A piece by Tapio Varis
Professor emeritus, University of Tampere, Unesco Chair in Global e-learning
CIVILIZATIONAL APPROACH TO MEDIA LITERACY AND KNOWLEDGE
27th AMIC Annual Conference “Communication, Technology, and New Humanism”
17-19 June at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand
The new media and journalists are often believed to make knowledge out of the global flow of data and information. The global use of digital media and ICT network applications as well as rapid technological advancements in big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other emerging digital technologies have fundamentally changed the information and communication space all over the world. The global situation in the digital net economy in 2019 is well summarized by Dr, Holger Schmidt in Germany.[1] The dominance of American technology continue strong in the global analysis but is increasingly challenged by Asia but only to a minor extent by Europe.
In media and communication research we face the same situation as during the 1970´s in the debate on information and the international order. For example, a leading Chilean academic and diplomat Juan Somavia pointed out that world communications are controlled by three transnational power structures: a political-military-intelligence service dimension, economic-industrial-trade dimension, and communications-advertising-culture dimension.[2]
The international communication and media research followed this approach. UNESCO was a major initiator of relevant communion research and policy. Our world-wide surveys 1974[3] and 1984[4] demonstrated empirically the dominance of mainly American media in the international flow of television programmes and cultural industry.[5] International communication researchers like Jeremy Tunstall wrote a book with the title “The Media are American” (1977)[6] but later revised the title with a new book “The Media were American, U.S. Mass Media in Decline”(2008)[7]. Recently Oliver Boyd-Barrett revisited the classic concept of “Media Imperialism” (2014).[8]
New issues including the ownership of and using data, trust and privacy, human dignity and autonomy, increasing automation in decision-making processes, accountability and transparency of algorithms, etc. are compounded by the fact that only a dozen technology giants have a dominating role in the regulation and developments of the technology.[9]
That situation sets off alarm bells internationally prompting calls for meaningful regulations and ethical instruments to guide and shape technology developments in a human-centered way. The technological revolution and transformation of media environment also pose challenges for media and information literacy (MIL) education which is aimed to provide people with knowledge, skills, attitudes and competences that are needed to access, search, critically assess, use and contribute content wisely in order to successfully work and live in digital era. The core of MIL is a holistic approach including both rational, emotional and cultural awareness reflecting the values of different civilizational approaches rather than technical skills. However, within the conventional MIL education new technology implications are less debated while the potential of MIL is not being fully realized.The civilizational challenges of the 21st century are very well presented in the China Block Printing Museum at Yangzhou. There are three statutes representing the Great Minds of human history: Aristotle, Sakyamuni, and Confucius. They represent the contributions of different civilizations to the social, human, and technological progress of human history. The challenge of the 21st century is the dialogue among the civilizations.
Can we speak of global civilization? What is the role of the media in global education and in cultural diversities? The question of the world order and the trend towards global civilization has inspired scholars, communicators, educators and spiritual leaders to answer questions on how the world works. The traditional humanism is challenged by transhumanism that aims to transform the human condition by developing and creating widely available sophisticated technologies to enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. Science and technology are becoming the credo of the new order and new 21st century literacies are needed. However, as observed by an East Asian Daisaku Ikeda and Westerner Arnold Toynbee in their dialogue already in 1976, “today people are compelled to serve intellectual knowledge and technological skill, which are in turn controlled by politics and economies”. Instead, education should emphasize the inherent dignity and independence of learning.[10]
Communication is needed for consciousness raising. In addition to science and technology
the great issues for communication researchers have included the traditions of humanistic and spiritual thought and now the emerging ecological civilization.
Modern communication researchers discuss the role of ”stories” and ”story telling” in the new media and who dominates these activities. It is not very different from the traditional Lasswel´s model of communication “who says what in what channel and with what effect” (1948).[11] Today communication is no more linear and social media is more like flock behavior which is difficult to predict with the old models. There is a need to look at the cultural frameworks, civilizational and spiritual values of the communication flows.
