Media Literacy in Bulgaria: A Meeting of Experience and Expertise at All Levels

The \“500 Markers\“ illustrate ideas from discussions during the meeting. Photo: MLC

The Media Literacy Coalition (MLC) is organizing a national meeting to share experiences and create future partnerships in Bulgaria in the field of media literacy. The meeting \“Media Literacy in Bulgaria\“ brought together academic representatives, journalists, educational experts, non-governmental and international organizations and representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science at Sofia University \“St. Kliment Ohridski ”on December 7, 2019.

Media literacy is on the European Union\’s agenda and its importance has gained recognition in all Member States. However, there is still no common understanding of the required skills and methodologies to be acquired, and individual organizations operate in a fragmented and project-based manner, which does not provide the necessary sustainability. Therefore, the Media Literacy Coalition brought together all organizations, experts and institutions active in the topic to seek a common and lasting approach that would deliver effective results. The purpose of the meeting was also to acquaint the Ministry of Education with the available resources in the civil sector in order to benefit from them.

The meeting started with a presentation of the vision of the Ministry of Education and Science by Deputy Minister Tanya Mihailova and continued with the projects of the Media Literacy Coalition, Association of European Journalists – Bulgaria, Center for Safe Internet, Parents Association, Teenstation, Media Democracy Foundation, European Media Center, Center for Creative Training, Zero 32 Magazine and Social Networking Expert Ivana Popova. In the field of academic programs, the projects were presented by Assoc. Prof. Danail Danov, Ph.D., and PhD student Iglika Ivanova from Sofia University \“St. Kliment Ohridski\“, and Assoc. Prof. Martin Osikovski, PhD from UNWE. Positions of support on the subject of media literacy were presented by UNICEF, the Friedrich Nauman Freedom Foundation, the Small Grants Program at the US Embassy and the European Parliament Office in Bulgaria.

Participants discussed the possibility of initiating an interactive map, incorporating their past activities, available resources and data about the schools they worked in, so as not to duplicate their efforts, but to use already available resources and build on their colleagues\’ experiences in other areas and schools. In addition, many of them expressed interest in joining the preparation of the upcoming Media Literacy Days, which MLC organizes annually in February.

Several new organizations and experts joined the coalition after the meeting. Among them are the Association for the Development of Sofia, the Association for Career Development and Training from Plovdiv, the Puklyovtsi (digital educational games) and Eng. Dr. Evelina Lyubomirova Zdravkova-Velichkova.

MLC invites all organizations that have projects in the field of media literacy and wish to participate in the upcoming Media Literacy Days, to email us at info@gramoten.li.