Norsensus Mediaforum project gorup makes the first work trip to Romania in the frame of the project «Digital Literacy for High School Students to Fight Hate Speech and Discrimination in the Media». [quote_box_center]The project is run by the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ), in partnership with Norsensus Mediaforum.[/quote_box_center] The project has officially started on 17th of April and aims to contribute towards the education of high school students in the spirit of tolerance and inclusion. It develops media competences that will allow them a critical reception of the media discourse, as well as a responsible presence in the public sphere, as «online content generators». The courses for high school students (country-wise this age group is identified as being highly intolerant) to be held in 10 cities of Romania are doubled by courses for teachers and journalists, bloggers and civic activists in the same communities. With the support of the teachers, civic activists and journalists/bloggers, the students will plan and run advocacy campaigns aimed at fighting discrimination and hate speech in their community, thus practicing models of public participation and citizens’ empowering.
The project team from Norsensus consist of the IT manager Abdurrahim Guanydin and project manager Vedat Sevincer. Norsensus team made their first project visit to Bucharest between 27th of April and 2nd of May for collecting information about the project context. Afterwards, they designed the content and structure of a training program for three groups (students, teachers and journalist). They have also created training materials and toolkits together with the Romanian team. The first of the training program will be held on 10th-11th of May for the first group of students. The role of the Norsensus Mediaforum in the project is to secure the know-how transfer in the field of media literacy programs as well as providing IT and communication support. The Romanian team will in return make a study tour to Norway in May 2015.