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Author
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Vilhelmina Vaičiūnienė; Viktorija Mažeikienė
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Year
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2016
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Publisher
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Socialinių mokslų studijos / Societal Studies, Mykolas Romeris University.
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Abstract
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Researchers, educationalists, educational policymakers, and education technologists have recently focused much of their attention on what it means to be literate in a densely mediated society. Therefore, we have raised the following questions: what has the conception of literacy—once understood merely as the ability to encode and decode a text—developed into today? What aspects are considered most pertinent to literacy as a complex phenomenon in contemporary research? What is the rationale behind combining two concepts—information literacy and media literacy—into the complex notion of Media and Information Literacy (MIL)? The method applied in this research is a state-of-the-art review that addresses current matters in comparison with previous research. In this paper, we have drawn extensively on institutional definitions of media literacy and information literacy, particularly those adopted by UNESCO and the European Commission. The conceptual frameworks of these entities have been considered alongside academic research in the field of literacy. Skillfully filtering information and critically appraising its quality—in any kind of message and across any type of media—is vital. Synthesizing overlapping literacies has proved useful because overarching composite concepts like Media and Information Literacy reflect the complex nature of the mediated world and encompass the skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed to engage with diverse sources of information and evaluate their quality.