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Рy16 March 2016
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On Tuesday, March 15, students of “Dimitrie Cantemir” lyceum in the village of Vasieni, Ialoveni district, participated in a media literacy lesson organized by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) and moderated by media expert Viorica Zaharia.
Young people had the opportunity to analyze the content disseminated by various media channels. The moderator helped them understand why some journalistic materials are convincing while others raise doubts. Viorica Zaharia mentioned, among other things, that the golden rule in writing news stories is to base the text on at least two different sources. Also, to make their journalistic materials credible, journalists themselves must be well-informed about the topic they cover and abide by the rules of professional ethics.
Students also learned that a professional news story must answer the questions of “Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?” If a story fails to do that, and the journalist shares their own opinion instead, the message loses objectivity and can manipulate, underlined Viorica Zaharia. The expert suggested to students to pay attention to these aspects when they seek information in the media, so as to avoid manipulation. She also added that a news story should be always based on fresh news, so it should be not only true, but also current. “It is as if you ate an ice-cream – you either eat it quickly, or it melts,” the moderator concluded.
To better assimilate the message of the media lesson, students watched several videos produced by the IJC, which explain in an easily understandable way the need to verify information by appealing to several media sources.
At the end of the activity, students were asked to summarize the main ideas they got from this media lesson. “I often wondered how to search for information correctly, and now I understood that I should appeal to several media sources and only then make conclusions,” said Madalina Ababii, student of the 10th grade. Her classmate Gheorghe Vrabie thought that this lesson about the media was welcome and that it “had a positive impact on young people.” Marcela Barsa, also student of the 10th grade, said she will pay more attention to the structure of the news stories she will read in the press, especially to the “questions that professional news stories should answer.”
The goal of media literacy lessons is to cultivate the critical thinking of young media consumers, so that they can identify manipulation and diversify their sources of information.
Young people had the opportunity to analyze the content disseminated by various media channels. The moderator helped them understand why some journalistic materials are convincing while others raise doubts. Viorica Zaharia mentioned, among other things, that the golden rule in writing news stories is to base the text on at least two different sources. Also, to make their journalistic materials credible, journalists themselves must be well-informed about the topic they cover and abide by the rules of professional ethics.
Students also learned that a professional news story must answer the questions of “Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?” If a story fails to do that, and the journalist shares their own opinion instead, the message loses objectivity and can manipulate, underlined Viorica Zaharia. The expert suggested to students to pay attention to these aspects when they seek information in the media, so as to avoid manipulation. She also added that a news story should be always based on fresh news, so it should be not only true, but also current. “It is as if you ate an ice-cream – you either eat it quickly, or it melts,” the moderator concluded.
To better assimilate the message of the media lesson, students watched several videos produced by the IJC, which explain in an easily understandable way the need to verify information by appealing to several media sources.
At the end of the activity, students were asked to summarize the main ideas they got from this media lesson. “I often wondered how to search for information correctly, and now I understood that I should appeal to several media sources and only then make conclusions,” said Madalina Ababii, student of the 10th grade. Her classmate Gheorghe Vrabie thought that this lesson about the media was welcome and that it “had a positive impact on young people.” Marcela Barsa, also student of the 10th grade, said she will pay more attention to the structure of the news stories she will read in the press, especially to the “questions that professional news stories should answer.”
The goal of media literacy lessons is to cultivate the critical thinking of young media consumers, so that they can identify manipulation and diversify their sources of information.
The “Promoting media literacy and ethical standards in the press for informed citizens” project is being implemented by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) in the period of March-September 2016 with the financial support of Civil Rights Defenders (Sweden), partner of the IJC.
