Published: 27 January 2017
Country: Macedonia
Civil society organisations’ representatives participated in the first of series of trainings organised by the Media Diversity Institute (MDI) within the Macedonian Media and Information Literacy Coalition (MAMIL). Sixteen participants were introduced to the concept of media literacy, deconstruction of media messages and stereotypes, but they also practiced how to communicate with citizens trough the creation of media messages.
The training in Skopje was organised by MDI as part of the project Media Literacy in the Age of News Overabundance: Macedonian Coalition of Media and Information Literacy (MAMIL) led by the School of Journalism and PR.
Next workshop for the representatives of Macedonian CSOs is planned for the end of February. It aims in addressing issues such as digital communication and media relations in the field of media literacy.
MDI has joined the School of Journalism and Public Relations (SJPR), one of the most prominent higher education institutions in Macedonia, in their efforts to establish a coalition of media and civil society organisations. The coalition MAMIL has a goal of promoting media and information literacy in Macedonia, in order to empower citizens to become active participants in the public sphere and a policy-making process, and reinforce the watchdog role of the media in Macedonia.
The specific objectives of the project in Macedonia is to raise awareness about the importance of MIL as a prerequisite for participatory democracy and pluralism, create a coalition of media, CSOs, and citizens for promoting MIL, empower citizens and civil society with MIL skills and knowledge as a precondition for active citizenry and introduce public journalism by creating meaningful and diverse news content as imperative for achieving media pluralism, diversification of sources and human-oriented stories.
Within the new 36-months project, SJPR in partnership with Nova Makedonija daily will publish monthly high school newspaper Medium. The content will be produced by pupils in high schools, journalism school-clubs and SJPR’s students.