The interactive training seminar took place in Jurmala Youth House in Jurmala city, Latvia, on the 27th November 2023, and was implemented using interactive non-formal education methods, such as group work, drawing, individual and group reflections, quiz discussions, co-creation for drafting new ideas, and evaluation.
Most of these young people met for the first time. Also, all five Youth Councils were in very different stages of development- from Jurmala Youth Council with its tradition of 20 years to very freshly established Youth Councils in some other municipalities. All together they had a chance to learn how to use information wisely in their daily activities and drafted some fresh ideas on common information campaigns for their peers.
Municipal Youth Councils at the very heart of the local youth information flow
The Municipal Youth Council is a municipality institution that represents youth needs and acts upon them on the municipality level. It also is engaged in the decision-making process as well as organizes events and activities for the youth.
It usually includes representatives of school parliaments, youth initiative groups and youth organizations. According to the Youth Act in Latvia, Youth Councils participate in the research and analysis of the interests and needs of young people and develop proposals for improving the quality of life for young people in the municipality. They promote the cooperation and exchange of experience among the youth of the municipality, and promote youth cooperation with the municipality, other youth councils, institutions, and organizations. They also disseminate information about the opportunities offered to young people and get involved in the municipal work with youth and in the events, projects and programs organized within it.
Therefore, youth at Youth Councils are at the heart of the information flow in their local communities – they are the local influencers for their youth groups in schools and around youth centers. Therefore, their actions create a wave, also on social media since it is one of the tools Youth Councils use, and the content they make and share is consumed by a wide local young audience.
Thus, it is crucial to increase Youth Councils’ media literacy skills, develop their critical thinking abilities and deepen their understanding of media business models so they can protect themselves and become an example for their young followers.
They need to be equipped with the best tools to inspect and create media content. They need to be aware of the motivation when, how and why someone is using their attention, emotions, and ability to press “share” to deliver the message to their followers. They also need to learn when they can use their Youth Council power in social media for good common purposes.
As we discussed in one of the training workshops using an old but effective food metaphor analyzing our media consumption and sneaking into the media kitchen – the big question is – how healthy is your media diet? And – are you the cook or the food on the media kitchen menu?
Media consumption habits visualized and analyzed
Young people are more interested in doing, not listening and analyzing how it should be done. Having this in mind, we invited them to participate in a little practical local research and brought some food for thought. We invited everyone to put their media habits on a paper plate, then scale, slice, analyze and compare them on a big chart on the wall.
This is how you can involve them too or do this exercise on your own while reading this piece of case study.
First, they had to put their media habits on a plate individually, by drawing a plate, naming different information sources and measuring the percentage of the consumption of this information. Then they shared their daily “media lunch” with another Youth Council member. This way they could get to know each other personally through comparing their “daily media doses” – how similar or different they were regarding media consumption. It also was a good opportunity to remind themselves to add something that was missing on their own plate.
When their media plates were ready, they cut their individual “media pizza” into slices and put them on a huge chart with two axes – “credibility” and “diversity (pluralism)”. Then we opened a discussion about what was on the chart. And it showed a lot.
The process or the result?
Finding the right places for their “media pizza slices” on the chart took a while. Try it yourself! Even youth workers who also participated in this task, had to carefully search for the right spots.
But the plan was not to come up with a “perfect chart” with objective analysis. This was quite impossible. The plan was to make young people think of what information they use and why, and what are the actual tools they use to check it, if any. That’s what we did.
“The deepest insight I got from the presentation was the awareness of the fact t that we need to evaluate more on what media (how credible and diverse) we get engaged with. I really enjoyed the mini research – an evaluation of our media consumption habits analyzing their credibility and diversity. I will keep this format in mind when organizing our own events,” said a young participant after the event.
But what did the chart actually tell us about the media consumption habits of these young people?
Media and food for thought
In most cases, only the names of the most popular social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, SnapChat were mentioned. Even when specifically asked, young people could not tell what accounts they follow and why they choose certain platforms, and most importantly, they were not thinking much of who stands behind them and how they know if what they say is true.
However, naming the platforms they spend their time on was much easier than ranking their credibility and opinion diversity (pluralism). Seeing the same information sources placed in several different places on both axes by different people raised a heated discussion. For example, if one put Latvian national broadcast channel LSM.lv in quite a high position on both, credibility and pluralism axes, another one marked it as an information source with low pluralism or low credibility expressing their lack of trust in the government-financed media. What does actually make media credible?
What a meaningful and intense discussion emerged from this very efficient task involving young people on such an important and weighty topic!
The practical tasks were the most valuable part, at least that's what I remember the most– we placed our media pizza slices onto the graph on that wall to visualize our media habits. I also enjoyed spending time together with the members of other Youth Council and getting to know them better– there is always too little time and we never manage to discuss everything on the spot,” a participant shares their feedback about the activity.
Time spent vs sources chosen
When we worry about young people and the media, there is a trend to raise awareness about the volume of media consumption. However, there is rarely a focus on analyzing the exact sources of the various social media platforms that young people follow and get their information from. How credible are they? How educative or entertaining? And how harmless are they, even when they are “only” entertaining?
“After the training, I began to reflect more on my screen time and how much time I spend on social media. I started questioning what I gain from it and whether it's necessary. We need to evaluate the time we dedicate to screens and the media content we consume,” said another young participant after the training.
In the context of Youth Councils, we probably need to switch the focus. Educational entertainment or edutainment is a powerful tool that can be used for increasing the participation of young people. It can lead towards active citizenship. And all those positive social movements can occur on the same platforms where young people are also exposed to fake news, fears and propaganda.
The power of Youths Council
An important positive side-effect of the training seminar was the formation of new personal and institutional connections and the sharing of experiences among five different Youth Councils and youth affairs specialists. Newly established Youth Councils could learn and get inspiration from the more experienced ones, while the experienced Councils could join for some common project in the future.
“This was a great opportunity to learn about other Youth Councils and their activities. I would have liked even more practical tasks to interact with people from other Youth Councils. I was in a good mood for the rest of the day because I felt creatively energized,” shared a participant. The key to success was not only learning about media literacy at such an event, but also connecting with other like-minded people who can use the power of media for positive social effects.
“What I appreciated the most, was the opportunity to begin collaborating with Youth Councils from other municipalities. We can learn from each other and create even larger events and projects. These types of trainings, where we get to know each other and exchange practices, promote active participation and expand the opportunities. This was great and active first step towards such collaboration,” sums up another participant.
There is a range of social media and digital activities that support active citizenship: sharing meaningful and verified content, gathering public opinions, initiating and voting for citizens’ initiatives, participating in public discussions about social issues, debunking misinformation and disinformation in public forums and warning other people about fake news or scams, reporting abusive or inappropriate content for removal to prevent harm, raising awareness on any social issue through social media campaigns, and sharing sources and media literacy tips to promote overall media literacy.
All that is possible if more active young leaders from Youth Councils are trained in media literacy and digital activism.
Text and photos by: Sintija Lase