Description
According to recent research and studies, Romanian high-school students are increasingly intolerant toward diversity. Formal education and mass-media - two main actors in youth education - rather enforce intolerance, instead of fighting stereotypes and promoting equality. The project promotes the spirit of tolerance and equality by developing media competences to enable the high school students to critically receive the media discourse and have a responsible presence in the public sphere as "online content generators". It offers courses for 200 high school students in ten cities, doubled by courses for 20 teachers and 70 journalists, bloggers and NGO representatives in the same communities. The Norwegian partner - Norsensus Mediaforum - will secure the know-how transfer in the field of media literacy for youth.
Summary of project results
Digital Literacy for High School Students to Fight Hate Speech and Discrimination in the Media contributed toward the education of high school students in the spirit of tolerance and inclusion. It developed media competences that would allow them a critical reception of the media discourse, as well as a reponsible presence in the public sphere, as „online content generators”. The project was run by the Center for Independent Journalism, in partnership with Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway), which secured the know-how transfer in the field of youth media literacy programs. The project addressed a serious issue that studies have revealed among teenagers: the relatively high rate of intolerance and some of its causes: information received through formal education and mass media. Textbooks seldom tackle diversity and hate speech related issues, while the media encourages stereotypes and promotes intolerance. The project addressed both students and teachers for whom special course materials were developed. The course materials are available on project promoter's website, have been largely publicized and can be used by anyone interested in conducting similar activities. An advocacy guide for teenagers was also developed. Over 260 students and 30 teachers were familiarized with the human rights and media freedoms / standards. The project had a very practical character: students conceived 12 advocacy campaigns, which were evaluated by a Romanian – Norwegian jury. The three winning campaigns received logistic and material support for implementation. They developed the students’ capacity to unite and cooperate for a common cause, thus enhancing their civic participation ability – one of the main outcomes of the project. Noteworthy is that three teams of teenagers succeeded in involving over 1000 citizens from three cities (Babadag, Bistrita and Botosani) in their campaigns, including local authorities, CSOs, the community at large. The Norwegian partnership has been instrumental in developing resource materials and enriching the staff’s first hand knowledge of democratic institutions' mechanisms. The promoter and Norsensus MediaForum have already concluded two projects together and are now implementing a third one.
Summary of bilateral results
The partnership with the Norwegian NGO Norsensus Media Forum has proved to be a fruitful working relation, which has resulted in three different projects so far. On a bilateral level, both organizations have a better understanding of the realities in their partner’s country and both have enhanced their organizational capacity for developing high-school students’ projects and as training providers. CIJ staff is better equipped to counter hate speech and promote human rights and has better models to share with their beneficiaries. Norsensus Media Forum and the Norwegian experts have a better understanding of the Romanian realities, which allows them to enhance their presence in this part of Europe. The partnerships has also contributed to improving the image of Romania in Norway, as a result of the direct contacts (during and following the two visits to Norway) with Norwegian NGOs, public institutions, experts, students, teachers, journalists. All in all, both entities of this growing partnership mutually benefitted from this relationship and significantly contributed to a better understanding and a more complex image of the two countries.