Theorizing Media and Information Literacy: Emotional Communication through Art for Young People during Unusual Life Experiences.

Abstract

This study applies the new social change theory called Media and Information Literacy Expansion (MILx ), as developed by Grizzle and Hamada (2019), to the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Cities framework (UNESCO, 2019). MILx considers MIL competencies, acquisition, and application by individuals, groups, and institutions simultaneously. MILx also models the potential multiplier outcomes of this approach when MIL is integrated with other social competences. MILX proposes that we cannot reach optimal social value proposition, value enhancement, and value expansion if MIL interventions only focus on individuals. The study also explores the likely positive changes in outcomes when MILX is united with emotional competencies as another variable in the model. Specifically, this paper focuses on MILX incorporating “emotional literacy” (Singh & Duraiappah, 2020) and the interaction that occurs in the selected target group of children and youth, their peers, their families, and the institutions with which they engage. A practical design of MILX demonstrates how MIL can correspond with efforts to counter disinformation and misinformation with deeper changes in mindset (Cinzia et al., 2015). It theorizes how, with MILX, emotional communication through art creates a synergistic effect on individuals, groups, and institutions. Art is widely used for psychological therapy because it can identify relationships between physical and psychological states. We used an art-based research methodology to theorize communication from the individual to society based on empirical analysis. Data from youth and children’s responses to the 2011 tsunami catastrophe area in Ishinomaki, Japan, were analyzed in this context. Further research is required to strengthen the findings to actualize the strong emotional dimensions that exist in people’s engagement in the information ecology toward and beyond the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals