Visual Media and Information Literacy
Media and information literacy (MIL) is central in the new strategic plan of the University of Gothenburg. As part of UGOT’s expanded MIL-initiatives, GPS400 is launching the VIMIK-group – an interdisciplinary expert resource for audiovisual research and pedagogy. The group aims to enhance the regional competence and to function as an accessible arena in the local environment. The VIMIK-group will collaborate on visual MIL-issues with, among others, Region Västra Götaland, The Gothenburg Region, Visual Arena as well as with local schools, institutions, organizations, companies, and individuals.
UNESCO and the EU have established that MIL is one of the key democratic resources that enables us to be better equipped to critically approach media's ever-increasing flow of information. The MIL-issues of today concern, among other things, sense making, effects, and consequences of AI and other digital tools as well as how we, with the help of new technology, can reduce differences in MIL between nations, institutions, groups and individuals.
Knowledge overviews and research reports presented by UGOT during the past decade have helped to introduce MIL to a Swedish context and have also contributed to several politically important decisions at both national and global level. The UNESCO professorship in freedom of speech at UGOT has been of great importance for this development and with the establishment of the VIMIK-group within GPS400 a new phase of UGOT’s MIL-activities is launched.
Since GPS400 has the local perspective as its basic approach and research focus, the new VIMIK-group will offer solutions to MIL-issues through collaborative and digital initiatives in the local environment. The main goal is to increase people's skills to read, interpret, understand, and work with images and image media both practically and theoretically as well as historically and prognostically.
Together with other UGOT initiatives in the MIL area, the VIMIK-group will also ensure that collaborative knowledge development and democratic knowledge exchanges are regularly carried out and made available via digital technology and in the public space. The group's educational and research activities will take place via targeted initiatives, workshops, and webinars within the school system and teacher training initiatives, as well as through competence development courses and commissioned training for staff at schools, archives, libraries, museums, companies and authorities.
The competences offered by the VIMIK-group can also be applied within higher education in, for example, journalism, communication, film, photography, art, design, culture, IT and technology. Together with representatives from civil society, the group will also test and develop routines for MIL-related digital citizen science research in close dialogue with the local community.
Maarit Jaakkola
Doctor of Social Sciences (journalism), works as the co-director of Nordicom (http://nordicom.gu.se) at GU. Jaakkola is also an Associate Professor at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMG) at GU. Her research related to MIL focuses on children and young people's digital competencies and user-generated content, platformized cultural production, professional communication and MIL as a public pedagogy. She is also the founder and coordinator of the Academic Forum for MIL Research (https://nordmedianetwork.org/akademiskt-forum-for-mik-forskning/) at the Swedish Media Council and the editor-in-chief and responsible publisher of NordMedia Network (https://nordmedianetwork.org), a digital platform for Nordic media researchers, including researchers with an interest in MIL. She has previously worked as a lecturer in journalism in Finland and has a teacher education with specialisation in MIL. In addition, she has been an active teachers' educator in the uses of digital tools and worked as a high school teacher in media subjects.
Website: https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/hitta-person/maaritjaakkola
Henrik Krantz
Works as a project manager at the Gothenburg Region (GR) in the Department of Education with a focus on issues around school digitisation, games and learning as well as MIL. He is an art and media teacher with a predisposition for games, game-based learning and gamification. Krantz works with issues concerning media in the schools and develops resources, method materials and tutorials. A couple of examples of this is the digital tool Textäventyr where students can create interactive texts and the "MIK-Templet" developed for preschool staff.
Niclas Östlind
Senior lecturer in photography.
Website: https://www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/niclasostlind
Linda Sternö
Senior lecturer in film at HDK-Valand and program manager for the MFA program in film. Linda has together with Martin Sjögren has been running the project Barnfilmskolan since 2011. the project was started with the help of Pedagogical development funds from the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts. Barnfilmskolan was awarded the prize Gullspiran at Guldbaggegalan. In the project Linda investigates the conditions for a relevant film pedagogy in a digital context from a practical artistic perspective.
Website: https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/hitta-person/lindasterno
Jens Lejhall
Region Västra Götaland
Cultural Affairs Commitee
Stefan Jensen
Jensen is a lecturer in photography at HDK-Valand, coordinator for GPS400 and for the bachelor's program in Media, Aesthetics and Cultural Entrepreneurship. Jensen is active as an artist and photographer and his work touches on how photography can act both as a tool and a goal in an exploratory practice. He also has expertise in project management and in interpersonal learning in cultural organizations as well as higher education with a focus on Critical Pedagogy. He has also worked with a number of different non-profit organizations such as the Photobook Festival.
Website: https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/hitta-person/stefanjensen
Johan Holmberg
Head of department for Filmpedagogerna Folkets Bio, where he has worked as a film and media educator since 1994. Since 2010, Filmpedagogerna have collaborated with UNESCO on MIL, media and information literacy, mainly around the production of teaching materials.
Johan is a member of the EU Commission's Media Literacy Expert Group. Through Filmpedagogerna, he is part of the national network MIK Sverige, MIL Sweden.
Johan has written the book Filmskolan, produced a number of films, educational materials and radio programs about MIL in general and film in particular for authorities, public service and various organizations.
Karolina Westling
Karolina Westling is senior lecturer in Film Studies at University of Gothenburg. She was awarded her PhD in 2020 from King’s College, London, for a thesis called Challenging the Generational Contract: An Analysis of the 'Enfants Terribles' in Post-War French Cinema. For more than two decades, Westling has developed courses in Film Studies, Children's and Youth Culture, Gender Studies and Teacher Education. Her main areas of interest are age related conflicts in a historical perspective and children's film making. In her ongoing research, Westling is exploring media and information literacy (MIL) and sustainability from an intergenerational perspective. She has initiated a network of researchers working with children's and youth culture in Gothenburg, BIG.
Website: https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/hitta-person/karolinawestling
Mats Jönsson
Professor of film studies and head of GPS400. He has with several years of historical and locally based research on image mediation from a pedagogical, rhetorical, propagandistic, and historiographical perspective. He currently leads several visually oriented and digitally implemented MIL projects, in connection and collaboration with the city and region, within the framework of GPS400.
Website: https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/hitta-person/matsjonsson
Links to Swedish and Nordic MIL resources
- NordMedia Network (External link)
- Swedish Media Council (External link)
- UNESCO MILID Network (External link)
- Swedish Film Institute (External link)
- Nordicom (External link)
- NordMedia Network - Find a researcher (External link)
- Filmpedagogerna (External link)
- Forum för visuell praktik (External link)
- barnfilmskolan (External link)