25. 07. 2014

VERBIC: STUDENTS SHOULD LEARN ABOUT MEDIA LITERACY

At the press conference "Do Not Let Them Spin You" Verbic stressed that students should learn to analyze media content.

"We must train the people coming out of schools to have a critical stance towards media content. They should not read only one media source, but they should analyze also what they hear from others and they should especially analyze what they send into media space themselves (via Facebook or Twitter)", the Minister said.

According to the Minister, we live in the world where information is not unidirectional towards readers and viewers. Instead, everyone can react to news, and young people do it increasingly more often on social networks.

"As soon as we react we are in the media... and the students should learn the difference between data and information, facts and interpretations", Minister of Education said.

He said that a campaign such as "Do Not Let Them Spin You" can show the importance of understanding what one reads. "We want people to come out of schools media literate, among other competencies they should have. It is not important how much they know, but how they react to what they know, to what they think they know and to what they get through information", Verbic said.

Shanley Pinchotti, Acting Director of the Serbia Democracy and Governance Office of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said that USAID supports media literacy projects as the issue is very important for the development of democracy in a society.

According to her, new technologies breed a larger quantity of information, and it is therefore necessary to teach young people how to get information that is verifiable.

"Media literacy is important for the development of critical thinking among children, and it should help them learn how to behave in the virtual world", she said.

Campaign "Do Not Let Them Spin You" was designed and implemented by P.R.A Agency, and supported by USAID. The winner of the contest "Do Not Let Them Spin You" Dusan Arsovski was awarded, and Radio Television of Vojvodina recieved an acknowledgment as the campaign's media partner and active participant.

The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness among high-school population, but also among the society on the whole, on the importance of critical consumption and production of media content.

The multimedia campaign started in late March with broadcasting of witty radio jingles and TV spots on local and regional stations and publishing articles in regional and local media, while online campaign was of particular importance.

During the campaing six radio jingles were broadcast on nine radio stations and five TV spots were broadcast on ten television stations.