In 2011 the World Universities Forum was held in The Hong Kong Institute of Education with the major focus on “Asia Rising and the Changing Architecture of Global Higher Education”. As explained by Professor Xu Xiaozhou, Dean of the College of Education, Zhejiang University, global higher education is in a huge stage for human development and civilization where universities in different countries and districts play various roles. Many people admire the excellence from the Europe and America: appraise their contributions to the global higher education and society in the past millennium. The ranking of world universities follows much the Western standards and is dominated by techno-scientific model of defining legitimate and productive knowledge. Xu concluded that Europe has experienced European civilization together with the development of capitalism for a long time. American civilization learned from European civilization to a certain extent. Asia used to have ancient civilization, which evolves throughout history. Comparing to western civilization, the concepts of science, democracy, humanity and harmony need to be improved in Asian universities development.[12]
According to Abdus Salam, a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics, science and technology are shared heritage of mankind and are cyclical in nature. He even believed in the joint endeavour in sciences becoming one of the unifying forces among the diverse peoples on this globe (Salam, 1990)[13]. Western dominance in science and technology emerges only after the 11th century A.D. In the great civilizations of Asia development in this respect is seen in the perspective of hundreds of years and the present globalization is viewed as a return to the normal.
Even though we have to concentrate much on the newly define global problems like the climate change the dangers in general were already identified during the cold war – especially by the nuclear scientists. Peter Kapitza, for example, wrote in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1981 about global problems and international solutions: ”Scientists must help the world to find common solutions to the global problems of nuclear war, environmental degradation and the depletion of the Earth´s resource. Humanity must first realize the magnitude and implications of the global crises”[14]
UNESCO Courier published a useful global approach to the concept of New Humanism in 2011. A Chinese expert Liu Ji, for example, observed that the Confucianists honor benevolence, the Mohists universal love, the Taoists compassion, and the Buddhists loving-kindness. As society evolves at high speed, the core values of Chinese civilization can be considered a blueprint for the development of universal harmony and, thus, new humanism. A Brazilian professor Cristovam Buarque explained that the humanist project means, among other things, promoting planetary politics and an ethical technical modernity.[15]
Julian Huxley, First DG of UNESCO 1946-48, was the main architect the new evolutionary synthesis. He brought up the concept of “higher humanity” where mankind is in charge of its own destiny and system of ethics. He wrote: ”Thus the general philosophy of Unesco should, it seems, be a scientific humanism, global in extent and evolutionary in background.” [16]
The UNESCO/IITE publication “Media Literacy and New Humanism” by Professor Jose Manuel Perez Tornero and Tapio Varis emphasized that special attention needs to be given to media literacy as a competence of the creative society and global citizenship education. In the global, multicultural world communication necessarily mediates different values and cultural behaviors and serves civilizations. Technology has been used for learning, training and education throughout history. Great civilizations and cultures have very different patterns of communication and use different senses in a different way. The lack of visions and spiritual debate on ethics and values in diversities and dialogue among civilizations has created a need to look at the deeper essence of communication and education with a new perspective of equity and higher humanity. We need social imagination and critical media competences for a global dialogue and to have a holistic perspective to the interrelations between civilizations, technology and literacies[17].
More attention should be given to the diversity of media cultures and the co-existence of different civilizations. Media literacy aims to develop both critical understanding of and active participation in the old and new media to create such communicative competences that would allow the use of modern technology. During the Renaissance the Europeans began to think of themselves into another culture and tradition. Now the civilizational challenges come from outside Europe. UNESCO has been promoting the credo of New Humanism which is not only theoretical but also practical approach needed for building a global education and media for the global civic society. A holistic vision of human communication and the future is needed for the new literacies and communication competences.[18]
References:
[1] https://www.netzoekonom.de/vortraege/
[2] Juan Somavia: The Transnational Power Structure and the International Information. Development Dialogue 2, 1976, p 15-28.
[3] http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000075/007560eo.pdf
[4] http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0006/000687/068746eo.pdf
[5] https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000052539
[6] Jeremy Tunstall: The Media are American, Columbia University Press; Copyright 1977 edition (1977)
[7] Jeremy Tunstall: The Media were American,U.S. Mass Media in Decline, Oxford University Press 2007.
