Youth Media Lab: Over 300 Young People Trained in Media Literacy

The project “Youth Media Lab” is implemented by the Civic Tracks Association, which has been working the field of youth activism, media and human rights for more than 20 years.

Over 300 young people from Pelagonia strengthened their knowledge in the field of media literacy, after attending workshops, trainings and a mentoring program conducted by professional journalists and IT expert. As part of the “Youth Media Lab” project, a Media Literacy Video Course was also created. The course is available on the educational platform Medialab.mk, which was developed within the same project. The platform also includes a test module that allows participants to check their knowledge after completing the course.

With the support of mentors, some young participants applied their newly gained skills to create media content for the Blog for Young Journalists on the Medialab.mk platform, where their articles and radio podcasts produced during the project are published.

“The workshops on interviewing and recording podcasts attracted the most attention among young people in the Pelagonia region. Through the trainings, young people learned to pay close attention to the accuracy and truthfulness of the news, after which, as young journalists, they showed that they are responsible creators of media content”, says Aneta Šijakova, president of Civic Tracks Association.

The young participants point out that this is a valuable experience for them.

“Such trainings and practical work in the world of journalism are important for young people, because we learn how to defend ourselves from disinformation, but we also learn to responsibly create media content”, said Pavel Nikoloski from Prilep, a young participant.

“After the media literacy trainings within the project, I started to check the information I receive every day. I learned how to recognize whether the photographs are real or not”, adds Marta Kuzmanoska from Kruševo.

The project was carried out together with the civic organizations ICT World, Journalist, From Youth to Youth, Youth Civic Action, and Eco Guerrilla Prespa. With their support, 12 youth workshops were organized in Bitola, Novaci, Mogila, Krusevo, and Resen.

The project is funded through the Our Media sub-granting scheme, which has provided support to 21 local projects across the Western Balkans.

The regional program “Our Media: A civil society action to generate media literacy and activism, counter polarisation and promote dialogue” is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by partner organizations SEENPM, Albanian Media Institute, Mediacentar Sarajevo, Press Council of Kosovo, Montenegrin Media Institute, Macedonian Institute for Media, Novi Sad School of Journalism, Peace Institute and Bianet.

This article was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Macedonian Institute for Media and SEENPM and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.