*CFP* “MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY AND SUSTAINABLE FUTURES”, SPECIAL ISSUE, SUSTAINABILITY JOURNAL

Sustainability can be construed in many different ways. Currently, much attention has been paid to the viability of business models, demographic changes in audiences, and their migration into online communities. In this context, Media Education (ME) has been used as a tool for “coping” with transversal insertion in subject matters; however, opportunities for its full-scale implementation in the curricula of schools and universities are rare.

However, more recently, information opportunities (hyper-connectedness, data reporting analysis, reliability, consistency and accuracy, improved data storage, data management and retrieval, innovation) and information disorders (radicalization, “fake news”, hate speech) have caught centre stage. Changes in education are thus becoming crucial, with ME being presented as one of the soft skills of the 21st century. Information is crucial to sustainability (the coordination of activities, the re-engineering of work practices, public accountability, networking, environmental reporting, creativity). In this new context, sustainability requires, thus, a new information ecology. In 1987, the Brundtland report described sustainable development based on the three interconnected dimensions of environment, society, and economy. This new context calls for information as a fourth axial dimension that structures all of the others. This information ecology also calls for open public spaces to express major concerns for the future, such as climate change, digital pollution, (cyber)terrorism, and forced mobility.

This Special Issue proposes to examine the nature of this change and suggest ways forward. It will focus on new attitudes towards information, including the greater need for critical approaches that allow us to share it more than consume it. In particular, it will examine the potential shift from sustainability to sustaining/sustainable democracy as well as the educational challenges that come along with it, in particular teacher and student training to participate in public discourse and express their views (including by creating their own media). New avenues to move beyond passive media consumption and enable active civic engagement will be explored.

How can ME contribute to sustainable democratic societies? What are the information needs of learners, citizens, and their communities to ensure a sustainable future? How are we to understand the role of ME in shaping global issues, such as the environment, immigration, health, and related education in gender, race, and social inclusion? What are the challenges for media educators, decision-makers, and the media themselves?

Contributors are invited to deal with one or more of the following themes:

• criteria and indicators for sustainable Media Education (ME) (capacity building, resilience, empathy);
• the ability to modify resources and resource formats;
• “old-fashioned” media and their utility;
• MIL, sustainable accessibility;
• issues of localization (such as cultural relevance and language) and content contribution and transfer;
• learner skills and mindset (engagement, participation, contribution);
• implementation of practices that replicate educational resources and
• invite continuous stakeholder improvement;
• sharing knowledge within and across mass and social media;
• media education and its business model;
• the role of actors (teachers, libraries, platforms, etc.);
• the relevance of inclusiveness, openness, and interconnectedness;
• ME’s contribution to the information commons;
• multi-stakeholderism and global change;
• transliteracy for sustainable futures (mobility, intercultural stakes, etc.); and
• ME and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Papers can be theoretical or experience-based. Preference will be given to ethical and critical approaches.

Manuscript Submission Information

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 29 February 2020

Manuscripts should be submitted online by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click hereto go to the submission form.

Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. 

Instructions for Authors 

Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Special Issue Editors

Guest Editor: Dr. Divina Frau-Meigs, Digital Humanities Dpt, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris 75005, France

Guest Editor: Dr. Irma Velez, Department of Spanish, ESPE, Sorbonne University, Paris 75016, France