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Students from the University of European Political and Economic Studies Want to Know Who Stays Behind Media Institutions

17 December 2015
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What is the media education and why is it important for each of us? The media expert, Viorica Zaharia asked this question to students from the University of European Political and Economic Studies “Constantin Stere” (USPEE) during a media lesson carried out on November 12 by the Centre for Independent Journalism.
The lesson continued with an interactive exercise, where the students played the role of the journalists, trying to create news addressing the topic from various perspectives, to see that the same news can be interpreted in different ways. The expert made reference to the news structure and to the five questions they should answer: who? what? when? how? where? why? in order to help the students to orientate themselves easier among the numerous news and sources. Further, the students analyzed some news and identified their gaps and what the particularities of a good piece of news are. “The news is just like an ice-cream, if we do not eat it in time, it melts”, said Viorica Zaharia, stressing the specificity of this journalistic genre.
The discussions focused on manipulation aspects, too: how this phenomenon manifests and how do we realize that a news is manipulative. The participants identified together the features of such news: a single source is used, many adjectives, half truth, the facts are hidden, the foreign press is inexactly translated, truncated extracts, citation of obscure sources etc.
The activity concluded with an exchange of views about how important the transparency of the media ownership is for the aware readers, and the students concluded that the audience had to know who stays behind media institutions.
USPEE students were satisfied with the knowledge they gained in the lesson and they think this will help them to better understand what the press writes.
Alina Gamurari says: ”I learnt how to identify reliable sources and what a news written in a professional manner whould contain”.
Vera Arman: ”… Due to this lesson I will know how to distinguish a true piece of news from a manipulative one and I will know what sources to use to inform myself”.
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Media lessons are carried out within the project “Freedom of expression and media development in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and South Caucasus", implemented by CIJ during the period May-September 2015, supported by Deutsche Welle Akademie and financed by German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development”.