Within MEDIActive Youth project on news and media literacy, the News Literacy, Critical Thinking and Media Activism Training Course was successfully held in Belgrade from 26th May to 4th June 2024. The training of trainers (ToT), hosted by Centar za drustveno ekonomski razvoj (CDER), had 24 youth worker participants, 4 from each partner NGOs. It was led by experienced CDER trainers.

The goal of the ToT was to provide news literacy, critical thinking, and media activism skills to the youth workers/trainers from partner NGOs. After the ToT, they have been empowered to educate young people in news literacy and critical thinking by using blended learning. They also perfected their writing skills and started writing for the Transnational Youth Magazine – TYM, tymagazine.net.

During the ToT, the participants developed a range of knowledge and skills in the field of news literacy, critical thinking, and media activism. They learned about news literacy and its importance to individuals and society; how media and journalism influence society in the post-truth era; how to recognize manipulative media techniques; how to identify fake news, photos, video content, and social media accounts; what information disorder and information pollution are; what algorithms, news feeds, filter bubbles, and echo chambers are; the difference between bots, trolls, and cyborgs; how to find reliable source information; and how to effectively search the Web. These skills significantly improved their understanding of the news and the use of social networks. They also enhanced their critical thinking abilities and skills to understand, interpret, and critically evaluate media content, as well as practical skills to create media messages – particularly writing texts for the media.

The ToT contained several main parts:

1. News Literacy and The Power of Media

This segment provided essential knowledge and skills on news literacy and critical thinking, necessary for understanding contemporary media and media content, as well as for interpreting messages received and sent via mass media.

2. Writing Skills

Through this segment of the course, the participants improved their writing skills and learned how to write a good media article.

3. Critical Thinking

In this segment, the participants became familiar with critical thinking in detail and practiced it through examples and exercises.

4. Post-Conflict and Reconciliation Efforts in the Balkans and EU Perspective

This vital segment of the course was dedicated to fostering post-conflict reconciliation in the Balkan countries and promoting EU values and the EU itself.

5. Team Building, Cultural, and Relaxation Activities

6. Strengthening Cooperation Among Partners

The entire ToT was based on the active participation of all participants, who gained new skills and instantly applied them through hands-on training. The ToT was implemented using various working methods and techniques of non-formal learning: workshops, discussions, practical work (news writing), watching media content, case studies and movie projections, group work, online learning, icebreakers, energizers, …

MEDIActive Youth project is supported by the EU Erasmus+ Programme.