You watch, hear and read it every day: media. It is everywhere, all the time. But how is it made and why is it important to understand?
The Doha Centre for Media Freedom (DCMF) is helping to explain news and press freedom to the next generation through its new Media Literacy Programme.
To launch the Media Literacy Programme, a DCMF team has trained a group of nine junior reporters, aged 15 to 18, to cover the fourth UN Alliance of Civilizations conference. They will use video and conduct interviews, gather news and update audiences on developments at the international event.
Their daily Civilizations Summit Update will be screened at the conference and their work is also available at youtube.com/dcmfreporter.
Be prepared for our Junior Reporters. They might be young, but they will be posing some challenging questions on what is being done to facilitate cultural understanding and improve relationships across all sectors of society.
Looking ahead to 2012, 15 schools in Qatar will join the DCMF’s ‘School News’ programme as part of the initiative, which aims to enlighten young people about how the media arrives to them. It’s especially designed for girls and boys between the age of eight and 12.
By 2013, the programme will be fully developed to enroll more schools in Qatar.
Using audiovisual and interactive techniques, the Media Literacy team is sure that children will understand the impact of news during its two-day workshops. The DCMF also aims to hold the workshops elsewhere in the region in the long term.
To learn more about the Media Literacy Programme, contact rania@dc4mf.org
