Every two weeks, the Dialogue of the Americas on Freedom of Expression on the Internet will present a set of questions to foster information gathering, knowledge exchange, and multi-stakeholder debate on each of the Dialogue’s topics.
All interested people and actors, regardless of sector or level of expertise, are invited to contribute as much as they wish on each issue.
Set of questions
Contributions
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Context
Understanding that the internet is an indispensable instrument for the full exercise of human rights, including freedom of expression, freedom of association and others of economic, cultural and political nature, concrete actions are required to facilitate the conditions of access, use and exploitation of the internet and technology itself. This includes a transversal approach that addresses the particular deficiencies and vulnerabilities of historically discriminated groups, as well as constant technological innovation and its scope.
Digital Literacy is thus a core instrument to support the goal above. The definition of what it means to be “literate” has changed dramatically in recent years. In the past, it was considered that a person could read and write if he or she could do it at a basic level. Today, with advances in technologies and the Internet, literacy also includes Digital Literacy for the development of civic skills.
Digital Literacy for the development of civic skills represents one of the guidelines that can contribute to reducing or eliminating the existing digital divide, which includes users as recipients of information but also producers of content. Therefore, it implies that these subjects have access to the Internet and its basic services without undue interference by private parties and have technical and critical skills for the best use of these in the exercise of their rights.
For some, Digital Literacy for civic skills development has evolved as media literacy, which is the ability to encode and decode symbols transmitted through the media and the ability to synthesize, analyze and produce mediated messages.