Albanian Media Institute organized a Training of Trainers session on Media and Information Literacy on October 1-2. Participants included 10 journalists, university lecturers, school teachers, media experts, and civil society activists. Trainers were Naomi Thompson, media literacy expert from European Association for Viewers Interests (EAVI,) and Stefan Janjic, media literacy trainer.
The training started by focusing on MIL introduction, including various definitions and approaches and current trends regarding MIL development. Through group work and various exercises the training continued with the ways and methods used to teach MIL to various target groups, such as children, elderly, MIL in digital environment, etc. Specific attention was also paid to the digital technologies and social media as source of information, propaganda and disinformation and civic engagement against these problems, and the role of MIL in this regard.
At the end of the course the participants formed five teams of two new trainers, where each team chose a specific topic to develop a program and hold a workshop for CSOs that would like further training on MIL and will eventually be involved in the project through sub-granting initiatives on MIL. The topics for future programs included visual literacy, media and diversity, information verification, online safety, and an understanding of how the media function.
The training is part of the EU-funded project Media for Citizens – Citizens for Media (2018-2021), which aims to build the capacities of CSOs with a wide range of activities to advance media and information literacy in the Western Balkans. A group of seven SEENPM members, led by Mediacentar Sarajevo, implement the project