The main aim of the project You(th) Challenging Diversity: Representation of Minorities in the New Media is to attract young people aged 18 – 35 to discuss and analyze how to provide open access to the new media to all citizens as well as how to build good multicultural practices in the media by presenting examples of cooperation and living-together.
The project has been concentrated around research on new media and minorities (the period June-July 2015). Altogether 4 events took part in each of the participating countries (Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria and Macedonia).
New Media – New Opportunities? The Newity They Bring to Diversity was the topic of the first youth forum that took place on 10 and 11 May in Buje, Croatia. Participants from Croatia, F.Y.R of Macedonia, Greece, and Bulgaria, coordinated by Mladiinfo International. The benefits and challenges that new media bring to diversity, the stereotypes in new media discourse as well as the positive stories that connect the citizens and promote living-together have been presented.
Second Youth Forum titled “Online (Stereo)Typing: How We Portray Minorities in Everyday Life” took place in town Chania on the Greek island Crete. Among others, the topic of ‘otherisation’ and the need to educate youngsters about the different cultures and groups was widely discussed by the panelists.
Higher media literacy and educational trainings among youth are needed in order youngsters to be able to identify the bad journalistic practices as well as to praise the positive examples in the new media – this was one of the conclusions from the Third Youth Forum “Stories That Connect, Examples That Direct: Good Practices in Representing Minorities Online”, that took place on 4 and 5 December 2015, in the Delegation of EU in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The forth Youth forum that took place on 3rd and 4th of March in Skopje, Macedonia was the final one within the project Youth Challenging Diversity – Representation of Minorities in the New Media and brought together 50 young people aged 18 – 35 from 14 countries of the Central and Eastern Europe.
Each event lasted for 2 days and provided a different perspective of the project’s topic (open access of new media, stereotyping, multicultural practices online) mirrored through presentations, panel discussions and workshops of experts, media professionals, local representatives and participants.
The outcomes of the project encompassed an online media research providing a regional perspective of the issue, as well as recommendations on how to report on national minorities and how to promote diversity that are going to be delivered to the media in their home countries, international organizations, NGOs, municipalities.
Supported by: Europe for Citizens Programme