Consultations Held on the Role of Informal Programs in Media Education

On Tuesday, February 14, 2023, from 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM, the third consultation within the structured dialogue on the project “Media Education Matters.MOV” was held on the Zoom platform. The consultations discussed the role and importance of informal programs in media education. The moderator of the consultation was Branimira Penić from the Croatian Debate Society, and the consultations were attended by representatives from Kurziv – Platform for Culture, Media, and Society, who are also the authors of guidelines on media education within informal education, and representatives from Gong, which is leading the “Media Education Matters.MOV” project.

The consultations addressed the importance of informal education programs, which are most often conducted by civil society organizations, in media education. To establish a framework for the consultations, the goals and recommendations for the development and further elaboration of guidelines on the role of informal programs in media education were presented. Participants in the structured dialogue used the Mentimeter tool during the consultations to answer questions about what media education means to them, what informal education is, who conducts informal education programs, and whether they run media education programs. The responses indicated that most participants involved in the consultations have experience in conducting informal educational programs and that they implement them both in schools and outside of them. Several examples of good practice in the context of media education programs were also offered, often focusing on workshops aimed at developing participants’ skills in recognizing fake news.

Despite having experience in implementing programs to improve media literacy and media education, participants pointed out that they often face challenges related to ensuring the continuity of these programs. The most common challenges mentioned include the lack of infrastructure for quality and long-term program implementation, lack of project funding, and insufficient support from state and local government institutions, as well as a limited number of users willing to participate in such programs. This is often due to the perceived quality of informal programs being questioned, difficulties in gaining new collaborators in schools, and resistance from parents to implementing media literacy programs in schools.

Consequently, the consultations also discussed the possibilities of establishing a system for recognizing and evaluating informal educational programs in media literacy. When asked about the criteria that should exist for the recognition and evaluation of informal education programs, participants responded that emphasis should be placed on developing cooperation with the founders and principals of primary and secondary schools, as well as organizing paid summer camps or workshops involving teachers, educators, and students.

According to the participants, continuous financing, regular announcement of tenders, and establishing a network for inter-organizational mentoring education through peer learning and mutual support can help ensure the quality of informal educational programs. Additionally, participants highlighted the importance of involving representatives of associations that focus on media education as experts in the validation process and in developing criteria for ensuring the quality of these programs.

Public bodies identified as needing to provide support or promote informal media literacy programs include the Ministry of Science and Education, the Agency for Education, local government bodies, schools, and other public institutions such as libraries, community colleges, and social and cultural centers. One proposal was to establish criteria through which the Agency for Education would ensure the quality of informal education programs and include them in its catalog of teacher training. There was also a question about how to encourage public institutions to participate in media literacy development projects as partners or collaborators. Responses indicated the need for timely involvement of institutions in the development of such programs and projects and for issuing calls for projects that would foster cooperation between public institutions and civil society organizations. Suggestions on how to ensure the participation of citizens and civil society organizations in all segments of the policy cycle related to educational policies focused on establishing working groups for creating policy documents, conducting deliberative citizen surveys, and developing a long-term and high-quality media campaign to promote the benefits of engaging in informal educational programs.

In the concluding part of the consultations, participants had the opportunity to rank the recommendations highlighted in the guidelines for improving the position of informal educational programs in media education by importance. The most important recommendation was to secure multi-year support for media literacy programs to ensure their continuity and stable development and enable longer-term collaboration. The second most important recommendation was to establish transparent and clear criteria and standards for cooperation between civil society organizations and educational institutions. From this, it can be concluded that ensuring the quality of informal educational programs in media literacy requires continuous financial support and the establishment of clear and transparent criteria to ensure longer-term cooperation between associations and formal educational institutions.

The meeting was organized as part of the project UP.04.2.1.06.0047 “Media Education Matters.MOV,” co-financed by the European Social Fund. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of Gong.