Media literacy can help counter the effects of infodemics and misinformation, including fake news and hate speech, said speaker Felipe Chibás during his presentation at IFE Conference 2025.
Chibás, a professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and recipient of UNESCO’s 2023 Global Media and Information Literacy Award, is a leading advocate of the MIL Cities concept (Media and Information Literacy Cities)— a model that can also be applied in smaller urban areas and higher education institutions.
He explained that the concept aims to educate an entire city (or a university population) through media literacy, integrating critical thinking, creativity, and ethical use of technology.
Chibás expressed concern that while technology has rapidly advanced, ethics and other social frameworks have not kept pace.
For example, today, people are increasingly tied to digital devices and emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence, which, while becoming more visible and widespread, has also contributed to a rise in attacks against women, he noted.
Media Literacy in Universities
Chibás emphasized that in the “post-human” era, people exist in a blend of physical and digital realities. Yet, they lack the necessary balance—affecting how they interact.
As a solution, he proposes the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) model, developed in collaboration with UNESCO. This approach encourages critical and creative thinking while promoting diversity in communication that transcends cultural barriers, including those related to gender, religion, age, language, and other differences that often manifest as fake news, hate speech, and post-truth narratives.
Media literacy involves accessing, analyzing, and critically evaluating content to help individuals determine reliable information, fostering a digital society capable of resisting misinformation.
This is a defining characteristic of MIL Cities, a model that can also be applied in universities integrating new technologies for human development and broader urban growth. “It’s about merging technology—such as artificial intelligence—with the human element, emphasizing ethics and dismantling cultural barriers,” Chibás explained.
By implementing this model—with its specific indicators and metrics—universities can contribute to social transformation in a hybrid reality that merges the digital and physical worlds.
Moreover, the initiative promotes lifelong learning within universities, equipping students and educators with essential skills for navigating hybrid environments. These include understanding the role of information sources, ensuring digital security and privacy, responding to hate speech, verifying data, synthesizing information, and communicating critically.
“For example, in Argentina, we conducted a study with 420 teachers to map how these competencies are expressed. We then built an AI-based system with different profiles to design teaching strategies for developing and reinforcing these skills,” he said.
At the University of São Paulo, this discipline has already been incorporated into master’s and doctoral programs, enabling students to assess cities and implement evaluation metrics.
To fully realize this vision, key players in MIL Cities—including businesses, citizens, academia, governments, and artists—must work together.
Were you interested in this story? Do you want to publish it? Contact our content editor to learn more about marianaleonm@tec.mx
