Consequently, Knowledge Society issues are also at the base of transformationswithin the economic and social organizations of countries that implementNational Information Society Policies – NISPs (Finquelievich et al., 2009).Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is an up-to-date region concerningNISPs. No country lacks a National Digital Agenda; some LAC countries (Chile,México, Uruguay) are working on second generation NISPs (Finquelievichet al., 2009). In the case of MIL, governments face a series of urgent needsconcerning the inclusion of teachers and students in the Information Societyvia physical access to computers and connectivity, the training of teachers foreffective use of ICTs in schools, and qualifying human resources to provideaccess to the new labour market. In most countries, the responsible agentfor meeting these needs is the State, both as a technology provider and as agenerator of educational strategies to use ICTs.The approaches through which diverse LAC countries face NISPs focused oneducation and MIL vary according their economic trends, existing educationalsystems, links between education and Science, Technology and Innovationsystems, identified needs, and, overall, ways in which each country stands orwishes to stand in Knowledge Society.