About “YOU get FaMILIAR: YOUth For MedIa LIterAcy”
Free and open media and freedom of expression in media and society, are essential to a healthy democracy. It is hard to imagine modern European societies without mass communication media. Television, radio, press and internet are the main sources of information for citizens. Democracy and democratic societies are impossible without free media. Media, especially news media, are so powerful that they are often called “the fourth estate”. There are examples in history that mass media contributed to democratisation processes, as seen for example in Eastern Europe during and after the Soviet Union’s collapse. At the same time however, there are examples of state propaganda disseminated by national media to keep the country’s citizens in line. On the one hand, in the four countries participating in this project, Greece, Estonia, Germany and Hungary, media contribute in their democratisation processes, and on the other hand they contribute to create conflicts between them, and affect their common EU history.
In November 2016, an interesting Eurobarometer survey¹ which was carried out in 28 EU member states, about media pluralism and democracy showed interesting key finds about Europeans and their national media. In a European level almost four in ten respondents (38%) agreed their national media provided information free from political or commercial pressure with the majority tending to disagree (57%). There are only 9 Member States where the majority agree. Regarding national broadcasters, almost half of them (45%) think their national media to be as free and independent as they were five years ago, while 18% say it is more free and independent, and 28% think it is less so. Just over a third of respondents agree their national public service media are free from political pressure (35%), but the majority (60%) tends to disagree.
Based on this survey, there are some interesting finds about the participating countries of this project. In 27 member states, the majority of respondents agree that their national media provide a diversity of views and opinions, with the only exception being Greece, where 48% agree (in Hungary 61% agree, in Estonia 75% and in Germany 79%). Respondents in Greece (28%) and Hungary (23%) are the most likely to say their national media are providing less diversity of views and opinions, compared to five years ago (in Estonia 10% and Germany 19%). Also respondents in Germany (9%), Greece and Hungary (both 12%) are the least likely to think their national media are now more free and independent than they were five years ago (in Estonia 25%). In addition, the majority of respondents in Greece (59%) and Hungary (52%) think newspapers are unreliable (in Germany 28% and in Estonia 32%).
“YOU get FaMILIAR: YOUth For MedIa LIterAcy” is an 8-day (6 working+2 travel days) and 4-country (Greece, Germany, Hungary and Estonia) youth exchange (Key Action 1 Erasmus+) project aiming to follow media’s history in Europe by targeting some significant examples chosen by the youngsters in each participant country and to outline their cultural, social, economical and political background and consequences. By understanding media’s role for specific important events in each participating country, youngsters will try to understand the importance of media plurality and freedom, to enhance media literacy and to develop critical thinking about media. Young participants will share ideas, opinions and perceptions and they will try to define common European values of freedom and democracy.
Objectives:
-developing the competences of the participants on identifying media’s propaganda and hate speech through critical thinking
-increasing awareness of the national and European media regulators and to provide the participants the opportunity to express and review their opinions and thoughts about its independence
-fostering intercultural communication and better understanding of European identity by exchanging different perspectives of important EU events that affect youngsters everyday lives
-support active youth participation and youth empowerment by promoting EU values of human rights, solidarity and democracy
-motivating participants to use the possibilities offered by the Erasmus+ Youth program
Activities and methods:
-Getting to know each other and team building activities
-Search about their own countries and their media and general information about partner countries
-Discuss about the collected information and find out whether any stereotypes in connection with partner countries through media
-Local visit in a local TV channel and Municipal radio and meeting with journalists and people working on media
-Create a youth blog
-Day trip to Volos (to the sea!)