March 18, 2019 marked the inauguration of the first European Media Literacy Week, a new initiative by the European Commission that aims to shed light on the importance of media literacy education. We attended the event in Brussels and connected with other media literacy advocates across Europe. 

Here are five things we thought were of note: 

1. Social media platforms have an important role to play when it comes to minimizing the spread of misinformation, and there is greater need for transparency, especially in relation to sponsored content. 


2. Though the issue of mis/disinformation is not new, the way is spreads across online information landscapes is. In order to tackle this issue as citizens it is important to develop the competences to read, write and visually decode online information and media content. 


3. There is no common media literacy approach across European member states, and this makes the central sharing of media resources all the more important. An initiative that stemmed out this first event was a media literacy repository which you can access here.


4. A lot of the focus of media literacy interventions is on youth, but equal attention should be provided to seniors, who may have less confidence in using digital technologies. 


5. Advancing media literacy requires bringing together citizens, media professionals and public authorities to engage in dialogue and activities. Resisting online misinformation also recognizing the value of quality journalism.