Young People’s Conclusion about Sources of Information: “All That Glitters Is Not Gold”

An informed person is a strong person – this was the leitmotif of the two media literacy lessons organized by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) on April 4 in the villages of Todiresti and Mereni in Anenii Noi district. These activities were attended by over 50 young people and were moderated by journalist and head of the Press Council Viorica Zaharia.

Young people were informed how to differentiate true news from false news, how to resist information manipulation via television, and also how to protect themselves from Russian propaganda.

Viorica Zaharia drew their attention to the manipulation techniques that the media use most often: “Most of the time, the media resort to such manipulation techniques as omission and truncation of quotes in order to present events in a more positive light. On the one hand, ethics and deontology clearly require journalists to report from the site of an event without intervening or adding facts, and, on the other hand, the editorial policy of media outlets tries to manipulate and distort information according to the owner’s preference.”

In this context, the journalist presented to students a vox populi about the Government’s performance, aired by a TV channel. All the respondents whose answers appeared in the broadcast praised the current government’s work and assessed it as good and very good, and no neutral or opposing source was presented. Viorica Zaharia described this video as unprofessional and unbalanced, aimed to manipulate media consumers and to present in a positive light the government, which is unacceptable in the journalistic profession. “A vox populi must be based on diversity of opinions, gender balance and diversity of age groups,” said Viorica Zaharia.

Students from “Emil Necula” lyceum in Mereni found these lessons very useful. “I learned interesting things, which every person should be aware of when they view or read a news story,” said Daniela Luca of 11^th grade.

Her classmate Daniel Ermurachi shares this opinion: “All that glitters is not gold, the proverb says. The same is true for sources of information. We must not limit ourselves to just one TV channel,” the young man concluded.

In their turn, students from the school in Todiresti village argued that the media lesson will help them follow news with more interest and that they will be better prepared to analyze information. “After this activity I realized that we should follow several TV channels, in order to see the information from different angles, and that we should read only professional news,” said Dumitru Nigai.

The purpose of the media literacy lessons is to cultivate the critical thinking of young media consumers so as to make them able to see when information is manipulating and to diversify their sources of information.

Media literacy lessons are part of the "Strengthening Freedom of Opinion in Repubiic of Moldova" project, implemented by the IJC in the period of March to November 2017 with the support of Deutsche Welle Akademie and funded from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany.