Don’t Troll” is the winning idea of the three-day hackathon attended by young people from several cities in N. Macedonia, organized in 3 teams. The winning proposed solution addresses the problem of "trolling" on social media, as one of the most common forms of cyberbullying on various grounds. The winning team offered a solution for the creation and promotion of “troll-free” social media environments by establishing a code of conduct that will prevent “trolling”, especially to girls and women active on social media. The aim is to establish a kind of self-regulated social media communities by adopting the code of conduct in order to become and be labeled as "troll-free" environments, safe for users. Moreover, the other two teams offered exceptionally interesting and quality solutions on the topics of "Junior Detective" and "Choose Your News". The idea “Junior Detective” offers a set of solutions for educating primary school students about the basic principles of media literacy through educative games, talking with their favorite social media influencers, and short interactive lectures about the world of media and media reality. “Choose your news” is a proposed solution about a mobile and desktop application which will offer education for media literacy and a set of tools for informing young people about the possibilities of social inclusion.   The Hackathon “YouthForMILSolutions” was held from 26 to 28 April, 2021, within the regional project "Media for Citizens - Citizens for Media", implemented by several media organizations from the Western Balkans, including MIM, with financial support from the European Union. During the Hackathon the participant exchanged ideas and competed in the use of knowledge regarding media and information literacy. The aim was to design initiatives and innovative solutions for effective recognition and purposeful use of information from publicly available media sources, as well as to offer solutions for combating misinformation and other negative phenomena of digital media. At the first day, the participants were introduced to the necessary steps that need to be taken for an idea to become a reality, as well as the key skills for presenting ideas to the stakeholders. Through practical exercises they prepared for what follows - designing and presenting their own conceptual solutions. During the second day of the Hackathon the participants found out useful tips on how to protect themselves from disinformation and how to “sell” their ideas by using tools for visualization and creation of multimedia presentations. At the final working day, the young innovators finalized and presented their solutions in front of the jury. The participants offered exceptional quality ideas, elaborated in details, with concrete steps for realization. The three-day Hackathon resulted in proposed solutions which significantly can help young people in raising awareness and advancing knowledge about the media world, preventing dangers in the digital reality, as well as ensuring safe using and sharing information on the Internet.

The media scene and modern trends in journalism; on “the other side” of the screen; mobile journalist=one-man show; the internet as a source of information; a picture - thousand words. These were some of the topics of the one-week workshop organized by the Macedonian Institute for Media within the internship program on digital media production. This year students from the universities of St. Cyril and Methodius and Mother Theresa participated in the one-week workshop led by prominent journalists, editors and media professionals. In the next three weeks the students will undergo training in several media outlets in the country. The one-week workshop enabled the students to learn about the global trends in journalism and production of informative contents, as well as, to actually stand on “the other side” of the screen in the role of TV reporters. During the workshop the students learned what the concept of "mobile journalism" means, upgraded their skills in searching and verifying information on the internet, and learned how to photograph properly. The Macedonian Institute for Media organizes the program as part of the project “Promoting media information literacy and strengthening independent media in the Western Balkans”, which is implemented by Albany Associates from London in partnership with regional media development organizations in Western Balkan countries. The project is funded by the British Government.    

Journalists and local media editors participated at the two-day workshop “Practical skills for verification and countering disinformation”. The workshop was dedicated to strengthening the knowledge and skills of media literacy, identifying misinformation and tracking their sources. By discussing various media content analysis techniques, interactive exercises and examples, participants had the opportunity to gain practical experience in identifying disinformation networks in the local media landscape and media stereotyping, finding the original source when searching for a statement or news on the Internet. , identifying false profiles on social media, verifying the accuracy of videos and photos and reporting specific misinformation without their repetition / republishing, etc. The workshop was led by Professor Dr. Marina Tuneva and Mihajlo Lahtov, treners with extensive experience in the fields: media literacy, information verification, diversity reporting, intercultural communications and ethics in journalism. Macedonian Institute for Media organized the workshop within the project “Promoting Media Information Literacy and strengthening independent media in the Western Balkans”, which is implemented by Albany Associates from London in partnership with regional media development organizations in Western Balkan countries. The project is funded by the British Government.  

A group of journalism students from the universities “St. Cyril and Methodius", "Goce Delchev" and "Mother Teresa", participate in the four-week program on digital media production during December 2019, organized by the Macedonian Institute for Media, in cooperation with Albany Associate from London and Mediacentar Sarajevo. The program consists of one-week workshop delivered by prominent journalists, editors and media experts, as well as tree-week practical work in the media outlets in the country. The workshop was based on lessons and practical exercises through which the students explored the media scene and contemporary trends in journalism and learned more about the TV journalism. The students improved their knowledge about the online journalism and multimedia, and what being mobile journalist looks like. During the lessons on basics of photographing and photo editing the students learnt that one picture can be worth thousand words. The last day of the workshop was dedicated to the internet as a source of information as well as to the internet research skills, recognizing disinformation and verification of information. Macedonian Institute for Media organizes the program as part of the project “Promoting Media Information Literacy and strengthening independent media in the Western Balkans”, which is implemented by Albany Associates from London in partnership with regional media development organizations in Western Balkan countries. The project aims toward building capacity of media professionals and journalism students in verification, fact-checking, content production and other reporting competencies; enhancing public service broadcasters' understanding of media and information literacy (MIL) and improving their ability to deliver MIL campaigns to the public. The project is funded by the British Government.  

