26. 06. 2014

LITERACY AND AWAKENING

Belgrade, 26 June, 2014 (Fonet) - Media literacy is "extremely important to the awakening of the nation," said member of parliament  Milena Bićanin, member of the Committee on Education, Science, Technology Development and Information society of the Serbian Parliament, at a debate on education and media literacy, organized by the Media Coalition.

The focus of the debate was the role of the media in educating its audiences, the current teaching practices of media education  in schools, experiences in teacher training for inclusion of media literacy in school curriculum, and the relationship between media literacy and European values​​.

There was talk about the upcoming visits to schools and workshops which the Media Coalition will organize with students and teachers of civic education in the second half of the year.  It was said that the conclusions of the discussion will be used to improve the workshop and the initiatives to promote media literacy.

Dr. Boban Tomic from the Faculty of Media and Communications, University Singidunum, emphasized that ten years were missed in teaching media literacy and only now when the tabloids are "slamming" us, we have asked what to do about media literacy.

Gordana Jankovic, head of the Media Department of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, said that most (public policy) debate have migrated on-line, citing the example of the debate on the Labor Law draft, and stressed that it is important to protect the interests of citizens who are not media literate.

This discussion is one of the public events organized in the framework of the Campaign for Media Literacy, a project funded by USAID, which aims to strengthen and support the democratization of Serbian society through the promotion of media literacy, independent and responsible journalism.

Media Coalition is an informal partnership of five journalists and media organizations consisting of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS), the Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Association of Local Independent Media (Local Press) and the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM).