THE LIES, THE TRUTH AND THE MEDIA

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Click here to read the article on MSYP produced by the participants who took this course.

In this course, you will gain a foundational understanding of media literacy and the media context in Bosnia-Herzegovina. You will learn how to evaluate information and sources of information in the media, where to look for information, and you will gain basic factchecking skills.

Lesson 1

Welcome to the first media literacy lesson! We will be talking about the definition of some main terms and the development of the media over time. Before the class, please spend some time thinking about the questions posed in the video and come ready to discuss.

Lesson 2

Welcome back! Today we will be talking about the media environment of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Before the class, please take a look at the World Press Freedom Index for 2021: https://rsf.org/en/ranking and read your country’s profile by clicking on the country on the map and clicking on “Find out more”. Please also read the section D1 “Are there free independent media?” at this link: https://freedomhouse.org/country/bosnia-and-herzegovina/freedom-world/2020. Lastly, please read the following article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17211939. If you want to read more on the topic, feel free to visit https://www.kas.de/en/web/balkanmedia/media-freedom1, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000371223, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_in_Sarajevo

Lesson 3

Welcome back! Today we will be discussing gender representation in the media. Please complete the exercise I sent via email and watch the following three videos:

Lesson 4

Following our discussion on gender in the media, today we will be talking about gender-sensitive language in the media. Make sure to watch this short video before class. If you speak Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, please also watch this video.

Lesson 5

Today we will be talking about trust in the media: how much people trust the media, why it is important, and what are some characteristics of trustworthy media. Please read this article and watch the 4-minute video on creating a news report. If you speak BCS, please watch at least two videos of your choice from this playlist. The videos are very short, from 1.41 minutes to 5.27 minutes. My recommendations are eTrafika.net video and Nova BH video but feel free to choose any of them.

Lesson 6

Hello everyone and welcome back to our last week together! Today we will be talking about lies in the media. Please read this article and the part about Bosnia in this one and try creating your own fake news headline here.

Lesson 7

Today we will be talking about ways to check information online and resources available. Please select one of these two games and play them before class:

Lesson 8

Today’s topic of discussion is social media. We will be discussing the definitions of social media, our usage of social media, social media as a source of information, and potential dangers of social media. If you haven’t already, please send me your social media portfolio as soon as possible.