Media4Democracy - M4D We live in an increasingly complex society in which democracies are threatened by the rise of social media that have a distorting effect on our perception of reality. Mass surveillance, disinformation, declining trust in institutions and journalism undermine democratic values and governance that have raised increased global concerns such as populism, extremist movements and cyberbullying. Media4Democracy (M4D) is a project that aims at developing media literacy and critical thinking through learning how language and the media have been used to alter public opinion in the past and the present. We will reach the objectives by using a comparative perspective, studying and using (digital) media and examples from politics to highlight implications that can be generalized, so that they will lead to increased awareness and contribute to critical thinking not only in the participating students but also among external students and teachers that will be able to profit from the materials developed throughout the project. Five schools from the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden will address five essential issues in order to develop the above mentioned aims. During the first teaching and training activity at "Europaeisches Gymnasium Bertha-von-Suttner" in Berlin (Germany) students will focus on the power of language. Although language is always produced in the same way by making sounds, airwaves hitting the ear drums and transforming the information into thoughts in our brains, the WAY we use language shapes our ideas, opinions and the reality we actually see. Students will learn how to use persuasive language and reflect on the power of language. They will also analyse the language of (online) newspaper articles. By inviting experts on rhetorics and psychology, students will learn how language influences decision-making processes and the way we think, thus, students will reflect on the power of language. At "Gymnazium J. A. Komenskeho" in Uhersky Brod (Czech Republic) students will deal with the power of the media in a historical context. Media contributes to democratisation processes and is considered the Fourth Pillar of Democracy. However, in history mass media was used in authoritarian regimes to maintain the existing power structure. Students will learn about historical events when the media influenced societies negatively as well as positively by inviting historians and contemporary witnesses. Thus, students will gain a historical perspective on the influence of the media. The power of social media versus the power of traditional media will be analyzed at "Carlshöjdsskolan" in Umea (Sweden). Today the influence of social media is increasingly growing whereas the importance of traditional mass media, such as the press and television, has declined. Thus, students will conduct surveys about media usage in their countries and will meet journalists who talk about the development of journalism today. They will experience different ways of reporting news and reflect on citizen journalism. Finally, students will start a campaign using social media to fight cyberbullying by using modern media in a positive way, thus, improving their critical thinking, ICT and media literacy skills. Fake news and the rise of populism will be discussed at "Liceo Scientifico Statale Galileo Galilei" in Catania, Sizily (Italy). The media has been considered "the Bible and the watchdog of democracy". This role of the press requires respect for the TRUTH. The aim of this meeting is to understand how populist movements have undermined that pillar of democracy through the use of fake news. Students will present a faked fact from their own country, discuss the rise of populism with experts and develop and disseminate a checklist to identify fake news, thus, increasing their critical thinking and media litearcy skills. The final meeting will take place in Bergen op Zoom (the Netherlands) at "'t Rijks" where students practice their acquired media-literacy skills and organize the outcome and materials from previous meetings in order to compile the Media-Literacy Toolkit (the MLTK) that can be used as a basis for a project day on media literacy by secondary schools. We firmly believe that the impact of the media will even increase in the future due to new innovations and developments we cannot foresee. Media literacy and critical thinking are basic skills and competences that are and will be even more essential to overcome challenges to democracy in the future. Thus, "Media4Democracy" aims at promoting our students' critical thinking, media literacy and democratic citizenship resulting in a resistance to all forms of discrimination and indoctrination.
We live in an increasingly complex society where our democracy is threatened by the influence of social media, which often have a distorting effect on our perception of reality. Mass surveillance, disinformation, dwindling trust in institutions and journalism are undermining democratic values and governance, which has led to growing problems such as populism, extremist movements and cyberbullying worldwide. Our Erasmus+ Project Media4Democracy (M4D) aimed to develop media literacy and critical thinking by learning how language and media were and are used to influence public opinion in the past and in the present. We reached the objectives by using a comparative perspective, studying and using (digital) media and examples from politics to highlight implications that could be generalized, so that they led to increased awareness and contributed to critical thinking. Five schools from the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden addressed five essential issues, which were explored in depth during learning, teaching and training activities at our schools. At European Gymnasium Bertha-von-Suttner in Berlin, Germany, students learned how to use persuasive language and reflected on the use of language. They analyzed the language of (online) media reports. By inviting experts, students also learned how language influences decision-making processes and the way we think, and reflected on the power of language. At Gymnazium J. A. Komenskeho in Uhersky Brod (Czech Republic), they explored the use of media in a historical context, focusing particularly on the use of propaganda. During a three-day virtual meeting organized by Carlshöjdsskolan in Umea (Sweden), they examined the way social media vs. traditional media is used. Finally, at the Liceo Scientifico Statale Galileo Galilei, students looked at the use of fake news in the media and the rise of populism. Due to the Covid pandemic, our originally planned final meeting had to be held at Rijk's in Bergen op Zoom (Netherlands) as a joint staff meeting, which focused on media literacy as planned, but from a teacher's perspective. All these activities strengthened our students' media literacy, raised awareness, contributed to critical thinking, and had a great impact on democratic citizenship, resulting in resistance to all forms of discrimination and indoctrination. In addition, our final product, the Media Literacy Kit, was developed during the project and is basically a collection of activities that were used during our teaching and training activities. This compilation of activities can be used by other teachers as a practical teaching tool to promote media literacy.