Media is changing the world

Youth exchange “Media is changing the world” has brought together 37 participants from six countries, Slovenia, Lithuania, Georgia, Italy, Spain and Romania. The participants were aged between 18 and 30 years. Our aim was also to involve young people with fewer opportunities. During exchange we have actively cooperated in the activities and connect with the local environment. Through workshops, discussions, formulated media campaign, creation of other media contributions, informal education and uniting we have learned new skills and competences. We have also followed the objectives of promoting intercultural dialogue, solidarity and raising media literacy and overcoming hate speech. With the project we wanted to get to know the topic about hate speech, fake news in media, about media in general and find out how modern media works. Our activities have been done at the accommodation and have also include visits in the local surrounding (local radio house, Roma radio, local newspaper editor house, local webpage editor office, municipality and presentation of the project to media and local youth).

Our activities have been: getting to know each-other, getting to know Erasmus+ programme, getting to know other culture, traditions, music, language, cuisine, getting to know how media works, getting to know them better as well as on finding out if they are fighting against fake news, getting to know stereotypes and how do we create them, getting to know local surrounding and local media where the project was held.

Media is the one that quickly spreads fake news over the Internet, often unknowingly. That’s why we wanted to learn about possibilities, with which the media manipulates us. The aim of the project was to create awareness of hate speech in European Union, to give examples of hate speech and to warn about its consequences. Further goals were: to spread the importance of the exchange and spreading the message of the program with events; to learn how to be more cautious about recognizing fake news, increasing critical thinking, to encourage young people with fewer opportunities and to promote media literacy. Since the exchange will took place in English, we have strengthened our language skills and consequently knowledge transfer. In addition to English, we have also strengthened other foreign languages. We have increased intercultural awareness and improve public speaking. Throughout the project we have encouraged creativity of young people in the field of multimedia content (photo and video) and enable the international experience for people with fewer opportunities.

 

 

 

A modern fairytale: Hate speech & fake news in media

With this project we want to alert young people to published fake news in their domestic and international environment and inform them how to recognize them. The media is the one that quickly spreads fake news over the Internet, often unknowingly. That’s why we want to show young people possibilities, with which the media can manipulate us. Therefore, the activities in this project will focus on learning how media works and getting to know them better as well as on finding out if they are fighting against fake news. Through a youth exchange »A modern fairytale: Hate speech & fake news in media« young people from six countries want to encourage other young people and show them how to recognize hate speech and fake news. With this project we want to learn how to recognize hate speech and its forms and work towards reducing its effects. We want to learn to spread horizons, to look at a certain matter more broadly, to spread our knowledge and awareness about mentioned topic and to spread tolerance among young people. We want to encourage young people’s team work and critical approach to media content. The aim of the project is to create awareness of hate speech in European Union, to give examples of hate speech and to warn about its consequences. Further goals are: to spread the importance of the exchange and spreading the message of the program with events; to learn how to be more cautious about recognizing fake news, increasing critical thinking, to encourage young people with fewer opportunities and to promote media literacy. Since the exchange will take place in English, we will strengthen our language skills and consequently knowledge transfer. In addition to English, we will also strengthen other foreign languages. We will increase intercultural awareness and improve public speaking. Throughout the project we will encourage creativity of young people in the field of multimedia content (photo and video) and enable the international experience for people with fewer opportunities. Young people will be encouraged to critical thinking, greater media literacy, intercultural understanding, engaging in international space and further collaboration in the field of formal and non-formal education. We wanted to encourage young people to tolerate other races, nationalities, gender, etc. By doing this project we aimed to improve digital competences, cultural awareness, recognize hate speech and gain experience, new knowledge and competences.

Youth exchange tied together 36 participants from six countries, namely from Slovenia, Italy, Poland, Romania, Lithuania and Greece aged between 18 to 30 years old. All participants are interested in current social themes of fake news and hate speech. For the purpose of the project, we intended youth exchange, which went on in immediate area of our organisation headquarters. We endeavored to involve young people with less opportunities. During exchange we actively cooperated in the activities and connecting with the local environment. Through workshops, discussions, formulated media campaign, creation of other media contributions, informal education and uniting we learned new skills and competences. We will also follow the objectives of promoting intercultural dialogue, solidarity and raising media literacy and overcoming hate speech. With this exchange and dissemination of project results we promoted Erasmus+ programme. We educated young people about possibilities of cooperation and about what can European Union offers them. Profile of the participants: students, persons with higher education, persons with university degree and persons with vocational secondary education.

 

 

 

 

Let’s stand up for tolerance

With the project Let’s Stand Up for Tolerance, we encouraged young people to tolerate other ethnic groups, ethnic minorities, migrants, people of different sexual orientation, race and gender. Through the project, we spread awareness that in spite of diversity, all human beings have equal human rights. Through our activities we learned the importance of hate speech, its effects and appearance in the media and in the local environment. As the largest channel through which the hate speech spreads, we also touched the media and the web, and learned how to critically evaluate media content with the help of guests who came from the field of media. Throughout the project, we implemented a campaign that we designed during the project itself in creative workshops. We also invited local organizations to participate in our campaign in Murska Sobota. Youth exchange took place between 28th of September and 06th of October 2018, joining 33 young people from Slovenia, Poland, Romania, Portugal and Greece. The project included young people with fewer opportunities from different backgrounds. The young people developed personal competences and improved the competences of public speaking, developed foreign language skills, enhanced intercultural cooperation and defended their opinions.

The main objectives of the project were: to promote tolerance towards migrants, ethnic groups, other nationalities, gender, sexual orientation, race and other groups among the project participants. Through the project, these objectives were achieved, as the participants met and got to know all the groups mentioned above. Through the activities, we carried out a workshop on migrants and refugees and learned about the situation of migrants and refugees in our countries and in Europe in general. We found that the participants had very different opinions and this opened up many debates. During the activity, we were visited by a member of the Roma community who shared his story about his childhood and how he told his family and the Roma community that he was homosexual. Later, he also welcomed us in the Roma settlement Pušča near Murska Sobota, where we organised a tour and a workshop for Roma youth on tolerance and equality. At the end of the visit, we also held a dance workshop where all participants had the opportunity to learn about Roma music and dance. During the activities we also held a workshop where we learnt about the LGBT community and what it is like in our countries. Through the workshops, the participants reduced our prejudices and broke down stereotypes through different games we played in the park and in our classroom. In the park, we learnt about the game “Step forward” and in the role play we learnt about different life situations. In the stereotyping game, we created stories about different people based on a photo. We also learnt about hate speech and how to recognize it, we looked online at different examples of hate speech and presented what hate speech is in our countries and how we deal with it. We were visited by the Pomurec.com web portal, where we learnt how to read media texts and how to identify hate speech in the media (especially online). Throughout the project we encouraged tolerant intercultural dialogue between all participating countries, European nations, different ethnic groups, different groups of people and tolerance towards each other. Through interactive and creative workshops, we encouraged each other to be creative and to use and learn to use multimedia content (especially photo and video). Many photographs were taken, which will always remind us of our time spent together in Slovenia.