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MDI online session entitled “African, Asian and European Gen Z digital activism: what’s different? why now? where next?” was organised on 31 October 2024 from 5.00 until 6.15 PM Jordan time (GMT+3)
This event was part of Global Media and Information Literacy Week Feature Conference 2024 titled “The new digital frontiers of information – Media and Information literacy for Public Interest Information” hosted by UNESCO and the Hashemite Kingdom on 30-31 October 2024 in Amman, Jordan.
Our panel
For members of Generation Z (Gen Z), people born between 1997 and 2012, being a young activist today means using digital tools to gather people online and offline and to amplify voices to call for government action. Recent protests in Africa, Europe and Asia as in Bangladesh have demonstrated the creation of inclusive and intersectional coalitions led by youths using sophisticated digital tools to strengthen their messages and, in the case of Bangladesh, go as far as toppling a government. In this context, MDI’s panel will explore digital media literacy and compare youth digital activism, its impact and challenges in different geographies.
Discussions focused on:
- Understanding the power of digital media literacy and youth online movements in Africa and Europe.
- Exploring how online actions can be translated into real-world changes.
- Discussing digital activism as a powerful force for diverse voices, promoting inclusivity and intersectionality.
- Addressing the drawbacks of using the digital space for activism.
Our moderator :
Milica Pesic, Executive Director at Media Diversity Institute, UK.
Milica Pesic has been working in diversity and the media field for 25 years designing and supervising multi-national, multi-annual programmes in Europe, NIS, MENA, South Asia, the Sahel, Sub-Sahara, West Africa, China and Cuba. She has co-designed an MA Course in Diversity and the Media which was jointly run by MDI and the University of Westminster. A Journalist by profession, she has reported for the BBC, Radio Free Europe, the Times HES, TV Serbia, and other media. She holds an MA in International Journalism from City University, London. Prior to MDI, she worked for New York University, the IFJ (Brussels), and the Alternative Information Network (Paris). MDI has branches in the US, Western Balkans, Belgium and South Caucasus.
Our panellists :
Participant 1: Olunifesi Adekunle Suraj is Professor of Strategic Communication, Disinformation and Digital Media Literacy, at the Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Social Science, University of Lagos in Nigeria.
Dr Olunifesi Adekunle Suraj is a New/Digital/Social Media Thought Leader, an ICT & Multimedia Consultant and a Knowledge/Intellectual Capital Management Expert who has been at the vanguard of promoting Internet Neutrality and Cyber Safety for the past 2 decades. He is the Executive Director of African Center for Media and Intercultural Dialogue (ACMID) and founding executive member of Media and Information Literacy Coalition of Nigeria (MILCON). He is one of the leading African scholars and thought leaders on Media and Information Literacy. He serves as a member of UNESCO/UN Global Expert Group on addressing hate speech through Education and UNESCO committee member on disinformation and fake new.
Dr Olunifesi is the present National Coordinator of the UNESCO-initiated Universities Network on Media and Information Literacy (African Chapter), and also the UNESCO National Coordinator for Media and Information Literacy’s Curriculum intervention in Nigerian Universities.
Participant 2: Ivana Jelaca is the Executive Director at Media Diversity Institute Western Balkans, Serbia.
Ivana Jelaca is running Media Diversity Institute Western Balkans, MDI’s sister organisation. MDI WB activities are strongly focused on young people’s media and digital literacy skills, to build their active civic participation, as well as resilience to polarisation, and narratives of divide. Ivana holds an MA in Diversity and the Media from the University of Westminster and has been working for the past ten years in the field of media and diversity, hate speech, and media literacy, running multi-annual, multinational programmes. Ivana is also a media literacy and hate speech trainer, who strongly believes in the importance of social equity and gender equality.
Participant 3: Hana Kojakovic is a Project Manager at the Media Diversity Institute / Media Diversity Institute Global.
Hana Kojakovic is a project manager with several years of experience in the civil society and social media sector. Hana is currently managing two projects within the Media Diversity Institute. One of these projects, Get the Trolls Out! is led by MDI alongside 6 partner organisations. It aims to combat discrimination and intolerance on religious grounds in Europe. The second project, Reporting Diversity Network focuses on effectively influencing media representation of ethnicity, gender and religion in the Western Balkans. Hana’s work predominantly focuses on equality, diversity and combating hate speech in the offline and online media landscape. She has experience in monitoring and evaluation as well as project development and fundraising.
Participant 4 :Yazan Abu Al Rous is a Project Manager at the Media Diversity Institute.
A social entrepreneur and consultant, Yazan has been working in media, sustainability, and business development with several national, regional and International organizations in the MENA region. He is currently managing The Salam online project on countering hate speech in social media, and the first comedy and satire training project in the MENA region. Yazan has over 15 years of experience in business development, fundraising, and project management. Yazan holds an MBA with a focus on product development from Cardiff Metropolitan University in the U.K. and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Hashemite University in Jordan.
Participant 5 : Raheed Ejaz is a diplomatic correspondent at Daily Prothom Alo
Raheed Ejaz is a special correspondent at Prothom Alo, Bangladesh’s largest Bangla daily, covering foreign affairs, geopolitics, and human rights for over 22 years. As a diplomatic correspondent since 2009, his reporting spans key issues like migration and trade, with appearances on TV and contributions to multiple Bangladeshi outlets. A US State Department IVLP alumnus, Raheed also lectures on humanitarian diplomacy and has co-authored works on topics such as the Rohingya crisis.
Commemorated every year on 24 – 31 October, Global Media and Information Literacy Week is a major occasion for mobilizing worldwide stakeholders to raise awareness, increase national take-up and celebrate the progress achieved towards Media and Information Literacy for all. The theme of Global MIL Week 2024 is “The new digital frontiers of information: Media and Information Literacy for public-interest information”.
This year’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week Conference will be hosted by UNESCO and the Hashemite Kingdom on 30-31 October 2024 in Amman, Jordan. It will address the transformative impact of emerging technologies such as Generative Artificial Intelligence and the new generation of digital content creators on the production and dissemination of public-interest information, highlighting both opportunities and risks. It will underline the need to empower users with tailored skills to identify, assess and engage with public-interest information online.