MEDIA LITERACY AND EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION: COOPERATION BETWEEN TEACHERS AND JOURNALISTS – 2020/2022 Internet is a huge free space to share acknowledge and information. Young Europeans (and elders) are massively connected on the internet and social networks. They consume information but, at the same time, they have become producers of information. Nevertheless, consuming and producing good information aren’t innate and should be acquired. Nowadays, we are all overinformed, although not always from deontological and reliable sources. As junk food represents a danger for our health, the misinformation jeopardizes our democracies. The increasing numbers of fake news related to the coronavirus crisis or to the Brexit is a startling example of the dangerous drift of the media system. Media education provides a tool to combat online hate and extremism, as well as misinformation on the internet. Using the internet requires a proper learning and needs to be taught. However, teachers and pedagogues feel often helpless to raise students’ awareness without leading to a widespread distrust of the press and the medias. Our project consists of dealing with two emergencies in accordance with the European Directives mentioned in the recommendations of the Council of May 22nd 2018 : media literacy and European citizenship education. Our aim is to accelerate the cooperation between professionals who are not used to working together : teachers, journalists, researchers, etc. We are all actors of media education and we should build projects together in order to train the next generations to grow up in a world dominated by the media. Four schools – 2 colleges and 2 high schools – In France (Marmande), Belgium (Brussels), Romania (Timisoara) and Turkey (Istanbul) work with the French organization Le Retour de Zalumée (Paris) which develops the media education program Globe Reporters since 2007. Around 300 students and about twenty teachers will take part of the project for the next two years. At the same time, the productions will be widely released to reach thousands of others students and teachers. More specifically, from 2020 to 2022, students will become editors in chief of five professional journalists. They will produce together some hundred interviews about Europe : - 30 hours of interviews broadcasted under the format of 1’20 podcasts. - One thousand of images free to use - Some hundred texts of the backstage of the interviews All those resources will be published on an access free website. The pedagogues provide learning paths to help external teachers and pedagogues to use the online resources according to : - The class levels, - The matter and the topic, - The learning objectives. Through this process, students understand better the journalists’ work, as well as the media system. They are also being challenged in their way of learning. They read, write, learn history, geography. They grow up and know better how to use the internet. On the other side, teachers have multimedia resources to perform their media education mission properly. To sum up, our project is a transnational partnership to develop media education actions through innovation, and learning exchanges between teachers and journalists from four different countries (France/Belgium/Turkey/Romania). Our project provides trainings for pedagogues and actions around international key events such as Assises Internationales de Tours 2020, Printemps numérique 2021 (Digital Spring 2021) at the Lycée saint-Benoit at Istanbul, Assises européennes du journalism 2021.
COMPLEMENTARY AREAS OF WORK Education for the environment, European citizenship and information: our project links these three axes in a coherent way and crosses three emergencies in connection with the European directives. CO-CONSTRUCTION To develop new educational practices in MIL, we encourage cooperation between teachers and journalists, actors of different areas of expertise who are not used to collaborating. Co-construction leads to actions where everyone acts according to their skills, their missions, their experiences. Teachers do not become journalists. Reporters do not improvise themselves as educators. PEDAGOGICAL SYNERGIES Faced with students all confronted with disinformation, it is necessary for educators to work on curricula and become capable of training young people in digital citizenship. FEEL EUROPEAN The notion of European construction becomes very concrete for young people when: - we meet information professionals, then we investigate with them on European issues, - we exchange, debate and work with students from other countries, - we carry out joint productions, - doing a show to share what you have learned.
MEDIA AND INFORMATION EDUCATION AT SCHOOL The very rapid evolution of our information environment requires the development of media and information literacy. Responsible Internet is learned above all at school. Training to be informed and learning to analyze and develop the spirit of discernment, without however leading to a general mistrust vis-à-vis the press, it goes first and foremost through the educational system within which teachers say they are poorly trained on this issue. Our proposal supports pedagogues in the development of these key skills. EXPERTISE TO DISSEMINATE IN EUROPE In France, the media literacy is included in the law of reorganization of the school and prepares the young generation for the challenges of our digital universe. There has also been the Center for Media and Information Education (CLEMI) since the 1980s. Expertise in this area has developed. This is also the case in Belgium, but not in other countries such as Romania or Turkey, although the needs are identical. All young Europeans must be able to meet the challenges of our digital environment, acquire the right online reflexes and have an appropriate use of the media.