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Day 1: Tuesday, February 17, 2015

1) Introduction 2) What is media?

3) What is media literacy? 4) What information literacy 5) Why media and information literacy is important

Day 2: Wednesday, February 18, 2015

6) New media and new media technologies 7) The different roles of new and traditional media

8) Social Media Best Practices (See Facebookguideforeducators)

Day 3: Thursday, February 19, 2015

9) MIL & Intercultural Dialogue

10) Practical Skills (Web; Video; Camera, etc)

Day 4: Friday, February 20, 2015

11) Practical Skills (Web; Video; Camera, etc)

12) Wrap; Future plans; Evaluation

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Introduction

―We live in a world where the quality of information we receive largely

determines our choices and ensuing actions, including our capacity to enjoy fundamental freedoms and the ability for self-determination and development.‖

This course will assist teachers, students and youth become agents of social change and enhance intercultural understanding through the development of

Media and Information Literacy in their schools and communities.

What is media?

Media is defined as a source of credible information provided through an editorial process determined by journalistic values and attributable to

an organization or an individual. To the extent that media are an important part of every society‘s communication system, their institutional make up can

mesh with a variety of non-media information providers, such as libraries, museums, archives, Internet information providers, other information organizations and citizens who produce their own content.

Media in another sense is a communication channel like newspapers,

magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, other telecommunications through which information can be disseminated. Media can take the form of singular or plural verb depending on the sense intended.

Mass Media is a means of communicating to a very large number of people. This could be through a medium like newspapers, magazines, TVs, Radios, the

Internet.

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What is media literacy?

A Media literate person should have the competences that will enable him/her to analyse, evaluate and create messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres, and forms. Wikipedia describes Media Literacy as a repertoire of

competences that enable people to analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres, and forms.

Media Literacy is the ability to understand how the mass media works, how to use or organise media messages to produce effective results. The question Media Literacy seeks to answer are: How do we make meaning out of messages

and how do we put them to good use?

What is information literacy?

An information literate individual is able to:

Access the needed information effectively and efficiently Evaluate information and its sources critically Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose

Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally

Information literacy is therefore the abilitiy to identify the needed information,

evaluate and use them effectively.

Why media and information literacy is important

Individuals are faced with diverse and abundant information choices in their

academic, social, political, religious and cultural pursuit as well as public and personal lives. Information is available through mass media. Information can

come to individuals in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity and reliability. The sheer abundance of information alone will not create an informed citizenry without complementary abilities necessary

to use information effectively.

Due to proliferation of media and information resources in the contemporary environment of rapid technological change, media and information literacy is

an increasingly needed tool for students, teachers, parents, media and information professionals, policy makers, etc.

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New media and new media technologies

The different roles of new and traditional media

New Media as the name implies can be seen as information dissemination shift from the old traditional practices. New Media offers a broader reach and participation in programmes and events by citizens. It creates interactivity and

active engagement among the citizenry. People share videos, pictures, update

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their profiles and information on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. This has great impact. Through these New Media channels

people can share their views, make suggestions, engage each other and policy makers. It has revolutionized the way societies think and act.

Social Media

The steady growth in technology is creating an avalanche of opportunities in today‘s world. Young people have already adjusted to this new world order.

Social Media has become a popular tool for interaction among young people. It creates a platform and opportunity for sharing knowledge and information

exchange among the youth. What kind of impact does social media have on the way young people

communicate?

MIL & Intercultural Dialogue

‗There will be peace on earth when there is peace among the religions; no peace among religions without dialogue between religions.‘ – Hans Küng

‗Interreligious and intercultural dialogue is not only urgent but critical to the

survival of the human species. In our globalized, blended world, where different religions and cultures encounter each other daily, you will have nothing but turmoil and violence unless you actively promote interreligious and

intercultural dialogue to achieve harmony and understanding.‘ Thomas Banchoff, in Bridging Babel: New Social Media and Interreligious

and Intercultural Understanding

While religion can provide deep meaning and richness for people around the world, it has also been, throughout history, a flashpoint for conflict and misunderstanding. ―Unless ignorance and hatred can be overcome by tolerance

and understanding, religious and cultural conflicts are likely to continue—and intensify.‖1

This tolerance and understanding can be achieved if religious leaders, teachers and students acquire MIL skills to enable them distill information and apply it

in their relationship with the Other. The emergence of new technologies makes the tasks for religious leaders,

teachers and students even more daunting. They are confronted with different ways and platforms to connect with their followers, peers and the Other and

they have to understand the peculiarities and challenges of these platforms in

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order to use them to halt bigotry, prejudice, etc., and foster interreligious and intercultural dialogue.

Media and information literacy (MIL) provides a strong platform for citizens,

including religious people, to understand and appreciate pluralism and diversity, amongst other things. Media and information literacy has the potential to become a powerful and positive force for peaceful co-existence and

effective participation in society. Without MIL, disparities are likely to increase between those who have and

those who do not have access to information and media, and enjoy or not freedom of expression. Additional disparities will emerge between those who are

able and unable to find, analyse and critically evaluate and apply information and media content for decision-making.

New media and information technologies, while offering greater opportunities for new types of citizens‘ engagement, centered on freedoms and eradicating

inequalities, also give rise to issues of safety, security, privacy, violence, stereotyping, etc.

The use of these technologies can create tension between the need to empower or to protect citizens as well as tension between global and local cultural and religious interests that threaten to curtail the free expression and appreciation

of interreligious and intercultural diversity.

Media and Information Literacy initiatives can help religious people acquire competencies to advocate and create their own counterbalance to dominant cultures by sharing their stories through discussion and creative engagement,

thus promoting interreligious dialogue and pluralism. Recognition of religious diversity goes hand in hand with efforts to promote

interreligious dialogue. In many instances, however, there is a narrowing of religious representations in the media and other information outlets, leading to

a general feeling of invisibility among members of different religions and groups.

Moreover, in the case of the network of mainstream media, such a limited range of representations tends to promote the creation of stereotypes through

what is often called the process of ‗othering‘, whereby the media fix, reduce or simplify according to the dictates of standardized program and formats.

Such media representations may serve to reinforce the power of vested interests and exacerbate social exclusion by excluding critical or marginalized voices, which usually belong to the category of ‗Others‘.2

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Media and Information Literacy has the citizen as its starting point. However, people are not regarded as inactive from an MIL perspective. Rather, they are

actively involved in constructing their own realities.

This view of active, self-determining citizens is critical to interreligious and intercultural dialogue in which communication is a given. MIL can enhance interreligious understanding and thus render people more critical of how they

engage the media and information industries and how to ensure interreligious and intercultural harmony.

MIL thus equips people to be more discerning and probing of the world around, thereby becoming more self-aware and better able to appropriate the offerings

of media and information for exchange of ideas, dialogue and self-identity. This process of self-identity formation is critical to interreligious and

intercultural dialogue, enabling people to understand their own religious and cultural points of departure, and thus engage in dialogue on the basis of an

―authentic communication‖ in which they ―have an awareness of the ways in which they might be manipulated or coerced and an awareness of the ways in which differential power is operative in the society‖.3

Notes

1 Hoerger, E (ed.) 2010. Bridging Babel: New Social Media and Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding. Washington, D.C,: The Berkley Center for

Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, p. 3.

2 Van den Bulck, H. and Van Poecke, L. (1996). National language, identity formation, and broadcasting: the Flemish and German-Swiss communities. In Braman, S. and & Sreberny-Mohammadi, A. (eds.), Globalization, communication and transnational civil society. Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press, Inc.:, pp. 157-177. See also Branston, G and Stafford, R. (2003). The media student’s book. Third edition. London and New York: Routledge.

3 Saffari, S. (2012). Limitations of dialogue: conflict resolution in the context of power asymmetries and neglected differences. In Mojtaba Mahdavi and W. Andy Knight (eds.), Towards the dignity of difference? Neither ‘end of history’ nor ‘clash of civilizations’. Ashgate: Surrey & Burlington, pp.245-259.

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For Students PART 1

MIL emphasizes Critical Thinking & Critical Skills. The IDENTIFY framework is the first lesson in Part One.

The lesson plans in Part One focus on giving students a set of critical skills—

comprehension, analysis, evaluation—to be used to help them appreciate how media cover news. Part One of the curriculum teaches students how to identify what ―news‖ matters, how to monitor media coverage, and how to understand

the media‘s role in shaping global issues

IDENTIFY why information is important to individuals…and to civil society IDENTIFY what‘s newsworthy: what‘s covered where?

IDENTIFY how audiences access news

IDENTIFY how audiences interpret information

IDENTIFY the viewpoint of news stories

IDENTIFY how news organizations use words

IDENTIFY how images can influence news messages

IDENTIFY how the news media attract an audience

IDENTIFY core journalistic standards and values

IDENTIFY the foundations of good reporting and ethical journalism

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS IDENTIFY FRAMEWORK

Students who complete some or all of these lesson plans will have worked through the following points:

Information is key to our understanding of the world around us, our

ability to find a meaningful role in it, and our capacity to take advantage of the resources available to us.

Information is power. When information is concentrated within the hands of a few or only in the hands of elites, the public‘s ability both to

make decisions and to assess the decisions of others is greatly reduced.

An ethical and pluralistic media can ensure transparency, accountability

and the rule of law.

Words and pictures have different abilities to attract attention to issues and events, yet fundamentally, both work to promote participation in public and political discourse

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All information is subject to interpretation. The fullest airing of an issue occurs in a responsible and pluralistic media environment. That free

and open airing of an issue leads in turn to participatory governance where special interests are less able to singularly spin public debate

and shape public policy.

Why Information Matters

IDENTIFY why information is important to individuals… and to civil society

When people know what is happening, they are better equipped to make all the decisions of their lives: where to live, what school to go to, where to work, who to vote for.

Class discussion: What kind of information is important to you? What

would you not be able to do if you had no way of getting information from other people or other places?

Class discussion: What does your community need or want to know

about right ―now‖? What matters to your community: it may be government laws, but your community might also care about sports, food, housing and use of land, family connections, health,

transportation, etc.

Student exercise: Go to a place in your community where people gather—it may be a street corner, a restaurant, a playground, etc.

Make a list of information that you could get at those places that you either need or would like to have. Order the list in terms of its importance to you.

Follow-up exercise: What are the differences between ―my‖ information

needs and my family‘s needs? What do adults need to know that is different than what children and teenagers need to know? What kind

information do different jobs demand? Do some jobs demand more information–or just different kinds of information? What kinds of jobs need information about what has just happened and what kinds of

jobs need information that stays the same over time.

Class discussion: What does it mean to be a citizen and be involved in a community? How does information not only keep us informed but help

us to be responsible citizens?

