Paradoxes of Media and Information Literacy

Jutta Haider is Professor at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS), University in Borås. She has published widely on information practices and digital cultures' emerging conditions for production, use, and distribution of knowledge and information. This includes work on algorithmic information systems and on knowledge institutions, including encyclopaedias and search engines. She is co-author of Invisible Search and Online Search Engines: The Ubiquity of Search in Everyday Life (Routledge, 2019).

Olof Sundin is Professor in Information Studies at the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, Sweden. He has extensive experience of researching the configuration of information in contemporary society, the construction of trustworthiness, as well as practices of media and information literacy in schools and in everyday life. He is co-author of Invisible Search and Online Search Engines: The Ubiquity of Search in Everyday Life (Routledge, 2019).

Questioning why MIL is commonly believed to wield such power, the book throws into sharp relief several paradoxes that are built into common understandings of such literacies. Haider and Sundin take the reader on a journey across different fields of practice, research and policymaking, including librarianship, information studies, teaching and journalism, media and communication and the educational sciences. The authors also consider national information policy proposals and the recommendations of NGOs or international bodies, such as UNESCO and the OECD. Showing that MIL plays an active role in contemporary controversies, such as those on climate change or vaccination, Haider and Sundin argue that such controversies challenge existing notions of fact and ignorance, trust and doubt, and our understanding of information access and information control. The book thus argues for the need to unpack and understand the contradictions forming around these notions in relation to MIL, rather than attempting to arrive at a single, comprehensive definition.

Paradoxes of Media and Information Literacy combines careful analytical and conceptual discussions with an in-depth understanding of information practices and of the contemporary information infrastructure. It is essential reading for scholars and students engaged in library and information studies, media and communication, journalism studies and the educational sciences.

This book analyses why media and information literacy is seen as a solution in addressing the information crisis, demonstrating paradoxes built into these literacies  and arguing for a need to unpack and understand these contradictions. Suitable for those interested in library and information studies.

1. Introduction to the literacy paradoxes, 2. Responsibility and the crisis of information, 3. Situating media and information literacy, 4. Media and information literacy as a site for anticipation, 5. Educating for media and information literacy, 6. Polarisation of media and information literacy: The case of Sweden, 7. Conclusion.