DEAR READER,
We are approaching you with the last of the five newsletters developed dating the three years of MELIA Observatory. It was a long and interesting journey offering numerous partners and stakeholders the possibility to discover new knowledge, share the knowledge and develop plans for further strengthening the processes of media literacy and overall raising awareness on the importance of improving democratic transnational governance by developing transnational media literacy observatory for between different relevant stakeholders.
We look back with pride on a job well done, but we also look forward to the future, with new partnership possibilities and ideas for further enhancing the framework conditions for media literacy in the Danube area.
MELIA Observatory team
FINAL CONFERENCE
The final conference of the MELIA project took place in a hybrid environment in Budapest on the 9th of November 2022, where we managed to host numerous experts from a wide range of countries.
Tackling the challenges of media literacy and sustaining its recently developed tools should be a common responsibility within the Danube Region.
Within our conference, we presented the main achievements of our project such as mapping media literacy, our learning materials and training network, the MELIA Observatory platform, also the implemented national pilot projects. Through our excellent keynote speakers, we got closer to how we can be ready for an AI-covered media and info-communication ecosystem, why media literacy matters for a sustainable and resilient future, and the main challenges of media literacy in the post-Covid era.
The event provided a great opportunity for the different stakeholders to be part of a transnational knowledge transfer through the interesting presentations and the round table discussion afterwards.
Closing remarks were delivered by the project manager Prof. dr. Matevž Tomšič (FUDŠ/SASS) and the moderator of the event Ms Mónika Harsáni, Project Management Officer from Budapest Chamber of commerce and Industry.
5TH SCOM MEETING
The 5th SCOM meeting took place in Budapest, on the 8th of December. The event was organized by Hungarian project partner, Budapesti Kereskedelmi és Iparkamara (BKIK) (Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI)).
SCOM members convened for the final time, formally before the project's closure. The major topic of discussion was project closing, including the completion of all required deliveries and outputs. The consortium completed all actions; only the reports are being finalized. The LP responded to various queries about how to correctly complete the reporting procedure and clarified the cash transfer timeframe.
RESILIENCE THROUGH DIVERSITY - 9TH DANUBE PARTICIPATION DAY, 18 OCTOBER 2022
Resilience through Diversity: Involving Civil Society in the Danube Strategy which took place in a virtual environment, back to back with the 11th EUSDR Annual Forum on the 18th of October 2022. The MELIA team took part in it, introducing some relative comments regarding media literacy challenges and goals within civil society participation in the Danube Region.
Read more on the news:
https://dtp.interreg-danube.eu/news-and-events/programme-news-and-events/7724
11TH EUSDR ANNUAL FORUM
On the 19-20 October 2022 was organized the 11th EUSDR Annual Forum, jointly organized by the Ukrainian EUSDR Presidency, the former Slovak EUSDR Presidency, the European Commission and the Danube Strategy Point, with the financial support of the Danube Region Programme.
The EUSDR Annual Forum took place this year also in a hybrid format in Košice, Slovakia, where all the organizers, speakers, MRS core governance and representatives of the Danube Youth Council (DYC) will physically meet.
We were also there to present and disseminate our results in media literacy and sustainable democracy. Transnational cooperation is a key factor in media literacy in the Danube Region. We are happy to be part of this stream.
NEW BOOK ON MEDIA LITERACY THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF MEDIA EDUCATION FUTURES POST-PANDEMIC (ROUTLEDGE RESEARCH IN MEDIA LITERACY AND EDUCATION) 1ST EDITION
One of our cooperators, Igor Kanižaj, an Associate Professor at the Faculty of political science of the University of Zagreb in Croatia,
He mentioned the very important topic dealing with the MELIA projects in his first public presentation of the book in September 2022, via an online webinar by Media Education Lab.
More information on the link: https://mediaeducationlab.com/routledge-handbook-media-education-futures-post-pandemic.
THE PAST 6 MONTHS WERE BUSY
In the past 6 months, the MELIA Observatory project provided various training and workshops. We list some of them briefly here:
- On 8th September we tested MELIA Observatory training tools for high school students in the Health and Veterinary school dr. Andrija Štampar in Vinkovci, Croatia. The students showed great interest in media literacy education and expressed that they would be glad to have media literacy as a separate subject at school. Another set of training will be held with the same students in October. Based on the information collected from the students and teachers in the short questionnaire, we will improve the training materials if necessary, and recommendations for policymakers related to media literacy education in primary and secondary vocational schools will be created.
- The workshops were held in Ljubljana at the Faculty of Media on October 5th and 28th. The workshops were dedicated to pilot training within the Media Literacy for Active Citizenship and Sustainable Democracy (MELIA Observatory) project.
As part of the project, we will prepare instruments for analysing media content, teaching tools and political recommendations for upgrading media literacy in connection with other civic skills.
- Pilot training within the Media Literacy for Active Citizenship and Sustainable Democracy (MELIA Observatory) project in Sofia, Bulgaria. There were set two workshops: in September 21 and the 2nd Workshop on October 13.
The workshop was organised by the Regional and Global Development Research Centre (REGLO) which is the Bulgarian partner in the MELIA Project consortium. It was carried out in a hybrid format providing an opportunity for some experts to join remotely online. The organiser would like to express its sincere thanks to the participants from the 25 the Elementary school “Petar Beron”, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, Association of the Bulgarian Journalists, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, New Bulgarian University and Shumen University “Konstantin Preslavski” for the perfect cooperation in increasing media literacy.
- Another set of training was held for students of Health and Veterinary school dr. Andrija Štampar in Vinkovci, Croatia. The training was organized by the Croatian Chamber of Economy with the purpose of testing MELIA Observatory training tools for high school students and receiving feedback from the students and teachers, our main target group. Sanja Rajković, an expert in communication and media studies with many years of experience in media, public relations and marketing, discussed with students about manipulation and propaganda in media and politics, and the importance of youth political participation. Students showed great interest in these topics. We would like to sincerely thank Zdravstvena i veterinarian škola dr. Andrije Štampara Vinkovci for participating in the MELIA Observatory project.
We conclude that the project activities with a joyful awareness of the topics of media literacy and transnational democratic management are the future topics to be further addressed in the Danube region. Also, we have a lot of Documents and material free available on the Offical web page repository = https://dtp.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/melia-observatory.
One of the primary lessons learnt from the MELIA Observatory project execution is that we are confident in our approach to success.
But for now, we'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous, and, most importantly, Healthy New Year 2023!
WATCH NOW – THE PROJECT VIDEO - Do not miss our new project video – The MELIA official promotional video is available on Youtube! To learn more about our project activities, please follow us on Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter.
INTERESTED IN MEDIA LITERACY? FOLLOW US AND OUR WORK AND PASS THE INFORMATION ABOUT US TO YOUR COLLEAGUES.
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you consider interested in the topic of the MELIA Observatory Project.
http://dtp.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/melia-observatory