What's Newsworthy?

Identify what‘s newsworthy: what‘s covered where?

What is news? Who decides? How are the decisions made?

Class discussion: Different media make different choices about what is news and what is important news. List as many factors as you can that

might direct a news outlet to consider what‘s important. (You might want to consider the outlets‘ audience, location, medium—print, radio, TV, online, etc

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Student exercise: Think of three important events that happened: one in your own life, one in the school where you go, and the third in the

community in which you live. Explain which of these events would be covered in the media–would the events be in your school media, the

local media, the national media? Why? What‘s the criteria that different media use to judge what they report on?

Student exercise: Select a news story that has recently been in the news. See if you can figure out why the story has been chosen for

coverage. You might want to consider the following eight factors–those that editors and producers use to consider whether a story should be published or broadcast

1. Timeliness: Did the event just happen?

2. Proximity: How close is the event, physically and psychologically?

3. Prominence: How many people have some knowledge of the person or event?

4. Significance: How many people will be affected? By how much?

5. Currency: Is the event part of an on-going issue? If not, should people

know?

6. Controversy: Is there conflict or drama?

7. Uniqueness: Is it a first, last, largest, least, best or worst?

8. Emotional Appeal: Is there humor, sadness or a thrill?

Accessing News & Information

Identify how audiences access news

Who is the audience for news? Who needs news? How do different audiences (adults, teens, those in power, those not, wealthy, poor, men, women, etc.) get

their news?

Class discussion: Different media/different purposes: You yourself use different media for different reasons and at different times. What media do you use? When do you use it? Why do you use it?

Student exercise: Here's a list of information that we all want to find on

occasion: the weather, the time of our favorite TV programme, what station shows the film we want to watch, what hospital our relative is

in, where to do the research for our homework. Where should one go to get each type of information?

Class discussion: Different audiences/different media: Some media appeal to certain kinds of audiences more than others. Why?

Student exercise: Consider the news that appears in newspapers, on

radio, on TV program, online or via cell phone. Do different media reach different people? Why? Who uses which media?

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Student exercise: The way news and information is delivered and accessed can have a bearing on how audiences interpret and

incorporate the news and information. Does the way an audience access its news have a bearing on whether that audience believes the

information to be true?

Identify how audiences interpret information

Everyone interprets information and news from their own perspective.

Class discussion: What in your experience might make you interpret information differently than someone else your own age? in your own family? in your neighborhood?

Student exercise: Have a teacher pick a photograph from the newspaper

and give it to students without a caption. Have the students each write a caption and then compare the different captions–and the original

newspaper caption.

Follow-up exercise: The same exercise can be done with headlines: students can be given the same story and be asked to write a headline. Then post all the headlines that are written. What are the differences?

(They might be of language. They might be what point is emphasized.)

Follow-up exercise: Rewrite that story for two different audiences (old, young, men, women, different political groups, etc.) What would

change? What would not?

Class discussion: Does all news have to follow the same stylistic template? Is there room for creativity, remixing and individual expression?

Student or small-group exercise: Find several examples of alternative media (radio, podcasts, websites, newspapers, text messaging, etc.) that report news in different ways than mainstream news

organizations. What is the value of their kind of news delivery? Are they reaching a different kind of audience? Is their information more credible? Less credible? Why?

Multiple Sources

Identify the viewpoint of news stories

Many news media give both facts and commentary. Audiences need both AND need to identify the difference between fact and opinion.

Class discussion: Is there any way to give people the facts of an event or issue without a viewpoint coming through? Should reporters try to

write an ―objective‖ news story? Is there such a thing as ―objectivity‖?

Further class discussion: If there not such a thing as ―objectivity,‖ what should reporters strive for? Fairness? Balance? Pluralism? Neutrality?

Many news organizations make distinctions between opinion pieces (sometimes grouping them on a specific opinion page) and general

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news reporting? Should there be those distinctions made, if ALL stories have some perspective?

Student exercise: Compare the front pages of multiple newspapers

(local/regional/national). Are the stories the same? Why or why not?

Student exercise: Select a story in any section of the newspaper (news, sports, entertainment). Read the story. Underline the facts that the

reporter mentions. Pay attention to whether a piece of information is truly a ―fact‖ or is just something that is said by someone quoted in the story. (i.e ―the president said‖ may be a ―fact‖–but what he said may be

an opinion.)

Follow-up exercise: Using the same story (or a different one from any section of the newspaper underline any words that suggest an opinion

or a perspective by the reporter. Consider also the ordering of the information and what information is emphasized.

Follow-up exercise: Take a look at one newspaper. Where have the editors decided to put various kinds of information? Is there a political

news section and a sports section for instance? Is there a ―news‖ section and an ―opinion‖ section?

Follow-up exercise: Are the opinion stories signed and identified or are

they unsigned? Are you told any information about those who write the signed opinion pieces in the paper? Are you told about the political perspectives of the editors of the newspaper–the ones who write the

unsigned opinion pieces?

Small group project: Find two stories (in the news section) on the same subject in two different newspapers or different news outlets (i.e. online

sources). What changes from one version to another? Is one more ―factual‖ than the other? How do you decide that one is more based on facts

Follow-up exercise: Find a story in one newspaper that is written about

in the ―news‖ section and also written about in the ―opinion‖ section. Is there any difference? Do you learn different information? Is different

language used? What‘s the difference between telling someone the ―facts‖ (what reporters call the ―Who, What, Where, When, Why and How) and trying to convince that person of the meaning of those

―facts‖?

