The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) and 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World launch Facts Matter: A Guide to Building Critical Media Literacy in Today’s World. It is Ireland’s first guide for adult literacy tutors on building critical media literacy for adults. Irish Aid supported the guide’s development.
Launched as part of the UN International Day for Universal Access to Information, access to reliable information is a right, not a privilege. It is an essential part of holding governments and public bodies accountable. It helps ensure accountability for decisions and actions on health issues, climate change, and more. This is especially important in an era when false or misleading information bombards us every day. This is often called an “infodemic.”
This an introductory guide for adult literacy and adult education practitioners. It helps practitioners who want to build their students’ knowledge, understanding, skills, and confidence in critical thinking, media literacy, and digital literacy. It consists of 10 session outlines along with handouts and worksheets and lists of resources.
A few words about ‘Facts Matter: A Guide to Building Critical Media Literacy in Today’s World’
Colleen Dube, Chief Executive Officer, NALA commented: “There is so much information available at our fingertips right now, a lot of which is false or misleading. We require skills to work out if what we are reading or hearing is true or false. This means taking the time to find reliable and accurate information, question the role of information and look at what can I do. Today we are delighted to launch the Facts Matter tutor guide with our partners 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World. This guide will support adult literacy and adult education practitioners to support students to enhance their critical thinking, media and digital citizenship skills.”
Tony Daly, Co-ordinator of 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World, said: “Media literacy goes beyond simply ‘reading’ the news; it is also about practice and producing your own responses. We must keep questioning and remember to stop, think and check before we believe or share. We know facts and truth matter if we want to build a better society and a better world. The Facts Matter tutor guide will support adult literacy tutors to explore what it means to live in an increasingly unequal world. It will also help them invite students to question and challenge this.”
Notes to Editors
- Join our launch webinar on Facts Matter on Tuesday 28 September at 1pm (online) with our partners NALA with journalists, educators and students alike.
- To access Facts Matters and support materials, visit https://8020.ie/facts-matter/
About NALA: www.nala.ie
The National Adult Literacy Agency is an independent charity. It works to ensure that people with unmet literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy needs can fully take part in society. It also works to ensure they can access learning opportunities that meet their needs. NALA also promotes media literacy.
About 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World:
80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World is a non-governmental organisation. It promotes popular education on human development and human rights through education and action projects, research, and partnership work. 80:20 believes in using education to help people change their world for the better.
- NALA and 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World are members of Media Literacy Ireland. This is an independent association of members committed to promotion of media literacy across Ireland.