Media Literacy Education
Topic outline
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This course provides essential knowledge and skills on media literacy and critical thinking, required for understanding contemporary media and media content, as well as for understanding, interpreting and creating messages and articles that we receive and send via mass media. It contains 20 lessons and employs the blended learning method, an approach to education that combines online educational materials and opportunities for interaction online with classical lecture/classroom type of teaching. The participants will be familiarized with and introduced to the key concepts in the field of media and communication, empowered and encouraged to take a critical, active citizen and socially responsible role towards the contemporary media landscape, and trained to produce articles in English of publishable quality. They will learn about the importance and influence of the media, their pervasiveness, the way that the messages are constricted and how they could be deconstructed, decoded and critically assessed in terms of quality, reliability, objectivity etc. and grasp the wider context in which the media function and the discourse they use to address the users/recipients.
The course will cover several larger areas of the media universe, each covering a number of different topics: Types of Media: Traditional vs. Social; various meanings of media literacy; 5W + 1H – essential rules of responsible journalism (Who?, What?, When?, Where? and Why?, plus: How?); Find a Villain – How to analyse and critically read media messages?; The World in 30 Minutes: Constructing a TV News Lineup; Representation and Symbolism in the Media; Bias in the Media; Spin Doctors – What is Media Spinning?; "Fake" News and how to recognize them (CRAP test), The Power of Media (a very short history of the mass media, investigative journalism and examples of the most influential cases in history of media – the Watergate scandal, WikiLeaks, Panama papers), several lesson on style and writing in English and how to improve your research, writing and publicizing skills. Participants are most welcome to submit their work to TYM.
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The aim of this course is to offer an introduction to some basic concepts of media literacy. This means 
understanding the role and power of the media in today’s world, but also understanding how media messages are constructed and, as much as possible, acquiring the skills to make them yourself. In order to get an insight into media literacy, we will cover in more detail these 6 topics:
What is Media Literacy?
How to critically read media messages?
The essence of responsible journalism
Basic principles of writing
The elements of style
Youth activism and the media
As you can see, some units are more informative and provide brief theoretical explanation of the basic concepts, while others are more practical and oriented towards expressing yourselves.LESSON 1 – Introduction
This lesson introduces the course on media literacy education, that is, the 20 lessons and the blended learning method.Watch a short introductory video to the LESSON 1.
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Read the full lesson content from the link above.
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Lesson 2 introduces the notion of the media. You will learn about
the concept of the media, the origin and meaning of the word, examples of various media, from traditional to the most current, understand mass and global media, and discuss the role of the media in the process of communication.Watch a short introductory video to the LESSON 2.
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A short video explaining the meaning of the notions media and communication.
Prezi presentation of the lecture can be found here.
So, what are these media and, more specifically, mass media that are so important today?
In order to grasp the role of the media, we need first to understand the role of media in the process of communication. The term media comes from a Latin word medium, which means something in between. In the process of communication, media is thus something that mediates, something that connects or transmits messages or participants in communication.
A classical model of communication, as described by a Russian-born linguist Roman Jakobson, has 2 basic constituents:
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Read the full lesson content from the link above.
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This short, 5-questions Kahoot quiz
contains questions related to the lesson
on communication and (mass) media.
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This topic introduces the notion of media literacy. You will learn about the distinction betweenthe narrow notion of media literacy as the ability to read and write and a wider notion of
literacy as the possession of certain knowledge and skills. Also, we will discuss the concept of
functional literacy and what does it mean to be media literate in today’s world.Watch a short introductory video to the LESSON 3.-
Students mustMark as done
A short video lecture explaining the notion of media literacy.
Prezi presentation of the lecture can be found here.
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Read the full lesson content from the link above.
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Reading - Paris 2007 Declaration on Media Education
UNESCO takes Media literacy seriously!
Already in 1982, UNESCO made a so-called Grunewald Declaration, stating:
‘We live in a world where media are omnipresent: an increasing number of people spend a great deal of time watching television, reading newspapers and magazines, playing records and listening to the radio. In some countries, for example, children already spend more time watching television than they do attending school.’
‘Rather than condemn or endorse the undoubted power of the media, we need to accept their significant impact and penetration throughout the world as an established fact, and also appreciate their importance as an element of culture in today’s world. The role of communication and media in the process of development should not be underestimated, nor the function of media as instruments for the citizen’s active participation in society. Political and educational systems need to recognize their obligations to promote in their citizens a critical understanding of the phenomena of communication.’