Word Choices

Identify how news organizations use words

Often the public is unaware that words that have one definition to one group and a different meaning for another. We may be aware of what we think a word

means, but not be aware that another set of people understands the same word differently.

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Class discussion: Compare the words that different media use to talk about the same event or issue. Generate a list that have used

differently by different groups. Some people talk about ―Climate Change‖ while others talk about ―Global Warming.‖ A ―rebel‖ to one

group of people might be considered a ―fighter‖ by another, a ―death‖ to one group might be considered ―murder‖ by another, a ―religious organization‖ to one group of people might be consider a ―cult‖ by

others. Do those words or phrases mean the same thing?

Student exercise: With students working in pairs or groups, take a set of stories and look at specific words that the news outlets used—did the different outlets use the same words to describe the same event or

issues? And if they did use the same words, did they use them equally often

Class discussion: Do media describe or cover people differently

depending on their gender, race/ethnicity, class/caste, age, religion, handicap or politics?

Student exercise: With students working in the pairs or groups, take a

set of stories and consider the people who were talked to or quoted. If the same type of people were talked to, were they referred to in the same way (the same descriptions used?) i.e Are the same details

mentioned about women as men (for example, the clothing of women)? Are the same details mentioned about minority as majority groups or political opponents? What might be the impact on readers or viewers of

any differences that you find?

Follow-up discussion: Media may reflect their audiences‘ attitudes towards other groups or other places. They can also have an impact on

those attitudes. Give examples of how different ways of reporting on different groups or places can result in positive outcomes–say to overcome prejudice and stereotypes?

Student exercise: If you find a story that stereotypes different people or

groups of people, rewrite it. What did you have to change in order to eliminate the stereotype?

Images as Messages

Identify how images can influence news messages

Class discussion: Find an event that has been covered by both

newspapers and TV. How is the story covered differently? What do images tell that words on a page cannot? Which version of the story gives the audience more usable information? Which version is more

compelling? Is the version that is more informative the same one that is more compelling? If not, is that a problem?

Student exercise: Find an article that has a photo as part of the story.

Does the photo tell the same story as the text? Does the photo give

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additional information? How does the caption makes a difference to your interpretation of the image?

Student exercise: Select an article from a newspaper or a story from

radio. If you could add a photograph to the story what—or who—would it depict? How would that image add to the story? How would that

picture change your understanding of the story?

Attracting Audiences

Identify how the news media attract an audience

Which type of news stories, headlines, photographs, video, audio, etc. attract the largest audiences? Do news outlets always want the largest audience?

Class discussion: What news outlets in your region attract the largest

audiences? Why? Who do the news outlets appeal to?

Student exercise: Pick a local news organization. You‘ve been hired to attract more young people as an audience to that newspaper, radio program, TV station, etc. What would you do?

Student exercise: As a class select a story in the news. Divide the class

into four parts.

1. Have one part of the class come up with three headlines for the story that emphasize the positive elements on the story.

2. Have the second part of the class come up with three headlines that

are as neutral as possible about the news story.

3. Have the third part of the class come up with three headlines that put a negative light on the story‘s events.

4. Have the fourth part of the class come up with three headlines that

sensationalize the story—that dramatize some element in the story.

Class discussion: How might these different headlines make you feel differently about the story—even if the story itself is not changed? How might you rewrite the story itself to be more positive, more neutral,

more negative or more sensational?

Journalism Standards

Defend core journalistic standards and values

What is essential to good reporting? Accuracy, fairness, ―balance‖ and the necessity of disclosing mistakes. These are the critical elements.

Class discussion: Telling the ―Truth‖: ―Truth‖ is a problematic term for

journalists. Why? Are there different ―truths‖?

Student exercise: Find a news story in any medium. Answer the following questions:

1. Is a story accurate? How does the reporter convince his or her readers

that the ―facts‖ are correct?

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2. Is it fair? Has the reporter given proportionate attention to the details of the story that is covered—has he or she over-emphasized or under-

emphasized important elements of the story? (Would political opponents agree that the story is fair?)

3. Is it balanced? Talking about ―balance‖ sometimes presupposes there

are only two sides. What if there are far more than two sides? What is the value of hearing a diverse set of voices–people who hold different political opinions, people who are officials and people who are workers,

women as well as men, etc.?

4. What if there are at least two opinions but the great majority of people share one belief (i.e. the Earth is round, not flat)? Should journalists

give equal time to opinions that are minority opinions? What about opinions that are minority political opinions? What if the opinions are hateful? What if the opinions are minority scientific opinions (such as

those who believe in creationism or who do not believe in the science of climate change or do not believe in connections between the HIV virus and AIDS)? Should those opinions be treated by journalists as

―neutrally‖ as the opinions held by the majority of scientists?

Class project: Select 6 different online news sites and look for how (and where) they post their corrections. Do all the outlets tell their readers

about the mistakes they make? Do they all have ombudsmen (or public editors or readers‘ editors)? How is the public served by the role of ombudsmen? (You might want to look at this recent study [19] on

transparency and how online media admit their mistakes.)

Journalism Ethics

Identify the foundations of good reporting and ethical journalism

Media must build trust and credibility with their audiences. One way news outlets do so is by adhering to unwritten and written codes of conduct. Codes

of ethics provide the guidelines for news media to operate. The best of these are the result of a thoughtful process of self regulation that emphasizes journalistic transparency, while protecting sources, and promotes honesty and service to

the community, especially those groups of people who may be under-represented.

Class discussion: Why do news audiences value news organizations that

adhere to a code of ethics? Why do such codes make good business sense?

Student exercise: Take a look at the ethical codes of conducts for news organizations in your region. Do you think they are strong enough? Do

the media outlets follow their own (or the industry‘s) code of ethics? Find specific examples of where they do or do not.

Agenda-Setting Media

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Identify how media help set local, national and global political, social and cultural agendas

How does news travel? How does a story that is picked up by one news outlet

get passed on to other news outlets? Some major media outlets seem to set the agenda for news--the agenda of politicians, the agenda of businesses, even the

agenda of teen-agers. Everyone talks about what stories those news outlets cover and what opinions those news outlets express. What makes a news outlet agenda-setting?

Class discussion: What makes a news outlet so "important" that

everyone seems to pay attention to it? What makes a news outlet influential in setting policy--why do lawmakers pay more attention to

certain news outlet than others? What makes a media outlet influential in setting cultural interests--why do young people listen to the opinions from one outlet more than others? Are the elements that

make a news outlet influential politically the same elements that make a media outlet influential culturally?

o Follow-up discussion: Do you think the most influential news

media are those that best adhere to the best standards of journalism, such as accuracy and fairness?

Student exercise: Chose 3 major media outlets in your region--they can be newspapers, television stations or radio stations (or any of those).

Read the front page of the newspaper or watch or listen to the major news program of the day for the 3 outlets you pick. For each outlet make a list of all the stories that are covered on the front page or in

that news program. Then write up a comparison of how the media covered the news on that same day. You will want to consider such

questions as:

o How many of the stories from each outlet are local, how many are national, how many are international?

o Which stories are covered by all three outlets?

o Which stories are unique to one outlet?

o Which stories do you think will get people talking?

Student exercise/research: Consider how influential certain musicians

are in your region. Do you think the musicians who get the most attention on the radio or on television or via other media are the "best" musicians? What role does money play in bringing those musicians to

everyone's attention?

o Select a major musician or musical group in your area and research how that musician or group makes its money. Is the

musician supported by a major record label or other corporation? Are there any business links between the musician, the recording company and the media outlets?

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Monitor

Monitor and compare media coverage

The MONITOR framework is the second section in Part One.

The lesson plans in Part One focus on giving students a set of critical skills—

comprehension, analysis, evaluation—to be used to help them appreciate how media cover news. Part One of the curriculum teaches students how to identify what ―news‖ matters, how to monitor media coverage, and how to understand

the media‘s role in shaping global issues

MONITOR how different media cover the same news issues and events MONITOR how different media handle graphic images

MONITOR how media cover politics and public policy

MONITOR how news coverage affects social and corporate

institutions—schools, religious institutions, community groups, local or

national businesses, etc..

MONITOR how media affect culture and politics

MONITOR the differences between state-controlled (and/or state-owned) media and editorially independent or private media

MONITOR the business of media

MONITOR media and other people‘s rights

MONITOR media and gender issues

MONITOR media and developing/non-western countries

MONITOR stereotypes in entertainment media

MONITOR media for partisan reporting

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS MONITOR FRAMEWORK

Student who complete some or all of these lesson plans will have worked through the following points:

Access to information is critical for the smooth functioning of news media and for the society to hold its political, religious, business and

community leadership accountable. Freedom of information laws are an important part of creating the enabling environment necessary for

independent and pluralistic media to thrive.

Independent media draw their power from reporting responsibly on the communities they serve. Ethical reporting—accurate and fair coverage—in turn gives the public the knowledge they need to

participate in and build a civil, democratic society.

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A free and pluralistic media sector—one that crosses media platforms (print, broadcast, online) and political perspectives—helps

communities better reflect on themselves

If those in power manipulate journalists, if those journalists don‘t protest against that manipulation—or willing capitulate to it—the media

become just another arm of authority, a propaganda tool to distract, deceive and betray the public

Freedom of Expression works to ensure that more than a select few are able to determine what is expressed and discussed in the media. When

media control is dispersed into many hands, opinions that are not popular can often still find a forum.

Effective local and online media outlets can give people the means to

participate in democratic processes. They can fill the void left by corporate media interested in reaching large audiences that ironically may not include the underrepresented or marginalized populations in a

society.

The increasing concentration of ownership of the sources of news and information into fewer and fewer hands is one of the greatest

contemporary threats to freedom of expression. When media ownership is concentrated, those few owners exercise a great deal of control over the character of the local or national discussion of issues.

The fact that the news has become a profit center for many owners

means that cost considerations lie behind decisions about what stories to cover, how much to cover them, and what angles to push. Ultimately

the question becomes very basic: how much is news and information valued?

Different Perspectives

Monitor how different media cover the same news issues and events

Monitor how different media cover the same news issues and events

Getting news from multiple venues and multiple media (print, radio, TV, and

online): do different types of media cover the same stories? Why get information from multiple sources?

Class project: Find three different types of news outlets‘ coverage of the

same story (i.e. magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, online, etc.). What are the difference in the stories? Are the differences for logistical reasons (i.e. one outlet had more time or one outlet gave more space to

the story) or are they for political or demographic reasons (i.e. one outlet has a audience of business and professional people and the

other has an audience which is less educated and well-paid)? What do you learn from reading/hearing/seeing all three stories that you wouldn‘t have learned from just getting one of the stories?

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Role-play exercise: A major natural disaster (earthquake, cyclone, flood, heatwave, etc.) has just hit and your immediate area is the center of

the devastation. Hundreds, perhaps thousands are dead. Houses and other buildings have collapsed. Local and national officials, including

medical personnel and the armed forces are scrambling to help. Relief flights are beginning to come in to the area. Communications between your area and the outside world remains possible via phone and

Internet.

Divide the class into three.

1. One group of students should pretend to be international reporters from international news organizations (most of whom don‘t speak the local

language)—the BBC, CNNI, Al Jazeera, the Associated Press, etc.

➢ Have the students who are the international journalists decide what stories

they are going to cover. Who is the primary audience for their stories? How will

they find out what happened? Who will they talk to?

2. One group of students should pretend to be local reporters from the local news organizations—print, radio and TV outlets.

➢ Have the students who are the local journalists decide what stories they are

going to cover. Who is the primary audience for their stories? How will they find out what happened? Who will they talk to?

3. One group of students should pretend to be local citizens who have their

own blog sites online.

➢ Have the students who are the local bloggers decide what information they

are going to post on their own websites. Who will be their audience?

What are the advantages and limitations of each group ―covering‖ this disaster?

Follow-up class discussion: If there were no local reporters on the

story—if all the news came from people who were not living in the area—what type of information would likely not be covered? Who

would lose out?

Class discussion: The Internet has led to the emergence of a new type of reporter. The citizen journalist may be someone with interest in local events and writes about these happenings on what is called a blog. The

blogger may be a reporter, with journalism training, who seeks another and, perhaps, more personal outlet for their reporting. But more often,

bloggers are individuals in a community, with no formal journalism training, who have something to say and the Internet provides the platform for them to do this on a global scale.

Student exercise: Where do you place bloggers in your list of

trustworthy news sources? As a news consumer, do you need to take additional steps to verify a blogger‘s reporting? If so, what?

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Student exercise: What kind of information can ordinary citizens provide via the Internet or cell phone? Can those citizen-bloggers be a

substitute for local reporters in a crisis? Why or why not? What about in general (when there is no crisis, but just every day news is

occurring)?

Graphic Images

Monitor how different media handle graphic images

Monitor how different media handle graphic images How should media balance what their audiences can bear with what their audience needs to be told? What‘s offensive? What‘s necessary?

Student exercise: What news photographs do you remember? Why are

they memorable?

Student exercise: Look at the television or newspaper coverage of a local controversial story. Do you agree with the images the producers or

editors selected to tell the story? How would different images have changed the audience‘s understanding of the importance what happened?

Class discussion: Many people in the audience of a media outlet are offended when editors and producers use graphic images. How can editors and producers tell their readers and viewers about their

reasons for running such pictures? Does it make a difference to know why an editor or producer selected a certain image or video clip?

Role-play exercise, Part I: Consider that the students in the class are all editors at a local newspaper or producers at a local television

station. One of the news outlet‘s reporters comes back to the newsroom with the story of a horrible accident that happened in your town. A bus

full of people has crashed, killing 10 and injuring 12. Another 8 people were uninjured. The reporter took photos (or videotape) of a wide ranges of scenes. Some of the images show just the crumpled bus.

Some show the survivors—some of the photos of the survivors show close-ups of them keening in grief over the bodies of their dead or

injured relatives; other photos of survivors are from a greater distance and show the destruction of the entire scene. Some photographs show the wounded—some show the wounded bloodied and crying off by

themselves, others show the wounded receiving medical attention by emergency personnel who arrived on the scene. Some images show the dead—some show the dead in sufficient close-up that the fatal injuries

can be clearly seen and the people can be recognized, other images show the dead from a distance—in fact the only way to really tell that

they are dead is through a photo caption saying that these people are dead.

➢ The story is to run in the news outlet selected by the students. The question

for the student-editors/producers is: What single photo should be used to

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illustrate the story or what selected footage should run on TV as the story is being reported? Do you show the dead or the wounded? Do you show the

rescuers or the grief of the uninjured survivors? Be sure to consider who is the audience for your news outlet.

Role-play exercise, Part II: After selecting the type of news image you

think is appropriate consider if the story was slightly different. Would you make the same choice? Why?

➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if this accident didn‘t happen in

your town, but occurred in the country next door?

➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if this happened in the country next

door, but people from your town were killed?

➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if this was the third major accident

of a bus in your town in the last 6 months?

➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if those who were traveling on the

bus were school children? What about if a famous person was one of the passengers?

➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if you know that this was not a

random accident—the driver was drunk and he was the cause of the tragedy?

➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if the tragedy was not caused by an

accident, but was caused by a suicide bomber?

PART 2: MIL & INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE AS WELL AS CHALLENGES AND RISKS RELATED TO ONLINE CONTENT

Internet opportunities and challenges for students

Taking part in the information society is essential for citizens of all age groups. The Internet provides great opportunities to improve life for all users. It has

positive effects on education, the working world and economic growth. With easy digitalization and storage of information, and accessibility through a wide range of devices, the Internet has enormously increased the information

resources available to people. Children and young people are often well acquainted with its applications and

can benefit from its use tremendously, but they are also vulnerable. Risks and threats accompany this positive development, often in parallel to those that

already exist in the offline world. The explosion of hate websites and other websites that present opinion posing

as objective fact represent a challenge for those seeking to identify reliable sources of information, and it is critical that religious leaders, like other

teachers and citizens, have the tools to identify these websites. How can

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religious leaders recognize hate websites and separate commentary from fact? How can religious leaders help their followers to critically analyze information

and opinion, especially when it comes to representations of other religious communities?

