Page 4 - Keynotes and Invited Papers

Towards a National Media and Information Literacy Policy in Bangladesh: An
Advocacy Coalition Framework

M Aslam Alam, PhD
Chairman and Executive Director
Bangladesh Institute for Information literacy and Sustainable Development
Bangladesh
Email: m.aslam.alam@gmail.com

Abstract

We are living in an information-saturated era. Almost infinite amount of information is
available at our finger-tips from in-numerous media sources. Equally available are
misinformation and disinformation. The line between information and disinformation are
getting blurred day by day. Differentiating between a valid source and a crooked source is
beyond capacity of most people in our society. However, everyone needs information via one
or the other media to navigate through their daily life, to plan for the future, and to understand
themselves, their communities and the natural environment. The crucial role of information
and media has been realised by scholars since decades. The concept of information literacy has
been in circulation since the seventies. The post-war period has witnessed the emergence of
the concept of media literacy. However, these concepts got renewed attention from scholars
during the last decade of the last century. Many competing concepts, such as digital literacy,
ICT literacy, computer literacy, civic literacy, news literacy, social media literacy, etc., also
emerged during this time. At the beginning of the current millennium, the UNESCO has come
forward to unify all these related concepts under one umbrella: media and information literacy
(MIL). According to UNESCO, MIL is a composite concept, which empowers citizens by
imparting knowledge, skills and attitudes about media and information providers, and how to
engage with them ethically and smartly by equipping with the abilities to understand needs of
information, analysis, evaluation, interpretation and utilization of the information for problem
solving (UNESCO 2013). MIL requires education and re-education of almost entire
population. As empowering citizenry is a gigantic task, it requires concerted efforts of the
government and the society. In this context, this paper conceptualises MIL as a public policy
issue. Although UNESCO has published a policy and strategy guidelines for MIL in 2013,
probably no countries in the world has yet formulated an integrated national MIL policy. This
paper argues that this shortcoming is due to lack of a public policy approach. In this backdrop,
this paper makes a case for a national MIL policy. Various public policy approaches are
highlighted. Dominant approaches include public choice, welfare economics, pluralist-
corporatist, stagist, subsystem and new institutionalist frameworks (Alam 2003). Out of the
public policy approaches, this paper opts for policy subsystem approach {Sabatier 1991) to
explain the MIL policy sub-system. Advocacy coalition framework is a key building block of
this approach. Other building blocks, such as belief system and resources of Advocacy
Coalitions (ACs) and policy-oriented leanings are discussed, and the functioning process of the
ACF is examined. The nature of key stakeholders of MIL policy and key advocacy coalitions
are identified. MIL ACs include media and communication coalition, Library and information
services coalition, Information and communication technology coalition, Education and
literacy coalition and law and order coalition. This paper argues that although the MIL policy