• To introduce media functions
• To talk about public interest and to research it further

Media functions in everyday media world

Ask participants to go into small groups. Each group will have to think about the functions of media in everyday life. They should create a poster and also find examples of the functions in the media and showcase it to others. Give enough time to participants.

Each group presents the findings and participants comment. Trainers add if needed. Some theories say that the main function of the media is to persuade, inform and entertain. Others say that they should provide accurate information, be truthful, educate, but also generate profit. Underline the profit making, as this is the way how media is operating (more clicks – more money, more views – more money…)

Public interest – or interest of the public?

Tell participants that one role of the media is to produce stories revolving around public interest. Public interest means that the media should provide the topics which are important for the public (e.g. changes in government, discovering affairs, corruption, etc.), but sometimes they use the opposite tactic – they publish what is mostly interesting to the wider public. In this way, we have lots of entertainment, sports or fashion topics in the media.

Ask participants to go into small groups and their task is to analyze one webpage from the media (e.g. Independent, NY Times, etc). When looking at the articles, they should try to check if the media is catering to the public interest or not. The main conclusions are shared in a big group.

• To understand how the media outlets choose the story
• To introduce the term of media literacy

How do the media choose their stories?

Say participants that they will now go into the role of editors. They should choose from the list the most important stories and rank them from most important to least important. They should first do this individually.

Then, invite them to go in pairs. The pairs should agree on the common list. Then, create groups of four. They should create a new list. Than repeat the process until you have one big group and one big list. Tell participants that they cannot use mathematics to choose the best and worst article, but they need to come to agreement.

When they are finished, ask participants about their lists. Ask them the following:

• How was this for you?
• What did the process look like? Was it hard or not?
• Did you have disagreements? Are you satisfied with the final list?
• If you would do this again, what would you do differently?

Trainers conclude that the editors also choose the main stories at the editorial boards and this shapes how we see the everyday news.

Examples of stories:

• Famous politician sex scandal
• Pupils and students will get free meals
• The government is not functioning the best
• Beyonce is coming to our country!
• Public officers are using the public money to pay for expensive dinners.
• Our national football team qualified for the World cup and are close to winning it!

Media literacy – introduction

Participants are divided into small groups. They should, try to answer the following questions:

• What does media literacy mean? What knowledge, skills and attitude do we need to develop in order to feel media literate? Draw a typical media literate person!
• What should media education include? What topics? How would you see it implemented in your local community – would it be in schools, NGO’s or somewhere else?

Participants present their findings, with a special attention given to the drawings of the media literate persons. The connections are made between presentations and similarities and differences identified.

 Trainer then presents the definition of media literacy from UNESCO.

• To learn about the importance of media literacy and questions that are crucial for media literacy
• To critically analyze different media outlets

Introduction to media literacy questions

Participants are introduced to the media literacy questions. They are the following:

• Who is the message author? Who created it?
• What is the message goal? What is it intended to achieve?
• Who is the message intented for? Who is the target audience?
• What does it intend to say? What is its most important part?
• What techniques were used to convey the message? Was humour, colours, celebrities or something else used?
• Is there some information missing? If so, which?

   

Trainers show some examples and the whole group goes through them and answers questions and discusses them.

Analysis of different media

Participants are divided in four groups. Each group receives one journal, newspaper or media outlet. They should analyse it by using the questions above, but also add:

• How is the target group of the media portrayed?
• What would be the correct portrayal?

Participants present and trainers ask:

• How could this have an influence on people and their self-perception?
• What emotions could this have?
• What are other consequences?

   

 Examples of what journals participants get: Men’s Health, Playboy, Showbiz portal, Daily newspapers (Telegraf, NY Times…)