The best way to help young people and adults stay out of harm‘s way is to empower and educate them on how to avoid or manage risks related to

Internet use. The issue of radicalization among religious communities has emerged as a

concern in many countries and among many religious groups around the world. Taking measures to protect minors may help address the problem. As

helpful as these measures might be, however, total reliance on protection strategies has not been effective in enabling young people to use the Internet responsibly.

As a critical starting point, it is therefore important to empower religious

leaders and young people to avoid or manage the risks and pitfalls inherent in using the Internet, and assist them in using the Internet as a platform to promote messages of peace and reconciliation. Technologies can play a useful

and supportive role in this area. Young People in the Virtual World

After completing this unit, teachers will be able to: ●Understand young people‘s

Internet usage patterns and interests ●Have basic awareness of terms and conditions, codes of conduct and privacy regulations with respect to Internet use ●Develop their ability to use educational methods and basic tools to help

young people, particularly in religious communities and schools, use the Internet responsibly – and make them aware of the related opportunities, challenges and risks.

This unit can be taught using resources you can find online, such as a rights-

free videos about the Internet and its expanding features and impact society. Alternatively, you can prepare a short PowerPoint presentation on Web 2.0.

It should include as many of the key elements of the virtual world as possible. Organize discussions in small groups about these key elements. 1. Ask each

group to prepare and deliver a short presentation on the benefits of Web 2.0. 2. Youth in religious communities, like other people, encounter images of the Other online.

What are the platforms on which youth learn about or engage with the Other? What are the risks and opportunities associated with web use? How are

communities working to educate Youth to responsibly use the Internet? 3. If time allows, and computers with Internet access are available: Ask religious

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leaders if they belong to social networks and/or use the web, and if so, how frequently.

Ask them to surf the web, set up a profile, look up profiles of others, upload

and download content from Internet platforms (e.g. Wikipedia), and take part in chat rooms, online collaboration, blogging and twittering. A discussion with trainees after this activity should focus on the educational benefits and

responsible use of the web, and its challenges and risks. Write down and discuss some of your personal concerns when using the web.

Ask religious leaders to organize themselves into small groups. Each group should discuss and list at least five main activities they think young people

engage in on the Internet. Ask them to rank the importance of these activities on a scale of 1 to 5. Each group should present the outputs of their discussions, explaining how they organized themselves and what influenced

the decisions they took. The trainer should then present actual statistics (prepared prior to this session and based on existing resources) about

children‘s use of the Internet if such figures are available. Compare the outputs of the group work with what actual statistics say.

Discuss. Are there surprises? Are there statistics about Internet use specific to your region or country? If not, what are the implications? Discuss what can be done about the absence of such statistics. Discuss with religious leaders the

general terms and conditions, codes of conduct and privacy regulations of different Internet applications. Then encourage them to develop a model code

of conduct, focusing on the use of Internet by children and young people. After completing this unit, students will be able to: ●List and describe the

challenges/risks of Internet use and where they are most likely to occur, especially as they relate to religious communities. ●Develop knowledge about risks and threats that potentially accompany newly developed Internet

applications ●Understand the interdependencies between users‘ behaviour and the likelihood of them being a victim or a perpetrator ●Identify hate websites

or groups using social media to promote hate, and explain some options for responsibly and effectively responding to hate on the Internet ●Apply this knowledge to enable religious leaders to use the Internet more responsibly.

CHALLENGES AND RISKS RELATED TO ONLINE CONTENT

Age-inappropriate content: The Internet provides a wealth of content for all groups of users. Mainstream interests are served as well as special interest

groups. Nevertheless, not all content should be accessible for children and young people. So it has to be carefully decided which content is appropriate to which age group.

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Special attention should be given to content that is not illegal in general but might harm younger users. Age-inappropriate content like adult pornography

might especially harm younger children when exposed to it unintentionally. The risk of facing age-inappropriate content can result from the user‘s own

conduct when searching for it deliberately, as well as stumbling across it without intending to.

Content that is not appropriate for all age groups might be provided for commercial reasons, but can also be generated by users themselves. Access to the former might be restricted to closed user-groups only, while user-generated

content is mostly publicly available and therefore needs special attention. Since today many children and young people have a mobile phone with multimedia

functionalities and access to the Internet at their fingertips, it must be considered that they might access age-inappropriate content when on their own and not having an adult for guidance at their side. Mobile devices also

enable children to produce their own digital content in any life situation, thus contributing to the increasing volume of user-generated content.

Illegal content (i.e. racism and child pornography): The type of content classified as illegal depends foremost on national laws, although some type of

content is outlawed in most countries. Nevertheless, illegal content is available and can be accessed unintentionally or deliberately by children and young people. Attention should also be paid to children and young people as potential

victims of illegal content, e.g. by taking and publishing pictures or videos of child abuse.

Lack of verification of content: Given that content available through the Internet is often not verified by an independent source, it is important that

young people learn to read content with a critical eye and not take everything that is said at face value. User-generated content, characteristic of the Web 2.0 environment, can often be partial, biased or inaccurate. Younger users need to

be aware of the dangers of simply believing anything they read online.