[8] Oliver Boyd-Barrett: Media Imperialism, SAGE Publications Ltd 2014
[9] Divina Frau-Meigs: Developing a critical mind against fake news, The UNESCO Courier 2, 2017, p.12-15
[10] 1 Arnold Toynbee and Daisaku Ikeda: Choose Life, A Dialogue. Oxford University Press 1976, p.62
[11] Denis McQuail and Sven Windahl . Communication models for the study of mass communications (2nd ed.). New York: Longman, 1993,. pp. 13–15.
[12] Xu Xiaozhou:Towards Tri-Axis in Global Higher Education:The Rising of Asian Universities, World Universities Forum, 14-16 January 2011, Hong Kong
[13] Muhammad Abdus Salam: Notes on Science, Technology and Science Education in the Development of the South. The Third World Academy of Sciences, April 1990.
[14] Peter Kapitza: Global problems, international solutions. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, January 1981,p.40-42
[16] Julian Huxley: Unesco, itspurpose and its philosophy”, Public Affairs Press, Washington, D.C., 1948, p.4-6.
[17] https://iite.unesco.org/news/639368/
[18] Tapio Varis: Education for a New Humanism and ICT, EduAkcja. Magazyn edukacji elektronicznej
nr 1 (13)/2017, str. XX—XX
Related Posts
A piece by Tapio Varis
Professor emeritus, University of Tampere, Unesco Chair in Global e-learning
CIVILIZATIONAL APPROACH TO MEDIA LITERACY AND KNOWLEDGE
27th AMIC Annual Conference “Communication, Technology, and New Humanism”
17-19 June at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand
The new media and journalists are often believed to make knowledge out of the global flow of data and information. The global use of digital media and ICT network applications as well as rapid technological advancements in big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other emerging digital technologies have fundamentally changed the information and communication space all over the world. The global situation in the digital net economy in 2019 is well summarized by Dr, Holger Schmidt in Germany.[1] The dominance of American technology continue strong in the global analysis but is increasingly challenged by Asia but only to a minor extent by Europe.
In media and communication research we face the same situation as during the 1970´s in the debate on information and the international order. For example, a leading Chilean academic and diplomat Juan Somavia pointed out that world communications are controlled by three transnational power structures: a political-military-intelligence service dimension, economic-industrial-trade dimension, and communications-advertising-culture dimension.[2]
The international communication and media research followed this approach. UNESCO was a major initiator of relevant communion research and policy. Our world-wide surveys 1974[3] and 1984[4] demonstrated empirically the dominance of mainly American media in the international flow of television programmes and cultural industry.[5] International communication researchers like Jeremy Tunstall wrote a book with the title “The Media are American” (1977)[6] but later revised the title with a new book “The Media were American, U.S. Mass Media in Decline”(2008)[7]. Recently Oliver Boyd-Barrett revisited the classic concept of “Media Imperialism” (2014).[8]
New issues including the ownership of and using data, trust and privacy, human dignity and autonomy, increasing automation in decision-making processes, accountability and transparency of algorithms, etc. are compounded by the fact that only a dozen technology giants have a dominating role in the regulation and developments of the technology.[9]
That situation sets off alarm bells internationally prompting calls for meaningful regulations and ethical instruments to guide and shape technology developments in a human-centered way. The technological revolution and transformation of media environment also pose challenges for media and information literacy (MIL) education which is aimed to provide people with knowledge, skills, attitudes and competences that are needed to access, search, critically assess, use and contribute content wisely in order to successfully work and live in digital era. The core of MIL is a holistic approach including both rational, emotional and cultural awareness reflecting the values of different civilizational approaches rather than technical skills. However, within the conventional MIL education new technology implications are less debated while the potential of MIL is not being fully realized.The civilizational challenges of the 21st century are very well presented in the China Block Printing Museum at Yangzhou. There are three statutes representing the Great Minds of human history: Aristotle, Sakyamuni, and Confucius. They represent the contributions of different civilizations to the social, human, and technological progress of human history. The challenge of the 21st century is the dialogue among the civilizations.
