O Literacy, Media and Citizenship Congress, also abbreviated as the LMC Congress, began to be prepared in 2010 by the founding members of GILM, in conjunction with UMIC – Knowledge Society Agency and the Ministry of Education, and was held on March 25 and 26, 2011, in Braga. At the time, GILM didn’t see him as having the continuity that he would end up having. In other words, the Braga congress was the first edition of an initiative that the Group considers to be one of its brand images.
AN INITIATIVE BASED ON A 3-PRONGED APPROACH
Literacy, Media and Citizenship are three defining pillars of media education. This is why the Group has chosen the three pillars of this initiative. As an obligation: they must be understood as a whole. In other words, literacy will not be addressed without talking about media and citizenship and vice versa.
From the fourth edition onwards, after three more generalist editions (i.e. exploring a multiplicity of themes and subjects), GILM began to add the “emphasis on editing” to the three axes. The aim of this strategy was to allow for greater depth in this more specific focus.
“Towards a new awareness of public space” – fourth edition
“Technology, Disinformation and Ethics” – fifth edition
“Digital Transition and Public Policies” – sixth edition
FREQUENCY AND GEOGRAPHICAL REACH
The good reception given to the Braga Congress by many of those involved/interested in promoting media literacy, combined with one of the ten objectives/proposals of the Braga Declaration – Media Literacy – “To carry out nationwide, wide-ranging initiatives that encourage citizens and institutions to reflect on and debate the media we have”, would dictate that the congress be held in the future every two years. The exception was the sixth edition, which would only return in 2023 (the fifth was in 2019), due to the Group’s decision not to carry out the initiative in times of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In terms of scope, the exclusively national congress quickly began to explore international scope as well.
LMC CONGRESS LOGOS
The congress logos reflect the evolution of the initiative (in the informal style of the Group), with the one for the first edition standing out completely from the rest. From the second edition onwards, GILM adopted the molecule-shaped logo, which has taken on different shades and, most recently, a redefinition of the original lines. From the fifth edition onwards, the Arabic numbering is replaced by Roman numerals.