Incitement of harm: There are many sites on the web inciting users to harm themselves (e.g. websites promoting suicide, anorexia or sectarianism). With Web 2.0 and the increasing possibilities to publish user‘s own content, the risk

of being exposed to content inciting harm is growing. In particular children and young people are in many cases not able to make a realistic assessment of the

risks arising from following the instructions given in such websites. Infringement of human rights / defamation: In the anonymity of the web,

propaganda against certain population groups or individuals can easily be widespread. In addition, one can presume that people act differently online when they do not have to face their counterparts or victims directly and

therefore are not immediately confronted with the consequences of their conduct. Thus the risk of infringement of human rights and being a victim of

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defamation is much more likely online than in reality. Also, defamatory content is harmful to children and young people whose opinion might be influenced by

misleading information.

Inappropriate advertisement and marketing to children: Inappropriate advertisement means the risks of receiving or being exposed to advertising for products and/or services that are inappropriate to children like cosmetic

surgery. The more users give away private information (i.e. name, age or gender), the more likely they are to receive advertisements or be asked to participate in lotteries.

Since children are in many cases unaware of the consequences of typing their

names into forms and boxes on the web, they are profoundly at risk. Considering the high penetration rate of mobile phones among children and young people, attention should also be paid to this additional channel for the

dissemination of advertisement.

Privacy: Once published on the web, content can spread rapidly around the world and remain in existence indefinitely. Users, and in particular children and young people, are often unaware of the short-and long-term consequences

of publishing texts and pictures they may not want to make available publicly later. Data stored on a server or a platform can be easily accessed by others and people may not be aware of how unprotected their personal data can be. It

is important when using the Internet that people fully understand the environment they are working in.

Copyright infringement: Copyright infringement is a risk mostly related to the conduct of users themselves. Irrespective of whether a copyright has been

infringed deliberately or accidentally, the infringement is seen as fraud by the holder and puts the violator at risk of penalty.

Harmful advice: Forums, blogs and other contact-related areas of the Internet provide a platform for the exchange of information and advice between users.

This can be valuable assistance but can also facilitate contact with inappropriate or even more harmful advisors. The risk of receiving harmful advice, in particular for children and young people, is greater in social

community platforms or other Web 2.0 applications than on regular websites. Identity theft: Getting hold of, and making use of, other people‘s electronic

identity (e.g. user name and password) with the intent to commit commercial or other fraud and to benefit from it is called identity theft. Identity theft is a growing risk as the number of virtual identities is increasing with the number

of people online and particularly those using personalized services. Money theft/phishing: Phishing refers to the process of harvesting bank

details, in particular personal identification numbers (PINs) and transaction authentication numbers (TANs), with the intent to ransack other people‘s bank

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accounts. Young people are more likely to not recognize a fake website and to give away their bank details.

Commercial fraud: Commercial fraud happens when sellers pretend to sell

goods or services which, after payment, either do not show the promised attributes or are not delivered at all. It can also result from identity theft and phishing. Another source of commercial fraud can be the sale of digital services

(e.g. a ring tone) at an unreasonable and unfair price, often bound to a permanent subscription to the service that was not intended by the buyer. In the majority of cases, users (and in particular young people and children) are

unaware of the consequences of such contracts concluded online.

Grooming: Grooming refers to paedophiles using the Internet as a means to contact children and young people while concealing their adult identity. They often build their strategy on children‘s longing for friendship and familiarity. All

areas of the Internet that provide platforms for personal contact and exchange are likely to provide a basis for grooming attacks.

As mentioned before, the mobile phone (as an additional device to contact others and to access social networks) should be taken into strong consideration

here, especially as children look at their mobile phone as a particular part of their private life and are mostly on their own when using it. Thus, with the increase of mobile communication technologies and social networks, the risk of

falling prey to a grooming attack and then accepting a dangerous invitation has become much greater.

Bullying: Various types of bullying seem always to be part of people‘s lives. Bullying one another is certainly simplified by the Internet due to the

anonymity provided by the medium. Children and young people in particular risk being both victims of bullying and offenders. Hence bullying is related to one‘s own conduct as well as to the conduct of others.

Even though publishing content like defamatory pictures can be part of

bullying, the phenomenon is chiefly related to online contact. As mentioned before, multifunctional mobile phones are often used for taking pictures with the intention of bullying and then uploading the pictures to the Internet or

sending them via multimedia messaging (MMS) to others. Since many children and young people have a mobile phone equipped with a digital camera, bullying

is becoming easier. Disclosing private information: When setting up a profile on a social community platform, users are invited to disclose private information to present themselves to the community. Also in chat rooms and forums users

may disclose private data to others, such as their address or telephone number. Young people in particular, are unable to foresee the consequences of publishing their private data. They are often unaware that a chat room is not a

private but a public area.

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Profiling: With the increasing number of profiles a person can publish on different platforms, there is a greater risk that personal data published on one

platform will be merged with data published on other platforms or given away elsewhere (e.g. in polling or raffles). Thus profiles are created that make it

possible to directly address the person with potentially unwanted content, services and advertisements. Profiling can be carried out from the website when personal data are displayed publicly, but a more dangerous practice is

when profiles of users (or their partial profiles) are harvested from the database behind the website and sold by the platform provider to third parties. The materials used here were adapted from different sources, including AFRICMIL publications, UNESCO’s Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers; Media and Information Literacy: Policy and Strategy Guidelines as well as Media Wise: Empowering Responsible Religious Leadership in the Digital Age (KAICIID).