13 March 2019
Country: Macedonia
We are thrilled to share that our “Media Literacy in the Age of News Overabundance” (MAMIL) project in Macedonia, led by The School of Journalism and Public Relations in partnership with Nova Makedonija) has been selected by the European Commission as one of the top ten media and information literacy projects in Europe.
The project will be recognized along with the nine other projects at next week’s “Informed Citizens in the Digital Age” conference during next week’s European Media Literacy Week in Brussels, Belgium. Three of the ten projects will be selected to receive awards recognizing the most innovative, educational and greatest potential among the projects.
Given the enormous amount of high-quality media and information literacy projects happening across Europe, Media Diversity Institute considers this recognition an enormous honour.In our eyes, “MAMIL” is a perfect example of a media and information literacy success story. Over the past three years, our partners in Macedonia have worked with high school students to organize media and information literacy after school camps and contests, and publish the high school newspaper, “Medium.”
“We not only taught them and tried to promote the media literacy, as a way in which we will be able to understand the media productions, to critically perceive them, but also how to use the media content and how to create specific media content that will contribute towards building a civil and democratic society,” said Zaneta Trajkoska, Director of the School for Journalism and Public Relations.
In addition to teaching the foundations of media literacy and journalism production, MAMIL trained students to cover special interest groups and underrepresented minorities with consideration and care, inspiring them to use their platform to raise awareness about certain diseases and disabilities.
“Medium is the only place where we can express what is happening to young people in our society,” said one of the participants, in a video describing the student newspaper, which has twenty-four editions.
“It is what helped me know that I want to become a journalist.”
In the context of Macedonia, this work is particularly meaningful.
“Media literate citizens who make informed decisions are an indispensable precondition for achieving a participatory, truly democratic society,” says Media Diversity Institute’s Ivana Jelača, who leads projects operating out of the Western Balkans.
“In transitional societies, such as Macedonia, a switch from citizens who are passive recipients to citizens who are active participants in a public debate is an important step,” she continues. “Through several clusters of activities working with each stakeholder separately, we were finally able to build a coalition that paved the way for MIL to become a mainstream in school curriculums, media studies and civil society work.”
To learn more about MAMIL, click here. To check out the Medium website, click here.