Can we speak of global civilization? What is the role of the media in global education and in cultural diversities? The question of the world order and the trend towards global civilization has inspired scholars, communicators, educators and spiritual leaders to answer questions on how the world works. The traditional humanism is challenged by transhumanism that aims to transform the human condition by developing and creating widely available sophisticated technologies to enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. Science and technology are becoming the credo of the new order and new 21st century literacies are needed. However, as observed by an East Asian Daisaku Ikeda and Westerner Arnold Toynbee in their dialogue already in 1976, “today people are compelled to serve intellectual knowledge and technological skill, which are in turn controlled by politics and economies”. Instead, education should emphasize the inherent dignity and independence of learning.[10]
Communication is needed for consciousness raising. In addition to science and technology
the great issues for communication researchers have included the traditions of humanistic and spiritual thought and now the emerging ecological civilization.
Modern communication researchers discuss the role of ”stories” and ”story telling” in the new media and who dominates these activities. It is not very different from the traditional Lasswel´s model of communication “who says what in what channel and with what effect” (1948).[11] Today communication is no more linear and social media is more like flock behavior which is difficult to predict with the old models. There is a need to look at the cultural frameworks, civilizational and spiritual values of the communication flows.
In 2011 the World Universities Forum was held in The Hong Kong Institute of Education with the major focus on “Asia Rising and the Changing Architecture of Global Higher Education”. As explained by Professor Xu Xiaozhou, Dean of the College of Education, Zhejiang University, global higher education is in a huge stage for human development and civilization where universities in different countries and districts play various roles. Many people admire the excellence from the Europe and America: appraise their contributions to the global higher education and society in the past millennium. The ranking of world universities follows much the Western standards and is dominated by techno-scientific model of defining legitimate and productive knowledge. Xu concluded that Europe has experienced European civilization together with the development of capitalism for a long time. American civilization learned from European civilization to a certain extent. Asia used to have ancient civilization, which evolves throughout history. Comparing to western civilization, the concepts of science, democracy, humanity and harmony need to be improved in Asian universities development.[12]
According to Abdus Salam, a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics, science and technology are shared heritage of mankind and are cyclical in nature. He even believed in the joint endeavour in sciences becoming one of the unifying forces among the diverse peoples on this globe (Salam, 1990)[13]. Western dominance in science and technology emerges only after the 11th century A.D. In the great civilizations of Asia development in this respect is seen in the perspective of hundreds of years and the present globalization is viewed as a return to the normal.
Even though we have to concentrate much on the newly define global problems like the climate change the dangers in general were already identified during the cold war – especially by the nuclear scientists. Peter Kapitza, for example, wrote in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1981 about global problems and international solutions: ”Scientists must help the world to find common solutions to the global problems of nuclear war, environmental degradation and the depletion of the Earth´s resource. Humanity must first realize the magnitude and implications of the global crises”[14]
UNESCO Courier published a useful global approach to the concept of New Humanism in 2011. A Chinese expert Liu Ji, for example, observed that the Confucianists honor benevolence, the Mohists universal love, the Taoists compassion, and the Buddhists loving-kindness. As society evolves at high speed, the core values of Chinese civilization can be considered a blueprint for the development of universal harmony and, thus, new humanism. A Brazilian professor Cristovam Buarque explained that the humanist project means, among other things, promoting planetary politics and an ethical technical modernity.[15]
Julian Huxley, First DG of UNESCO 1946-48, was the main architect the new evolutionary synthesis. He brought up the concept of “higher humanity” where mankind is in charge of its own destiny and system of ethics. He wrote: ”Thus the general philosophy of Unesco should, it seems, be a scientific humanism, global in extent and evolutionary in background.” [16]
The UNESCO/IITE publication “Media Literacy and New Humanism” by Professor Jose Manuel Perez Tornero and Tapio Varis emphasized that special attention needs to be given to media literacy as a competence of the creative society and global citizenship education. In the global, multicultural world communication necessarily mediates different values and cultural behaviors and serves civilizations. Technology has been used for learning, training and education throughout history. Great civilizations and cultures have very different patterns of communication and use different senses in a different way. The lack of visions and spiritual debate on ethics and values in diversities and dialogue among civilizations has created a need to look at the deeper essence of communication and education with a new perspective of equity and higher humanity. We need social imagination and critical media competences for a global dialogue and to have a holistic perspective to the interrelations between civilizations, technology and literacies[17].
