We All Play a Part: Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2026
Media and information literacy is becoming an increasingly important part of everyday life. This October, UNESCO’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week will bring people and organisations around the world together around a simple idea: we all have a part to play.
Every day, we make decisions about information.
What do we read? What do we watch? Which sources do we trust? What do we share? Who gets heard? And how do we distinguish information that helps us understand the world from content designed primarily to attract attention, persuade or influence?
These questions are at the heart of Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2026, taking place from 24 to 31 October.
This year’s theme is:
“We All Play a Part – Media and Information Literacy for the People.”
UNESCO is taking a deliberately decentralised and participatory approach this year, with regional and thematic events taking place around the world. Rather than putting the focus in one place, the programme recognises the many different people and organisations that shape today’s information environment.
A global conversation
The programme brings together an unusually broad range of perspectives.
In Nairobi, digital content creators will explore their role in building a healthier information ecosystem.
In New Delhi, educators, policymakers and experts will look at media and information literacy in formal education.
Chișinău will host a multistakeholder discussion, while Bishkek will focus on policymakers and MIL.
In Jakarta, attention turns to parents and caregivers and the role they can play in helping children and young people navigate the digital environment.
The MIL Cities programme will explore what media and information literacy can mean at a local level, while events in Cairo and Montreal will bring academic and research communities into the conversation.
There will also be a regional focus in Africa and Latin America, alongside other activities taking place throughout the Week.
The result is less a single conference than a connected global conversation.
Why does this matter?
Media and information literacy covers the skills and understanding people need to search for, access, evaluate, use and contribute to information and media content.
That sounds straightforward.
But the environment in which we do those things is becoming increasingly complicated.
News and journalism now sit alongside social platforms, podcasts, video creators, influencers, recommendation systems, advertising, artificial intelligence and an enormous amount of user-generated content.
The challenge isn’t simply the amount of information available.
It is understanding how information is produced, why it reaches us, what evidence sits behind it and how our own assumptions can affect the way we interpret it.
UNESCO describes MIL as encompassing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that enable people to navigate today’s information and communications environment, while also supporting participation, dialogue and freedom of expression.
Everyone has a role
That’s what makes this year’s theme particularly interesting.
Media and information literacy isn’t only the responsibility of journalists.
Educators help people develop the confidence to question and explore.
Parents and caregivers help younger people navigate an increasingly digital world.
Content creators influence what people encounter and how ideas are presented.
Researchers and academics contribute evidence and knowledge.
Policymakers and regulators shape the wider information environment.
Cities and communities can create spaces where people engage with information and one another.
And audiences themselves are not passive.
Every time we read, question, discuss, create or share something, we play a part.
The role of young people
One of the most interesting elements of Global MIL Week 2026 is the emphasis on participation rather than simply education.
UNESCO’s 2026 Youth Hackathon brought together more than 2,200 youth teams from 130 countries, with young people developing creative responses to contemporary media and information challenges. Four winning teams will present their projects at the Voices Festival in Thessaloniki in November.
That reflects an important shift.
Young people aren’t simply audiences who need to be taught how to navigate the information environment. They are also creators, participants and contributors to its future.
You can play a part too
Perhaps the most important part of this year’s Global MIL Week is the invitation to participate.
The programme isn’t simply asking people to attend an event or listen to experts. UNESCO is encouraging people and organisations around the world to think about what role they can play in strengthening media and information literacy.
That could mean an educator bringing MIL into the classroom. A content creator thinking carefully about the information they share. A parent helping a young person navigate the digital world. A journalist making complex information clearer. A researcher sharing knowledge beyond their own discipline. A community creating opportunities for people to talk, question and learn together.
Or it could simply mean each of us becoming a little more thoughtful about the information we encounter and pass on.
UNESCO is also inviting people to join its “We All Play a Part” campaign, sharing a message, activity or commitment around media and information literacy using #WeAllPlayAPart and #GlobalMILWeek.
There is also an invitation for organisations running MIL activities during September, October or November to register them as part of Global MIL Week.
The message is simple: you don’t have to be a media specialist to take part.
You are already part of the information environment.
What you read, create, question, discuss and share all contributes to it.
A natural connection
For OnePoint5Media, this conversation has a particular resonance.
Our work through OnePoint5Media and Innovators Magazine has always involved trying to make complex ideas more accessible — through journalism, interviews, publishing, education, workshops and conversations across different sectors.
We’ve worked with people from business, research, education, policy, creativity and young emerging talent, often exploring questions around innovation, sustainability and the future.
At the centre of much of that work is a relatively simple question:
How do we help more people understand important ideas well enough to engage with them?
That is one of the reasons we are particularly pleased to have recently joined the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance.
Being part of the Alliance gives us an opportunity to connect with a much wider international community working on these questions, while bringing our own experience from journalism, publishing, communications and education into the conversation.
We all play a part
There is perhaps something refreshing about the simplicity of this year’s message.
It doesn’t say that one group has all the answers.
It recognises that the information environment belongs to all of us — and that improving it requires contributions from many different perspectives.
Media and information literacy isn’t simply about becoming better consumers of information.
It is about becoming more confident participants.
People who can question.
People who can create.
People who can listen to perspectives different from their own.
People who can share responsibly.
And people who can help others navigate an increasingly complex world of information.
This October, Global Media and Information Literacy Week will bring that conversation to communities and organisations around the world.
We all play a part.
And perhaps the most important question is what part each of us chooses to play.
Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2026
24–31 October 2026
