MICA’s CDMC and UNESCO Celebrate Global Media & Information Literacy Week 2024 with Two-Day Event
Eighteen students from across the country mulled over AI’s impact on Journalism, Public Good, Governance and Policy, Media Literacy and Education, Social Media, and Marketing & PR.
The chief guest of the valedictory Mr. Shakoor Rather, Editor-in-Chief and Head of INDIAai at NASSCOM, outlined the opportunities of AI such as personalized learning, fact-checking tools, content creation, and challenges like bias and lack of fairness, transparency, accountability, misinformation, deepfakes, and job displacement.
BILKULONLINE
Ahmedabad, Oct 22: MICA Ahmedabad’s Centre for Development Management & Communication (CDMC) recently hosted an immersive event, ‘AI Futures Lab: Media Literacy 2024’, bringing together 18 students from across the country to mull over the impact of Artificial Intelligence in our lives.
The event was organised in collaboration with UNESCO as part of UNESCO Global Media & Information Literacy Week 2024. The idea was to initiate a dialogue on AI and expose the students to their online and digital rights and ethical issues surrounding information access, creation, and use.
During the two-day event, 18 students from 11 different schools and universities across the country worked on six themes: AI in Journalism, AI for Public Good, AI for Governance and Policy, AI in Media Literacy and Education, AI for Social Media, and AI in Marketing & PR. The participants created an AI policy framework for their allocated theme under the mentorship of industry experts and academicians.
Hezekiel Dlamini, Advisor for Communication and Information for South Asia at UNESCO New Delhi, said, “Generative AI is increasingly being integrated into everyday activities, such as drafting texts and generating images. However, its rapid advancement risks privatizing information, prompting a need for AI literacy within media and information literacy (MIL) to navigate the implications for education and culture effectively.”
Addressing the students, the chief guest of the valedictory session, Shakoor Rather, Editor-in-Chief and Head INDIAai (National Artificial Intelligence portal of India) at NASSCOM, discussed the opportunities, challenges and impact of artificial intelligence. He outlined opportunities of AI such as personalized learning, fact-checking tools, content creation, and challenges like bias and lack of fairness, transparency, accountability, misinformation, deepfakes, and job displacement. He said, “In our fast-paced digital world, media literacy is not just a skill but an essential survival tool. Misinformation is like that uninvited guest at a party; it often leads us away from the truth. AI is a tool that can either be our greatest ally or our most formidable foe.”
Emphasizing the need to integrate media literacy early by engaging the community and fostering collaboration with educational institutions, he said, “Technology companies, education institutions, and media need to collaborate to address the ethical concerns about AI.”
The winning teams of the event were Team Mediacore, which secured first place for their work on AI in Media Literacy & Education, followed by Team Human Intelligence, which took second place for their focus on AI for public Good. Team mAlya earned third place with their innovative approach to AI in Journalism.
Speaking about the collaboration, Prof. Manisha Pathak Shelat and Prof. Ruchi Tewari, Co-Chairs of CDMC-MICA, said, “CDMC has been and will continue to nurture and promote participatory discussions relevant to the future of humankind. This event, ‘AI Futures Lab,’ brought together students from the school to master’s level, policymakers, journalists, academicians, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and NGOs to discuss use cases and suggest models and frameworks that can guide policies on the ethical and optimal use of AI in different facets of human activity. MICA has been a proud member of UNESCO’s Media and Information Literacy for Intercultural Dialogue network through CDMC for over six years now, and this event is a perfect example of the power of collaboration and teamwork.”