More attention should be given to the diversity of media cultures and the co-existence of different civilizations. Media literacy aims to develop both critical understanding of and active participation in the old and new media to create such communicative competences that would allow the use of modern technology. During the Renaissance the Europeans began to think of themselves into another culture and tradition. Now the civilizational challenges come from outside Europe. UNESCO has been promoting the credo of New Humanism which is not only theoretical but also practical approach needed for building a global education and media for the global civic society. A holistic vision of human communication and the future is needed for the new literacies and communication competences.[18]
References:
[1] https://www.netzoekonom.de/vortraege/
[2] Juan Somavia: The Transnational Power Structure and the International Information. Development Dialogue 2, 1976, p 15-28.
[3] http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000075/007560eo.pdf
[4] http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0006/000687/068746eo.pdf
[5] https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000052539
[6] Jeremy Tunstall: The Media are American, Columbia University Press; Copyright 1977 edition (1977)
[7] Jeremy Tunstall: The Media were American,U.S. Mass Media in Decline, Oxford University Press 2007.
[8] Oliver Boyd-Barrett: Media Imperialism, SAGE Publications Ltd 2014
[9] Divina Frau-Meigs: Developing a critical mind against fake news, The UNESCO Courier 2, 2017, p.12-15
[10] 1 Arnold Toynbee and Daisaku Ikeda: Choose Life, A Dialogue. Oxford University Press 1976, p.62
[11] Denis McQuail and Sven Windahl . Communication models for the study of mass communications (2nd ed.). New York: Longman, 1993,. pp. 13–15.
[12] Xu Xiaozhou:Towards Tri-Axis in Global Higher Education:The Rising of Asian Universities, World Universities Forum, 14-16 January 2011, Hong Kong
[13] Muhammad Abdus Salam: Notes on Science, Technology and Science Education in the Development of the South. The Third World Academy of Sciences, April 1990.
[14] Peter Kapitza: Global problems, international solutions. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, January 1981,p.40-42
[16] Julian Huxley: Unesco, itspurpose and its philosophy”, Public Affairs Press, Washington, D.C., 1948, p.4-6.
[17] https://iite.unesco.org/news/639368/
[18] Tapio Varis: Education for a New Humanism and ICT, EduAkcja. Magazyn edukacji elektronicznej
nr 1 (13)/2017, str. XX—XX
Related Posts
A piece by Tapio Varis
Professor emeritus, University of Tampere, Unesco Chair in Global e-learning
CIVILIZATIONAL APPROACH TO MEDIA LITERACY AND KNOWLEDGE
27th AMIC Annual Conference “Communication, Technology, and New Humanism”
17-19 June at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand
The new media and journalists are often believed to make knowledge out of the global flow of data and information. The global use of digital media and ICT network applications as well as rapid technological advancements in big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other emerging digital technologies have fundamentally changed the information and communication space all over the world. The global situation in the digital net economy in 2019 is well summarized by Dr, Holger Schmidt in Germany.[1] The dominance of American technology continue strong in the global analysis but is increasingly challenged by Asia but only to a minor extent by Europe.
