Dates: 1-2 November 2012
Country: Serbia, Belgrade
International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) and The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have organized a closeout conference „Building Independent Media in Serbia – Fifteen Years Later“.
The conference that took a place in Belgrade has marked fifteen years of USAID media support in Serbia and closeout of the Serbia Media Assistance Program implemented by IREX.
The conference has gathered media representatives, media associations, state institutions, international institutions and donors. Two Media Diversity Institute (MDI) representatives were present at the IREX and USAID conference.
Topics discussed during the two-days gathering in Belgrade were contemporary media law, media strategy and its implementation, media freedom, investigative journalism, social media for journalists, media market and trends, media literacy, and preconditions and critical issues for media development in Serbia.
MDI Executive Director Milica Pesic, talking on the issue of media literacy, has stressed the importance of the media education. “Educational training on media literacy is needed for the school children and their parents, but for some journalists too”, said Pesic. From her point of view, the best educators would be the journalists themselves because, as she explained, “they know who to produce news, news reports and features”.
MDI Web editor Danica Ilic was one of the participants on the panel named “Revolutionizing the Profession: Social Media for Journalists” alongside with David Brewer, Founder and Editor of Media Helping Media, who was the moderator of the panel, and panelists Steve Herrmann, Editor of the BBC News website, Malachy Browne, News Editor of the Storyful and Solana Larsen, Managing Editor of the Globalvoices.
Steve Herrmann explained how the BBC is using social media in the process of producing the news. Solana Larsen said that the reliable sources of information are not only the mainstream media correspondents, but also bloggers and other activists known as reliable in the online community. Ilic has stressed the importance of looking at the social media platforms as a tool for helping audience to be heard, but also as a tool for the traditional media to have better understanding of the audience.