MIL: The Philippine Context

While most western countries have a fully developed media education programs, Asian societies have
yet to develop and mature. In the Philippines, media education is reflected in the lone MIL subject that
started only in 2016, through the enactment of Republic Act No. 10533 that added senior high into the
educational system. Hence, media education in the country is very much in its infancy.

The importance of MIL skills go beyond merely equipping people with skills in the consumption
and production of media texts to empowering them to express themselves, their societal awareness
(Lim & Nekmat, 2008), as well as their development in a democratic society (Jolls & Johnsen, 2017). In
the Hunger Games Trilogy for example, Latham and Hollister (2014) found that the protagonist-
narrator, Katniss Everdeen, overwhelmingly resonates among young people today because of her high
levels of MIL skills – surviving the games, influencing oppressed people using her media spotlight,
outsmarting the game developers, and sparking a revolution to topple an oppressive government – all
because of her critical thinking coupled with her skilful use and evaluation of media texts. Media-and-
information literate students have a more positive, but nuanced perspectives on journalism, and value
decision-making about media messages (Hobbs et al., 2013; McDougall et al., 2015) that enable them to
thrive in a rapidly-evolving mediascape (Bhatia, 2016).

However, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2016) report that the knowledge and skills
students learn from the academe alarmingly fall short of the expected knowledge and skills – critical
thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration (Kinzer, 2010) which are also MIL
competencies – needed in this 21st century environment. Yuan (2015) also found a striking disconnect
between the students’ meaning making through digital texts at home, and their digital literacy practices
within their school. Voss (2011) explains that students today are like Midas surrounded by gold, but are
not skilful enough at converting their ICT exposure into a functional “currency.”

MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY COMPETENCIES 4

Curriculum development has always been beset by challenges not only in terms of new
perspectives and ICT development, but also along content and pedagogy (Alagaran, 2015). Kellner and
Share (2005) suggest the development of curricula and pedagogies on literacies and competencies, in
order for education to remain relevant. Hobbs (2011) likewise highlight media education’s focus on the
critical analysis of media texts, which is aptly interlinked with the primary goal of schools in helping the
students acquire various MIL skills (Williams, 2015), that is instrumental to the learning transformation
of the ever-changing digital environment (Thoman & Jolls, 2004), and is crucial to the development of
the knowledge society (Lee, 2012).

Problem Statement

Since teachers are primary agents of change (UNESCO 2011, 2013) and play a key role in this
21st century learning environment (Gretter & Yadav, 2016), they need to ensure that their curriculum
develops the much-needed MIL competencies, so their students can take full advantage of knowledge
societies thereby becoming empowered global citizens (UNESCO, 2013). Morano (2014) stressed the
glaring lack of research to guide teachers in the training of students equipped with 21st century
competencies. Inan and Temur’s survey (2012) of prospective teachers, surfaced that they had a low
level of reaction to media texts. Capacitating prospective teachers with MIL competencies is critical for
them to transmit these to tomorrow’s workers (Felini, 2014). Empowering them can only be possible
through MIL integration in the language majors of the Bachelor of Secondary Education, because
although they have courses in Technology for Teaching and Learning in the new K-12 curriculum (CMO
No. 75 s. 2017), there is an obvious lack of a cohesive and holistic MIL coverage in the said courses.

Conversely, Alagaran (2012) laments on the unbalanced BA Communication curriculum, which is

concentrated on being good communicators and media producers, disregarding the fact that the
students are also media consumers. CMO Number 35 series of 2017 indicate the numerous classes on
media production and interpersonal communication in the BA Communication program, but there is no
single subject or course that includes MIL in any of its course description. Alagaran (2015) further
expresses the seeming lack of attention given to the consumer aspects of Communication students, as
their curriculum only focuses on their being producers. With the dawn of prosumership, Communication
students need to be critical and discriminating users of media texts (Alagaran, 2012) to facilitate their
balanced formation as empowered media and communication practitioners in the future (Alagaran,
2015). He suggests a revisit of the Communication curriculum to make it more

MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY COMPETENCIES 5

responsive to the Post-2015 development agenda and to ensure that the future media
practitioners possess a balanced MIL competencies.

Since the curriculum is the first step in the introduction of relevant MIL program in academic
institutions (Wilson, 2012) that has been applied only in K12 education (Koltay, 2011); and in the
Philippines, only in Grade 11 or 12, there is an overwhelming need that MIL be also implemented as
stand-alone course or through integration in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), specifically the
Language and Communication programs. This is because the origins of media education lie in English
teaching (Buckingham et al., 2005) which heavily utilizes media texts that is very much central to media
education (Buckingham et al., 2005; Cheung & Chau, 2017).

With the rapidly changing ICT and media landscapes, acquiring the critical global competency,
MIL, is non-negotiable. Though there are challenges in the implementation of an effective media
education program, the greater concern, especially in the Philippines where MIL has just been
implemented, is the notable need to ensure that it is integrated in the Language and Communication
programs of HEIs. Hence, this study explores MIL in an Asian context, specifically the level of MIL
competencies of graduating Language and Communication students in the Philippines, as measured in
the adapted UNESCO MIL Competency Matrix (Tier 2). It specifically aims to answer:

What are the competency levels of graduating language and communication students along
UNESCO’s (2013) MIL Components:

a. access;

b. evaluate; and

c. create?

This study will contribute to the academic literature by (1) recognizing the need to develop
global MIL competencies needed in today’s knowledge society, (2) addressing UNESCO’s call for
professionals as principal agents of change, as instruments to the cultivation of media and information
literate citizens, as well as the identification of MIL strengths and weaknesses so that appropriate
policies would be developed (3) encouraging CHED to make some policy changes on MIL, and (4)
integrating future changes in the Language and Communication Programs.