In media and communication research we face the same situation as during the 1970´s in the debate on information and the international order. For example, a leading Chilean academic and diplomat Juan Somavia pointed out that world communications are controlled by three transnational power structures: a political-military-intelligence service dimension, economic-industrial-trade dimension, and communications-advertising-culture dimension.[2]
The international communication and media research followed this approach. UNESCO was a major initiator of relevant communion research and policy. Our world-wide surveys 1974[3] and 1984[4] demonstrated empirically the dominance of mainly American media in the international flow of television programmes and cultural industry.[5] International communication researchers like Jeremy Tunstall wrote a book with the title “The Media are American” (1977)[6] but later revised the title with a new book “The Media were American, U.S. Mass Media in Decline”(2008)[7]. Recently Oliver Boyd-Barrett revisited the classic concept of “Media Imperialism” (2014).[8]
New issues including the ownership of and using data, trust and privacy, human dignity and autonomy, increasing automation in decision-making processes, accountability and transparency of algorithms, etc. are compounded by the fact that only a dozen technology giants have a dominating role in the regulation and developments of the technology.[9]
That situation sets off alarm bells internationally prompting calls for meaningful regulations and ethical instruments to guide and shape technology developments in a human-centered way. The technological revolution and transformation of media environment also pose challenges for media and information literacy (MIL) education which is aimed to provide people with knowledge, skills, attitudes and competences that are needed to access, search, critically assess, use and contribute content wisely in order to successfully work and live in digital era. The core of MIL is a holistic approach including both rational, emotional and cultural awareness reflecting the values of different civilizational approaches rather than technical skills. However, within the conventional MIL education new technology implications are less debated while the potential of MIL is not being fully realized.The civilizational challenges of the 21st century are very well presented in the China Block Printing Museum at Yangzhou. There are three statutes representing the Great Minds of human history: Aristotle, Sakyamuni, and Confucius. They represent the contributions of different civilizations to the social, human, and technological progress of human history. The challenge of the 21st century is the dialogue among the civilizations.
Can we speak of global civilization? What is the role of the media in global education and in cultural diversities? The question of the world order and the trend towards global civilization has inspired scholars, communicators, educators and spiritual leaders to answer questions on how the world works. The traditional humanism is challenged by transhumanism that aims to transform the human condition by developing and creating widely available sophisticated technologies to enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. Science and technology are becoming the credo of the new order and new 21st century literacies are needed. However, as observed by an East Asian Daisaku Ikeda and Westerner Arnold Toynbee in their dialogue already in 1976, “today people are compelled to serve intellectual knowledge and technological skill, which are in turn controlled by politics and economies”. Instead, education should emphasize the inherent dignity and independence of learning.[10]
Communication is needed for consciousness raising. In addition to science and technology
the great issues for communication researchers have included the traditions of humanistic and spiritual thought and now the emerging ecological civilization.
Modern communication researchers discuss the role of ”stories” and ”story telling” in the new media and who dominates these activities. It is not very different from the traditional Lasswel´s model of communication “who says what in what channel and with what effect” (1948).[11] Today communication is no more linear and social media is more like flock behavior which is difficult to predict with the old models. There is a need to look at the cultural frameworks, civilizational and spiritual values of the communication flows.
In 2011 the World Universities Forum was held in The Hong Kong Institute of Education with the major focus on “Asia Rising and the Changing Architecture of Global Higher Education”. As explained by Professor Xu Xiaozhou, Dean of the College of Education, Zhejiang University, global higher education is in a huge stage for human development and civilization where universities in different countries and districts play various roles. Many people admire the excellence from the Europe and America: appraise their contributions to the global higher education and society in the past millennium. The ranking of world universities follows much the Western standards and is dominated by techno-scientific model of defining legitimate and productive knowledge. Xu concluded that Europe has experienced European civilization together with the development of capitalism for a long time. American civilization learned from European civilization to a certain extent. Asia used to have ancient civilization, which evolves throughout history. Comparing to western civilization, the concepts of science, democracy, humanity and harmony need to be improved in Asian universities development.[12]
According to Abdus Salam, a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics, science and technology are shared heritage of mankind and are cyclical in nature. He even believed in the joint endeavour in sciences becoming one of the unifying forces among the diverse peoples on this globe (Salam, 1990)[13]. Western dominance in science and technology emerges only after the 11th century A.D. In the great civilizations of Asia development in this respect is seen in the perspective of hundreds of years and the present globalization is viewed as a return to the normal.
