Miss Illinois Leads Media Literacy Week Challenge on TikTok

Miss Illinois promotes media literacy week
Media literacy TikTok Challenge for Illinois high school students featuring awards from Columbia College Chicago announced

For the upcoming Media Literacy Week, October 25-30, the Illinois Media Literacy Coalition (ILMLC) together with Columbia College Chicago and Northwestern University will be taking submissions for the Miss Illinois 2021 “I am MediaLIT, are you?” TikTok Challenge. Illinois teens in grades 9-12 can display their creativity with a video explaining what is media literacy and how it manifests through their day as they produce a TikTok video with the hashtag #ILMediaLit. The winners will be announced two weeks later on November 9th at Columbia College Chicago.  

With the recent legislation of Public Act 102-0055 requiring every high school in the state to teach a unit of media literacy starting next school year, Dr. Yonty Friesem from Columbia College Chicago and Michael A. Spikes, a doctoral candidate from Northwestern University, founded the Illinois Media Literacy Coalition this September. “We are already bringing many educational stakeholders and educators together to start talking about how we can support this innovative legislation that positions Illinois as the leading state in advancing media literacy,” said Dr. Friesem. As part of their efforts, Friesem and Spikes authored a framework for media literacy that explains what media literacy is and why it matters. “We want to offer educators a broad understanding of what media literacy is as they prepare to implement it in classrooms,” said Spikes. “This isn’t a new curriculum. We want to instead affirm teachers’ existing practices while giving them opportunities for growth in the discipline.” 

Submissions will be open on Monday, October 25th and will close on Friday night to end Media Literacy Week. To submit, please see the online form www.ilmlc.org/submissions. A review committee of the ILMLC will judge the submissions to decide on the most compelling videos to win the various awards including three renewable scholarships for high school seniors who want to attend Columbia College Chicago and three cash awards for high school students donated by Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. 

To see the entries, you can search the hashtag #ILMediaLit on TikTok and follow up on the Illinois Media Literacy Coalition website: ilmlc.org. The winning entries will also be posted on Hanson’s Instagram account, @missamericail. 


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The Illinois Media Literacy Coalition is a newly founded collective of teachers, librarians, administrators, practitioners and scholars who want to support the implementation of IL Public Act 102-0055, requiring media literacy units to be taught in Illinois high schools. Through guidance and training, ILMLC will advance media literacy education in the State of Illinois, For more information visit ilmlc.org 


Columbia College Chicago is a private, non-profit urban institution offering a distinctive curriculum that blends creative arts, media, liberal arts, and business for nearly 7,000 students in more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Dedicated to academic excellence and long-term career success, Columbia College Chicago creates a dynamic, challenging, and collaborative space for students who experience the world through a creative lens. For more information, visit www.colum.edu.

MEDIA INQUIRIES

Yonty Friesem

yfriesem@colum.edu
312-767-7628

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