Prominent journalists and editors from several media outlets in the country are participating in a two-day workshop organized by MIM, in order to gain practical skills in identifying and tracking disinformation and their sources. Sessions will provide participants with hands-on experience in identifying disinformation networks in the local media landscape, finding the original source of a claim, quote or a news story, identifying fake social media accounts, verifying video and image accuracy and reporting on disinformation without amplifying it. The workshop is organized within the project “Promoting Media Information Literacy and strengthening independent media in the Western Balkans” implemented by Albany Associates from London, in partnership with regional media development organisations in Western Balkan countries.  

Development of media literacy skills, recognizing and dealing with fake news, producing multimedia content and preparation of effective training programs in the field of media and information literacy were some of the topics of the two-day training for trainers organized by MIM in late September. The workshop was part of the regional project "Media for Citizens - Citizens for Media", led by Mediacentar Sarajevo and implemented by consortium of media CSOs.  In total 16 representatives of civil society organizations, media and educational institutions participated at the training. Under the guidance of the two trainers, Naomi Thompson from the European Association for Viewers’ Interests (EAVI), UK and Stefan Janjic from the Novi Sad School of Journalism, Serbia, the participants had opportunity to build on their theoretical knowledge and engage in practical and interactive part of the training. "Media literate citizens are able to create media content and respond to information in a responsible manner. The various perspectives they bring, can contribute to tackling wrong narratives and the fake news we see in the media", Naomi Thompson from EAVI said. She believes that media education should be lifelong learning, starting from the earliest age in kindergartens, to the end of life. Today, people are increasingly talking about media literacy, critical thinking, about fake news and I think that now is the right moment to make some changes, to motivate people to educate themselves and be more media literate", Stefan Janjic from the Novi Sad School of Journalism pointed out. According to him, media literacy programs are extremely important because the media are present every where around, whether we are talking about social or mainstream media, they reach every segment of our lives, our relations, as well as political and economic spheres. The trainees will be engaged as trainers on further trainings and workshops that MIM will oranize in the upcoming period for local CSOs that are interested in media and information literacy. The regional program "Media for citizens - Citizens for media: Strengthening the capacities of civil society organizations for the development of the MIL in the countries of Western Balkans" is implemented with the support of the European Union.  

Media and IT Literacy is a dynamic concept of life-long learning, and its definition changes along with the changes in the technology. However, the power of cooperation among the different stakeholders – both institutional and non-institutional – is key to the development in this sphere, i.e. to the understanding of its very concept and its implementation on the citizens’ part. This was stressed, among other things, by Ms. Martina Chapman, a media literacy expert from Ireland, at the workshop on “Strengthening the Media Literacy Network of the Republic of Macedonia Through Exchange of Experiences”, which was organized by the Macedonian Media Institute, in cooperation with the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services. The meeting was aimed at conveying experiences regarding the strategies and activities needed when planning media literacy projects, as well as good practices that have resulted from the cooperation among the relevant stakeholders. In this, an overview was presented of examples from the Republic of Ireland, which has an operational media literacy network and this concept enjoys the institutions and society’s significant support. Ms. Chapman explained that the Media Literacy – Ireland Network is an independent association founded by the Irish regulatory authority. It includes 100 members, which are dedicated to promoting and enhancing media literacy all over the country, through sharing experiences and resources, with the aim of gaining benefits for all, and not only for certain parts of society. The Network has its own strategy, work groups that function within its frameworks, and carries out various activities, issues its own Newsletter, develops a data-base of resources and a stakeholders’ networking platform. According to Ms. Chapman, the Network aims to become self-sustainable in the following few years. The workshop was organized as part of the joint EU and CoE project titled “Reinforcing Judicial Expertise on Freedom of Expression and the Media in South-East Europe (JUFREX)”. The Macedonian Institute for Media is the Macedonian partner of the project. The photo-gallery of the Workshop is available at this link  

The Macedonian Institute for Media, in association with the Center for Investigative Journalism – SCOOP Macedonia, has organized a one-day workshop for producing journalist stories on the topic of areas of action of the civil society organizations which are part of the program CIVICA Mobilitas.

Ten researchers and representatives from the media and civil society organizations from Macedonia attended the workshop for designing and planning applied and action researches in the sphere of the media, organized by the Macedonian Institute for Media, in cooperation with the Peace Institutefrom Ljubljana, from 23 to 25 June in Ohrid.