Don’t Troll” is the winning idea of the three-day hackathon attended by young people from several cities in N. Macedonia, organized in 3 teams. The winning proposed solution addresses the problem of “trolling” on social media, as one of the most common forms of cyberbullying on various grounds. The winning team offered a solution for the creation and promotion of “troll-free” social media environments by establishing a code of conduct that will prevent “trolling”, especially to girls and women active on social media. The aim is to establish a kind of self-regulated social media communities by adopting the code of conduct in order to become and be labeled as “troll-free” environments, safe for users.

Moreover, the other two teams offered exceptionally interesting and quality solutions on the topics of “Junior Detective” and “Choose Your News”. The idea “Junior Detective” offers a set of solutions for educating primary school students about the basic principles of media literacy through educative games, talking with their favorite social media influencers, and short interactive lectures about the world of media and media reality. “Choose your news” is a proposed solution about a mobile and desktop application which will offer education for media literacy and a set of tools for informing young people about the possibilities of social inclusion.

The Hackathon “YouthForMILSolutions” was held from 26 to 28 April, 2021, within the regional project “Media for Citizens – Citizens for Media”, implemented by several media organizations from the Western Balkans, including MIM, with financial support from the European Union.

During the Hackathon the participant exchanged ideas and competed in the use of knowledge regarding media and information literacy. The aim was to design initiatives and innovative solutions for effective recognition and purposeful use of information from publicly available media sources, as well as to offer solutions for combating misinformation and other negative phenomena of digital media. At the first day, the participants were introduced to the necessary steps that need to be taken for an idea to become a reality, as well as the key skills for presenting ideas to the stakeholders. Through practical exercises they prepared for what follows – designing and presenting their own conceptual solutions.

During the second day of the Hackathon the participants found out useful tips on how to protect themselves from disinformation and how to “sell” their ideas by using tools for visualization and creation of multimedia presentations.

At the final working day, the young innovators finalized and presented their solutions in front of the jury. The participants offered exceptional quality ideas, elaborated in details, with concrete steps for realization.

The three-day Hackathon resulted in proposed solutions which significantly can help young people in raising awareness and advancing knowledge about the media world, preventing dangers in the digital reality, as well as ensuring safe using and sharing information on the Internet.

The media scene and modern trends in journalism; on “the other side” of the screen; mobile journalist=one-man show; the internet as a source of information; a picture – thousand words. These were some of the topics of the one-week workshop organized by the Macedonian Institute for Media within the internship program on digital media production.

This year students from the universities of St. Cyril and Methodius and Mother Theresa participated in the one-week workshop led by prominent journalists, editors and media professionals. In the next three weeks the students will undergo training in several media outlets in the country.

The one-week workshop enabled the students to learn about the global trends in journalism and production of informative contents, as well as, to actually stand on “the other side” of the screen in the role of TV reporters.

During the workshop the students learned what the concept of “mobile journalism” means, upgraded their skills in searching and verifying information on the internet, and learned how to photograph properly.

The Macedonian Institute for Media organizes the program as part of the project “Promoting media information literacy and strengthening independent media in the Western Balkans”, which is implemented by Albany Associates from London in partnership with regional media development organizations in Western Balkan countries. The project is funded by the British Government.

The workshop was dedicated to strengthening the knowledge and skills of media literacy, identifying misinformation and tracking their sources. By discussing various media content analysis techniques, interactive exercises and examples, participants had the opportunity to gain practical experience in identifying disinformation networks in the local media landscape and media stereotyping, finding the original source when searching for a statement or news on the Internet. , identifying false profiles on social media, verifying the accuracy of videos and photos and reporting specific misinformation without their repetition / republishing, etc.

The workshop was led by Professor Dr. Marina Tuneva and Mihajlo Lahtov, treners with extensive experience in the fields: media literacy, information verification, diversity reporting, intercultural communications and ethics in journalism.

Macedonian Institute for Media organized the workshop within the project “Promoting Media Information Literacy and strengthening independent media in the Western Balkans”, which is implemented by Albany Associates from London in partnership with regional media development organizations in Western Balkan countries. The project is funded by the British Government.

The program consists of one-week workshop delivered by prominent journalists, editors and media experts, as well as tree-week practical work in the media outlets in the country.

The workshop was based on lessons and practical exercises through which the students explored the media scene and contemporary trends in journalism and learned more about the TV journalism.

The students improved their knowledge about the online journalism and multimedia, and what being mobile journalist looks like.

During the lessons on basics of photographing and photo editing the students learnt that one picture can be worth thousand words.

The last day of the workshop was dedicated to the internet as a source of information as well as to the internet research skills, recognizing disinformation and verification of information.

Macedonian Institute for Media organizes the program as part of the project “Promoting Media Information Literacy and strengthening independent media in the Western Balkans”, which is implemented by Albany Associates from London in partnership with regional media development organizations in Western Balkan countries.

The project aims toward building capacity of media professionals and journalism students in verification, fact-checking, content production and other reporting competencies; enhancing public service broadcasters’ understanding of media and information literacy (MIL) and improving their ability to deliver MIL campaigns to the public. The project is funded by the British Government.

Sessions will provide participants with hands-on experience in identifying disinformation networks in the local media landscape, finding the original source of a claim, quote or a news story, identifying fake social media accounts, verifying video and image accuracy and reporting on disinformation without amplifying it.

