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Description
Elpida, a senior education organization and Transitions, organisation strengthening the professionalism of investigative journalism, have joined forces to create cross-platform educational modules for local organizations (libraries, senior clubs, etc.) in the area of media, digital and civic education for seniors and older adults. Thanks to the new methodology and trained lecturers, the project will subsequently, through these local organizations, strengthen seniors'' confidence in high-quality journalism and increase their media literacy and resistance to manipulation and fake news.
Summary of project results
According to STEM/MARK surveys and Elpida''s and Transitions'' own surveys, seniors are very easy targets for manipulation and misinformation. They judge the quality of information mainly by the sender of the news, not by its content or source. Their entry into the online environment, whether through educational programmes or within the family, has not usually been accompanied by a warning that there are also many ways and motivations for creating and disseminating false or highly misleading content. Thus, seniors often use strategies learned from the days of traditional media, which is insufficient in the information clutter of the Internet.
According to a joint survey by Transitions and Anthropictures, seniors feel confused in the current information world, and one of the strategies they use to counteract this confusion may be to ignore content that doesn''t fit, to search for understandable (often alternative) interpretations of reality, or to resign themselves to the possibility of obtaining reliable information. High-quality media education, even informal media education, helps to develop civic awareness, restores seniors'' trust in quality sources of information and contributes to the prevention of social polarisation, radicalism and human rights violations.
The project perceived the problem on two levels:
1) the absence of a methodology for media literacy education for seniors (linking the content of media education to the specific educational needs of this target group)
2) lack of trained educators in the regions
1) development of a training methodology
2) creation of educational materials and web platform for seniors
3) training local educators and creating a nationwide network
4) dissemination of the methodology to all regions of the Czech Republic
5) capacity development of Elpida and Transitions (training, supervision, consultation))
The project had undoubtedly a positive impact and as a result we (Elpida & Transitions) became a leader in the development of the methodology of media education for seniors and older adults, networking of local actors and systemic changes to strengthen the media literacy of seniors. In addition to the planned outputs, which had a direct impact on local seniors and partners, we (partially unplanned) became active also at the advocacy level, which fights against the unfair stereotype that Czech seniors are media-illiterate spreaders of fake news. This approach indirectly helped us to address several causes that lead seniors to social criticism through the dissemination of misinformation - feelings of exclusion and misunderstanding. Actively by involving new channels and journalists into the project and with a specific media communication plan (debates, podcasts, book “Z nuly na sto”, video series of seniors verifying disinformation) we helped cultivate the debate and move it further away from banal proposals like "let''s protect the elderly" and "let''s teach them to verify information from multiple resources". We have presented a number of innovative approaches, such as the development of a methodology for integrating media education into others popular topics. We observe a growing interest and demand from the local public not only for the media education events themselves, but also for training and networking activities such as events Barcamp I., II. and III., even without an expensive promotion.
According to a joint survey by Transitions and Anthropictures, seniors feel confused in the current information world, and one of the strategies they use to counteract this confusion may be to ignore content that doesn''t fit, to search for understandable (often alternative) interpretations of reality, or to resign themselves to the possibility of obtaining reliable information. High-quality media education, even informal media education, helps to develop civic awareness, restores seniors'' trust in quality sources of information and contributes to the prevention of social polarisation, radicalism and human rights violations.
The project perceived the problem on two levels:
1) the absence of a methodology for media literacy education for seniors (linking the content of media education to the specific educational needs of this target group)
2) lack of trained educators in the regions