The project “Supporting Youth Media Literacy”

The project “Supporting Youth Media Literacy”

27/03/2019 / Publiced by: EDC

Since October 2017 till February 2019 EDC has implemented the project “Supporting Youth Media Literacy”. The project was supported by the USA Embassy in Latvia. The aim of the project was to strengthen the democratic and transatlantic values in the society of Latvia promoting the youth media literacy.

When starting the project, a media literacy program for teachers’ professional development has been elaborated. Teams of teachers from 16 schools of Latvia acquired this program in the training seminars. After each seminar teachers integrated the program materials in their lessons and educational activities. These 16 schools are prepared to serve as the local resource and support centers for strengthening media literacy in different regions of Latvia.

The media literacy program has been developed to ensure the young people with knowledge and skills to orient themselves in the media environment, to assess critically and to create their own content of media, to identify false news, manipulation and propaganda in the media, to assess the role of social media in the democratic society, the key principles of qualitative journalism, etc. The acquisition of the program is based on active teaching/learning methods that promote the expression of reasoned opinions, searching for and comparing of different sources of information, decoding of information, asking questions, critical assessment of visual information, etc.  

The monitoring of learners’ media literacy skills was carried out in the project in order to evaluate which issues should be emphasized in the program. Experts from the media and education spheres were involved in the development of the program. A wider society, namely, journalists, representatives of NGO and civic society, educationalists, etc., has been acquainted with the developed program materials.

The methodological teaching/learning material “Media literacy for schools” has been prepared after the program had been approbated in 16 project schools. Examples of activities for the class work, experts and teachers’ conclusions on how to strengthen the youth media literacy skills are published in this material. Part of the program materials are published also in English and Russian. The methodological teaching/learning material is available  

http://www.iac.edu.lv/assets/Publications/Medijpratiba-internetam1.pdf

Medijpratiba vaks3