UNESCO - MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY RESEARCH Youth Perspectives on Online Hate, Extremist and Radical Content – Some Preliminary Research Findings

By, Alton Grizzle, Programme Specialist in Communication and Information, UNESCO, a.grizzle@unesco.org With Autonomous University of Barcelona, Thesis Director, Professor Manuel Tornero

WHY DO WE HATE?

FEAR?

ANGER?

VENGEFULNESS?

SOCIALIATION?

POWER?

POVERTY?

MISINFORMATION?

WHY DO WE LOVE?

« CHANGE HOW WE SEE AND SEE HOW WE CHANGE! »

« MIL CAN HELP US TO CHANGE HOW WE SEE AND SEE HOW WE CHANGE! »

WE NEED MORE YOUNG PEOPLE AS ACTORS!

OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION

Research design Rapid glance at the findings Implications and recommendations Other UNESCO actions on MIL

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Main Research Questions

Are citizens’ attitude towards participation/engagement in democratic discourses and governance processes, on such issues as FOE, FOI, intercultural and interreligious dialogue, quality media, gender equality, privacy, and radical/extremist content online, different consequent to MIL competencies?

METHODOLOGY AND INSTRUMENTS

Quasi-Experiment (Evaluating responses)

METHODOLOGY AND INSTRUMENTS

Designing and creating the on-line courses. Athabasca University (Moodle) [Treatment

Group 1 – Control Group 1] Autonomous University of Barcelona

(MOOC) [Treatment Group 2 – Control Group 2]

Survey, questionnaire with over 200 questions plus other methods and tools (journaling, forum discussion, tutors’ observation, focus groups and interviews)

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS – BASED ON PRECOURSE/PRETEST QUESTIONNAIRE

About the respondents

Over 2,000 young people engaged in the training and research (from 120 countries)

Ages 14-25 years (75%)

1735 completed the questionnaire

Of that number, 614 young people completed the section on hate and radical content online (Anonymously)

53% 47%

30% 1%

16%

49% 19%

55%

63% 37%

40%

.33%

1%

1% 7%

15%

35%

38%

3%

18%

21%

19%

1%

54%

14%

10%

14%

.33%

7%

1%

80%

32%

11%

17%

31%

2% 6%

.33%

Facebook - 56%

Youtube - 14%

Twitter - 8%

News networks’ websites - 9%

56% 37%

IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MIL TRAINING More education on how to respond to hate and

radicalization online is urgently needed;

MIL courses should enable all people to understand that reducing supply of hate and radical content online through censorship is neither feasible nor effective (FOE issues)

Focus on reduce demand for such content

IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MIL TRAINING Effectiveness of choosing not to watch.

Young people are being exposed to radical content both purposefully and accidentally.

A proliferation of MIL MOOCs in multiple languages and designs is needed.

IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MIL TRAINING Inaction to hate and radical content is dangerous so too is fighting hate with hate.

Social media dominance, counter measures must also increase in social media…. MIL CLICKS.

Young people need to be exposed to more positive youth mentorship online. This requires purposeful investment of resources.

IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MIL TRAINING

MIL courses should focus more on the positives of media and Internet and not only the negatives.

MIL programmes must be uniquely designed to target youth in rural and remote communities.

Social media dominance, counter measures must also increase in social media…. MIL CLICKS.

IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MIL TRAINING

Stronger bridges for peace must be built across, MIL, intercultural and interreligious competences, global citizenship education and basic education.

IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MIL TRAINING Hate and radical content online is on the increase and

will not go away. Systematic and sustainable approaches are needed:

National MIL policies and strategies

National Curricula on MIL and radicalization plus integration in formal education

Monitoring and assesment frameworks

UNESCO publication:

“MIL Curriculum for teachers”

UNESCO publication:

“MIL Curriculum for teachers”

MIL Policy and Strategy: Common Approach

UNESCO publication:

“Guidelines for broadcasters on promoting user-generated content”

MOOCs ON MEDIA AND

INFORMATION LITERACY

Presenter

Presentation Notes

I learnt recently that the four most productive species and ants, termites, bees and us human. These species are more productive that others because they cooperate. GAPMIL is about cooperation. It is about taking the national global and the global national. It is not a one way stream…. The meaning of GAPMIL logo….

UNESCO-UNAOC MILID UNIVERSITY NETWORK

QUOTES FROM PARTICIPANTS

“You know this course is changing my life, my perception, and correcting certain myopic views of mine. I am just so glad and I so wish I can educate every child so they won't grow with certain stereotyped perception and ignorance.” (Iredumare Ojengbede Opeyemi)

QUOTES FROM PARTICIPANTS

“The greatest medium of information propagation is our individual attitudes. How do we show of ourselves? …Let’s start with working on ourselves, building our relevance and striking a balance not to create the [same] problem we are fighting against...” (Yvonne Imenger Sender)