Trainers’ Manual for Media and Information Literacy is one of the publications produced within Media for Citizens – Citizens for Media, an EU funded regional project implemented by five members of SEENPM in the Western Balkans.
Trainers’ Manual for Media and Information Literacy is one of the publications produced within Media for Citizens – Citizens for Media, an EU funded regional project implemented by five members of SEENPM in the Western Balkans.
Download the manual in English!
Versions of the manual in national languages are available at the following links:
- Albanian (Albanian Media Institute)
- Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian (Mediacentar Sarajevo)
- Macedonian (Macedonian Institute for Media)
- Serbian (Novi Sad School of Journalism)
The publication was primarily created with a view to helping education and other professionals from the Western Balkans, including those trained within the project, prepare their first MIL training courses.
The handbook manual offers ideas that can be used in schools: in classes of mother tongue, sociology, music and visual arts, geography, computer science, and even natural sciences.
The publication also provides tips for working with adults and senior citizens.
A basic curriculum for conducting a two-day training is presented in the manual, while trainers can adjust segments they consider most important for their target group.
In a concise and interesting way the publication offers an introduction to five key areas of media and information literacy. Three activities are suggested for each of these areas, with plenty of tips that curious coaches can use to dive deeper into the topic they consider most important.
The manual provides guidance on time and teaching materials required to cover each activity. A list of useful links is featured at the end of the publication, each link pointing to additional materials, games, tasks and other resources.
The handbook is organized to cover five areas:
- Visual Literacy
- Media and Diversity
- Fact-checking
- Online Safety
- How media function.
“These topics were chosen because of their focus on areas of great importance to any individual living in the digital environment of 21st century. That is why the accompanying examples are connected with everyday life – with the way we read media, adopt knowledge and prejudices, communicate with friends, colleagues, students…” said Stefan Janjić*, the handbook author.
“The intention of our team was to make the content of the publication as universal as possible, which was not particularly difficult since the five selected countries have more or less similar socio-political and media contexts. Some 10-20% of examples within specific activities were adapted for each country in order to reflect the local context,” Janjić explains.
*Stefan Janjić is a PhD candidate at the department for interdisciplinary studies of social sciences and humanities at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, Serbia. He holds an MA in communicology. He has been working with the Novi Sad School of Journalism since 2014 as a project coordinator and media analyst. Stefan is a certified MIL trainer, teaching assistant at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad and editor-in-chief of the Fake News Tragač (fake news debunking) website. Stefan achievements include: Extraordinary Award of the Senate of the University of Novi Sad for scientific work (awarded on two occasions); the award “Being and Language” of the Radomir Konstantinovic Foundation; scholarships: Sakura, Konrad Adenauer, Dositeja, and NIN literary scholarship.
The regional program “Media for Citizens – Citizens for Media: Strengthening the Capacity of NGOs for the Development of Media and Information Literacy in the Western Balkans” is implemented with the support of the European Union by partner organizations Mediacentar Sarajevo, Albanian Media Institute,Macedonian Institute for Media, Montenegrin Media Institute, Novi Sad School of Journalism, Peace Institute, SEENPM.