Letter from the Executive Director of NAMLE

Jay OwenGlobal Citizen, Trendspotting, Information Technology Issues, Latest Headlines

“Ethical Markets highly recommends NAMLE’s wonderful work on media literacy, which we have helped promote for many years.  Now NAMLE is getting the recognition it deserves with new partnerships with PBS and other key groups to  promote media literacy, more vital than ever if we are to help citizens and voters learn to recognize propaganda, disinformation, misinformation, “fake news” and all the threats that social media monopolies pose to our democracies.

 

We thank Sherri Culver, a founding executive of NAMLE for her early service on our illustrious global Judges Panel for our EthicMark® Awards for Communications Uplifting the Human Spirit & Society, see full list and all past winners at www.ethicmark.org.    Wishing us all good news in 2020!

~Hazel Henderson, Editor“

December 2019

 

Remember when the year 2020 seemed like something out of a science fiction story? I remember when my son was just starting Kindergarten and we realized he’d be graduating high school in 2020. Class of 2020. How cool! How far away it seemed. Yet, here we are on the eve of 2020, reflecting on a wild decade and launching a new one. Time flies. There’s just no stopping it. All you can do is buckle up and try to enjoy the ride.

 

As always, I spent time over the holidays reflecting on the past year; looking, listening, reading and watching. Being the end of the decade, this year brought even more interesting reflection opportunities. Here are some that stood out to me:

 

 

The Year in Sound – The Daily

 

The Year in Pictures 2019 – The New York Times

 

The Decade in Pictures – The New York Times

 

100 photos that defined a decade – CNN

 

Decade in Review – What the Smartphone has wrought – Reuters

 

Forget all the bad news, here are the best facts of 2019

 

 

 

2019 was a busy year for NAMLE. We accomplished quite a bit and have lots to be proud of – our whole community does! In a cultural environment that can get pretty ugly, I am consistently inspired by the steady, positive and solution-based example the media literacy community sets. I often find myself thinking about Michelle Obama’s quote – “When they go low, we go high.” In some ways, I feel that sums up the attitude of our community. While so much around us seems to be breaking down in negative rhetoric and cynicism, we hold strong to the possibility that our work can and will make a difference.

 

Looking back, there are some NAMLE moments that are particularly memorable for me from 2019. Here are my top 5 (in no particular order).

 

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

We held our biennial conference in Washington, D.C. in June. It was an incredible gathering led by Belinha De Abreu, Yonty Friesem, and Donnell Probst with support from an incredible group of volunteers. It showcased new research in the field, promising classroom practices and important conversations about social justice, journalism, and civic engagement. The conference also was an opportunity for us to strengthen our relationships with tech companies and begin the important conversation about how we work together to move media literacy forward. We also had the opportunity to announce our partnership with the PeaceTech Lab at our opening event. At the conference, we also released our first ever State of Media Literacy Report in the U.S., a report we will continue to develop as the years progress.