The workshop is organized within the project “Promoting Media Information Literacy and strengthening independent media in the Western Balkans” implemented by Albany Associates from London, in partnership with regional media development organisations in Western Balkan countries.

 In total 16 representatives of civil society organizations, media and educational institutions participated at the training. Under the guidance of the two trainers, Naomi Thompson from the European Association for Viewers’ Interests (EAVI), UK and Stefan Janjic from the Novi Sad School of Journalism, Serbia, the participants had opportunity to build on their theoretical knowledge and engage in practical and interactive part of the training.

“Media literate citizens are able to create media content and respond to information in a responsible manner. The various perspectives they bring, can contribute to tackling wrong narratives and the fake news we see in the media”, Naomi Thompson from EAVI said. She believes that media education should be lifelong learning, starting from the earliest age in kindergartens, to the end of life.

Today, people are increasingly talking about media literacy, critical thinking, about fake news and I think that now is the right moment to make some changes, to motivate people to educate themselves and be more media literate”, Stefan Janjic from the Novi Sad School of Journalism pointed out. According to him, media literacy programs are extremely important because the media are present every where around, whether we are talking about social or mainstream media, they reach every segment of our lives, our relations, as well as political and economic spheres.

The trainees will be engaged as trainers on further trainings and workshops that MIM will oranize in the upcoming period for local CSOs that are interested in media and information literacy.

The regional program “Media for citizens – Citizens for media: Strengthening the capacities of civil society organizations for the development of the MIL in the countries of Western Balkans” is implemented with the support of the European Union.

This was stressed, among other things, by Ms. Martina Chapman, a media literacy expert from Ireland, at the workshop on “Strengthening the Media Literacy Network of the Republic of Macedonia Through Exchange of Experiences”, which was organized by the Macedonian Media Institute, in cooperation with the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services.

The meeting was aimed at conveying experiences regarding the strategies and activities needed when planning media literacy projects, as well as good practices that have resulted from the cooperation among the relevant stakeholders. In this, an overview was presented of examples from the Republic of Ireland, which has an operational media literacy network and this concept enjoys the institutions and society’s significant support.

Ms. Chapman explained that the Media Literacy – Ireland Network is an independent association founded by the Irish regulatory authority. It includes 100 members, which are dedicated to promoting and enhancing media literacy all over the country, through sharing experiences and resources, with the aim of gaining benefits for all, and not only for certain parts of society. The Network has its own strategy, work groups that function within its frameworks, and carries out various activities, issues its own Newsletter, develops a data-base of resources and a stakeholders’ networking platform. According to Ms. Chapman, the Network aims to become self-sustainable in the following few years.

The workshop was organized as part of the joint EU and CoE project titled “Reinforcing Judicial Expertise on Freedom of Expression and the Media in South-East Europe (JUFREX)”. The Macedonian Institute for Media is the Macedonian partner of the project.

The photo-gallery of the Workshop is available at this link

The workshop, which was attended by 7 prominent journalists, focused on determining the approach, the format and the methodology for preparation of journalistic investigations on specific topics from the areas of action of the civil society organizations – grantees of CIVICA Mobilitas, such as health and social care, discrimination, environmental protection, migration etc.

The topics on which the journalists will be working in the following period were identified within the consultative process and the meetings with approximately ten civil society organizations, organized by the project team of MIM and SCOOP.  

The workshop was organized as part of the project “Reporting about civil society and its impact in achieving societal changes”, implemented by MIM in association with SCOOP Macedonia, with financial assistance from the CIVIKA Mobilitas program.

During the workshop conducted by Brankica Petrovikj, a prominent trainer and researcher from the Peace Institute and the research team of the MIM, the participants were introduced to the key aspects of the media integrity and the concept of applied and action researches in the field of the media. Through practical work, they strengthened their knowledge and capabilities for preparing a research design and plan, as well as the techniques for writing research reports.

The participants worked on specific exercises for preparation of a plan for researching the key issues in the media field in the country, which were identified on the basis of the previously conducted interviews and focus groups with representatives of the media.

The workshop was organized within the project „#ReForMedia – Enhancing the cooperation between the civil society, institutions and citizens for implementing reforms in the media sphere”. The project is funded by the European Union, and the co-financing of this activity is provided by the British Embassy in Skopje.

The training cycle on planning efficient interactive public presentations in the context of interethnic integration in education was implemented by trainers from the MIM within as part of the USAID’s Interethnic Integration in Education Project. More than 150 representatives of the school integration teams from the elementary and the secondary schools from all over the country attended the workshops.

Apart from the theoretical lectures, the participants in the workshops also had specific exercises for planning and preparation of short statements and appearances before a specific audience. At the end of each workshop, through role playing, the participants who were divided into teams debated and held opposing viewpoints on specific topics related to the interethnic integration in the schools.

The trainings were conducted by lecturers from the Macedonian Institute for Media, which, together with the Democracy Institute and the Ohrid Institute are partners in the project. The lectures addressed the planning of communications, the creation of a framework for strategic communication, sending messages to target groups, structuring and organizing public presentations.

The civic activists also attended the lectures on communication with the media, web activism and writing for the web, and each topic was reinforced with practical exercises and discussions.

During 2013 and 2014, a total of 15 regional trainings were conducted, in which, through exercises and lectures, the participants were learning the skills for producing multimedia Internet products, in accordance with the basic journalistic principles, free from hate speech, prejudices and stereotypes.

The trainings were implemented by a training team from the MIM, in collaboration with approximately 10 prominent editors and journalists from the country.