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

SUSANA FINQUELIEVICH; PATRICIO JULIAN FELDMAN; CELINA FISCHNALLER

Congreso; MIL in Knowledge Societies: Capacity Building, tools and resources; 2012

Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO

What 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.