Even though we have to concentrate much on the newly define global problems like the climate change the dangers in general were already identified during the cold war – especially by the nuclear scientists. Peter Kapitza, for example, wrote in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1981 about global problems and international solutions: ”Scientists must help the world to find common solutions to the global problems of nuclear war, environmental degradation and the depletion of the Earth´s resource. Humanity must first realize the magnitude and implications of the global crises”[14]
UNESCO Courier published a useful global approach to the concept of New Humanism in 2011. A Chinese expert Liu Ji, for example, observed that the Confucianists honor benevolence, the Mohists universal love, the Taoists compassion, and the Buddhists loving-kindness. As society evolves at high speed, the core values of Chinese civilization can be considered a blueprint for the development of universal harmony and, thus, new humanism. A Brazilian professor Cristovam Buarque explained that the humanist project means, among other things, promoting planetary politics and an ethical technical modernity.[15]
Julian Huxley, First DG of UNESCO 1946-48, was the main architect the new evolutionary synthesis. He brought up the concept of “higher humanity” where mankind is in charge of its own destiny and system of ethics. He wrote: ”Thus the general philosophy of Unesco should, it seems, be a scientific humanism, global in extent and evolutionary in background.” [16]
The UNESCO/IITE publication “Media Literacy and New Humanism” by Professor Jose Manuel Perez Tornero and Tapio Varis emphasized that special attention needs to be given to media literacy as a competence of the creative society and global citizenship education. In the global, multicultural world communication necessarily mediates different values and cultural behaviors and serves civilizations. Technology has been used for learning, training and education throughout history. Great civilizations and cultures have very different patterns of communication and use different senses in a different way. The lack of visions and spiritual debate on ethics and values in diversities and dialogue among civilizations has created a need to look at the deeper essence of communication and education with a new perspective of equity and higher humanity. We need social imagination and critical media competences for a global dialogue and to have a holistic perspective to the interrelations between civilizations, technology and literacies[17].
More attention should be given to the diversity of media cultures and the co-existence of different civilizations. Media literacy aims to develop both critical understanding of and active participation in the old and new media to create such communicative competences that would allow the use of modern technology. During the Renaissance the Europeans began to think of themselves into another culture and tradition. Now the civilizational challenges come from outside Europe. UNESCO has been promoting the credo of New Humanism which is not only theoretical but also practical approach needed for building a global education and media for the global civic society. A holistic vision of human communication and the future is needed for the new literacies and communication competences.[18]
References:
[1] https://www.netzoekonom.de/vortraege/
[2] Juan Somavia: The Transnational Power Structure and the International Information. Development Dialogue 2, 1976, p 15-28.
[3] http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000075/007560eo.pdf
[4] http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0006/000687/068746eo.pdf
[5] https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000052539
[6] Jeremy Tunstall: The Media are American, Columbia University Press; Copyright 1977 edition (1977)
[7] Jeremy Tunstall: The Media were American,U.S. Mass Media in Decline, Oxford University Press 2007.
[8] Oliver Boyd-Barrett: Media Imperialism, SAGE Publications Ltd 2014
[9] Divina Frau-Meigs: Developing a critical mind against fake news, The UNESCO Courier 2, 2017, p.12-15
[10] 1 Arnold Toynbee and Daisaku Ikeda: Choose Life, A Dialogue. Oxford University Press 1976, p.62
[11] Denis McQuail and Sven Windahl . Communication models for the study of mass communications (2nd ed.). New York: Longman, 1993,. pp. 13–15.
[12] Xu Xiaozhou:Towards Tri-Axis in Global Higher Education:The Rising of Asian Universities, World Universities Forum, 14-16 January 2011, Hong Kong
[13] Muhammad Abdus Salam: Notes on Science, Technology and Science Education in the Development of the South. The Third World Academy of Sciences, April 1990.
[14] Peter Kapitza: Global problems, international solutions. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, January 1981,p.40-42
[16] Julian Huxley: Unesco, itspurpose and its philosophy”, Public Affairs Press, Washington, D.C., 1948, p.4-6.
[17] https://iite.unesco.org/news/639368/
[18] Tapio Varis: Education for a New Humanism and ICT, EduAkcja. Magazyn edukacji elektronicznej
nr 1 (13)/2017, str. XX—XX
