In the ninth episode of the “DisinfoHacks Podcast”, the conversation centers around the critical topic of media literacy, disinformation, and their impact on children. The participants in this enlightening discussion touch upon subjects such as media literacy for children, the role of parents and adults, the challenge of news avoidance and the lack of media literacy skills that characterize children and the importance of creating age appropriate journalism and discussions, in order to help children step by step smoothly build a trust relationship with the news. As Sherri Hope Culver perfectly summarizes, “treating children as civic-minded individuals, you are fostering an environment where they can grow into civic-minded adults who are actively engaged with the media and news.”
Participants:
Sherri Hope Culver: Founder/Director Center for Media & Information Literacy. Professor. Creator/Host Kids Talk Media podcast. Consultant media & children, media literacy.
Nikos Panagiotou, Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Media Communications of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece & President of DCN Global
Diana Filimon, Journalist & Member of DCN Global
Moderator:Aurra Kawanzaruwa, Manager of DCN AFRICA
Outstanding quotes:
Sherri:
“I think the children are very concerned about their surroundings and the world and the best way to approach them is to find ways to create age appropriate conversation and age appropriate media that they kids can enjoy, but also learn from and then build steps, so that they can step by step so that they grow smoothly into adults.”
“Treat children as civic minded children if you want them to become civic minded adults.”
“For us to build a positive feeling in youth about news means paying attention to how youth process information and what it means to be an eight-year-old, a 10-year-old or a 15-year-old and be mindful of that and use that information on how we craft news for them.”
“Making age appropriate content, we can be serious in an age appropriate way and sometimes be lighter, so that they can understand that news is not just heavy and serious, but they can be about understanding sunscreen or about the animals; it's all a source of information.”
Nikos:
“Younger generations are characterized by two main things; one is news avoidance and secondly they lack media literacy skills while they are very deep into that.”
“A huge challenge is: How to make journalism attractive to younger generations.”
“You can also learn from your children; they might know a feature on Tik Tok that you don’t know about. So, to make them feel that they teach you something can help them feel like they are building a stronger relationship with the media and with you.”
DisinfoHacks Project is an innovative training program that brings together partners expertise, engaging an ecosystem of communication and media stakeholders, startup innovators and influencers in identifying, assessing, and combating disinformation." Organized by DCN Global, #ADandPRLAB, YET, funded by U.S. Department of State and U.S. Mission in Greece, supported by Found.ation and SocialInnov.