In 2007, UNESCO made another declaration in Paris, which you can read above or here.
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Opened: уторак, 16. јануар 2024, 01:00Students mustViewMake a submission
Exercise - Short summary of the Paris Agenda (200-300 words).
Try to formulate a summary by briefly answering the following questions: Who, when and why adopted the Paris Agenda? What are the four guidelines from the Grünwald Declaration that remained valid in the Paris Agenda? What are the recommendations for each of the four guidelines? Which of the guidelines you consider as most important and why?
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You have 5 minutes to respond to these 5 questions, based on the previous lecture.
The overall pass required for this quiz is 80%.
To take the Quiz, please login as a guest,Username: test
Password: test
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Critically reading media messages means to be aware and to think critically about the angle from which that the story is being told.Watch a short introductory video to the LESSON 4.
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Critically reading media messages means to be aware, to think, and to think critically, about this angle that the story is being told. We will illustrate this point by looking at several different media footage of the Syrian crisis.Prezi presentation of the lecture can be found here.
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Read the full lesson content from the link above.
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Opened: субота, 16. децембар 2023, 00:00Due: петак, 16. јануар 2026, 01:00Students mustMark as done
CHINA AND RUSSIA IN USA POLITICS AND THE MEDIA
Task: Watch these 2 short clips carefully
Now, think about and try to formulate answer to the following questions in the form of a couple of short paragraphs (up to 500 words in total):
Who would be the 'bad' and who the 'good guys' here?
Who amongst the officials has been presented, i.e. whose statements were given?
How do clips from China and Russia look like?
What do you think about the overall position-standpoint of the clip's author?
Does that tell us something about the overall attitude of the given TV network and the audience/society it addresses overall?
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This lesson introduces the basic principles of journalism.
Watch a short introductory video to the LESSON 5.
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Lecture Basic Principles of Journalism introduces the basic things that we expect to see in any good media reporting. Its essence is summarized in the 5 Ws and 1H principle, meaning that your information should contain answers to the following 5 questions: Who, What, Why, When and Where, as well as How.
Prezi presentation of the lecture can be found here.
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Read the full lesson content from the link above.
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Short Kahoot Quiz on the Basic Principles of Journalism
Useful Tip - If in doubt, beware of the photos!
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This presentation summarizes the development of responsible journalism and provides examples of the most influential cases in the history of investigative journalism The Watergate scandal, WikiLeaks, Panama papers...
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This topic offers practical advice on some of the basic principles of good reporting. Based mainly on an engaging blog entry Journalistics of the journalist James Porter and other similar sources, it summarizes these elements into a top 10 tips for good reporting. These 10 practical rules are: Name your sources; Be objective; Offer balance; Get it right; Don’t plagiarize; Don’t believe everything; Keep good records; Don’t write in a stream of consciousness; Find your voice; Never stop learning and have fun.
Watch a short introductory video to the LESSON 6.
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This short video lecture offers Top 10 essential rules of journalism or 10 practical tips for good reporting, adapted from the list by Jeremy Porter from the blog Journalistics.
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Prezi presentation of the lecture can be found here.
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Read the full lesson content on the link above.
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Investigative journalism is often defined as a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing.
Organizations of investigative journalists
•IRE (www.ire.org) – for years, it gathers journalists, editors, educators and trainers, as well as student, from USA and worldwide.• the Global Investigative Journalism Network has been established in 2003, with members being invited from all national, regional and continental organizations of investigative reporters.
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Investigative Journalism Sources:
The Internet offers a number of useful, practical and insightful manuals about investigative journalism, with step-by-step guide on how to find a story, follow it, treat your sources, defining minimal and maximal hypothesis etc.
Ten Steps to Investigative Reporting By Lucinda S. Fleeson publication by the International Center for Journalists"Broaden the Definition of Investigative Reporting
Don’t limit yourself! Investigative reporting includes more than stories that expose corruption and criminal activity. Important and suitable topics include stories that explain how systems work or fail, or reconstruct a complex event. Reporters at many newspapers have found that readers have a great interest in how things work, what is going on, how it may affect ordinary people."
Investigative Journalism, From BIRN’s Probe to Porn Vids, A short article by Serbian Award-winning investigative journalist Branko Čečen (in English)
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