MEDIA LITERACY INSTITUTE (MLI) is a non-profit organization founded in 2017 in Greece. Its aim is to promote and disseminate the concepts of Media and Information Literacy in Greece, Europe and internationally. Media and Information Literacy aims at the critical perception, use and creation of knowledge and information οn any traditional or modern communication medium, and requires the acquisition of cognitive, functional, technical and communication skills, as well as the capabilities of using modern means of communication. The mission of the Institute is to inform the Greek public about the conceptual, theoretical, regulatory and practical framework in which MIL concepts are developed. Its goal is to mobilize citizens and to provide them with opportunities to access the relevant information, skills, tools and means and to engage in appropriate activities to become media literate.
MLI supports the idea that democracy requires well-informed citizens and that Media and News Literacy are among the most important ways to combat bias and hate speech online, to promote the fundamental right of citizens to be self-aware when they interact with the media, to learn how to cross check resources, to develop skills of inquiry when investigating the resources, creators and purposes of any content, so that readers can distinguish reliable information from “fake news”, personal opinions, prejudices or propaganda.
MEDIA LITERACY INSTITUTE focuses on printed and online content such as social media, mass media, all kinds of public and frequently used communication platforms, as well as various online and offline sources. In this context, MLI emphasizes that modern active citizens of all ages need to develop the habits of curiosity, research and creative questioning along with suitable expression skills, to cultivate the necessary critical thinking in getting information from any source, and to acquire the knowledge on how to create and use multimedia messages.
