Scope:
Promoting media education and critical consumption of the press
Activities:
- Campaign to promote media education curriculum in schools
On June 23, the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) organized a debate with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Education and of district directorates of education, teachers of pre-university educational institutions and media experts during which the study Development of Media Culture through Appropriate Media Education was presented. The study analyzes introducing media education in schools. Subsequently, the IJC formed a working group that developed a curriculum for primary school.
- “Fifth Power” Hackathon
From July 1 to 3, the IJC organized the second “Fifth Power” Hackathon, wherein participants worked on developing ideas for projects and applications promoting media literacy. Of the total number of participants, 80 were from Moldova, 5 from Ukraine, 4 from Georgia and 1 from Armenia. Among them were information technology developers, programmers, journalists, designers, bloggers, civic activists and media consumers.
Over the three days, teams worked on applications that would help media consumers filter information and detect manipulation.
In the end, the three teams that obtained the highest scores from the jury were designated the winners of prizes worth 2,000 euros each to implement their ideas.
- DIY News (Do It Yourself News). This platform will be available to Internet users to produce their own video news.
- Trolless. This app detects so-called trolls’ fake profiles on social networks. It can be used by installing a plugin specifically created by the authors of the application.
- Caucasus Hack Pack (Georgia and Armenia). The team intends to develop an interactive game to help the students detect manipulation and think critically. Teachers will test students’ knowledge before and after they use the app which will teach them to identify manipulative pictures and videos and about the credibility of sources among others.
Results:
Through this project, the IJC continued its efforts to promote media education. A media education curriculum for primary school was developed as a result of the advocacy campaign conducted by the IJC. Three apps were created at the “Fifth Power” Hackathon. They will help media consumers to more easily identify manipulation trends in the media, to avoid disinformation and to create their own news.
