Training for better media literacy in the municipality of Kostinbrod

The Media Literacy Coalition (MLC) in cooperation with the organizations Techsoup Europe and Funky Citizens and in partnership with Kostinbrod municipality organizes training to increase media literacy of older people in the municipality. The seminars are part of KMG\’s fourth Media Literacy Days campaign, which includes organizations in the fields of education, journalism and civic participation, academics and media literacy experts.

The trainings on \“Increasing the media literacy of older people from the municipality of Kostinbrod\“ will be held on 23, 25 February, 02 and 04 March 2021 /Tuesday and Thursday/ from 17.30 in the Great Hall of the National community center \“Ivan Vazov “- Kostinbrod. They will be led by Mr. Tsvetan Petrov – a member of the Media Literacy Coalition, a longtime journalist, teacher of Bulgarian language and literature and head of the Journalism Club at Dr. P. Beron High School, with the assistance of the journalist Valeria Ivanova and with the participation of the MLC Chairwoman Kristina Hristova.

The involved in seminars are about 20 people: 7 secretaries of community centers from the surrounding villages, 4 community center workers from the Community Center \“Ivan Vazov\“ – Kostinbrod /incl. librarians/, four employees of the Municipal Administration, one representative of the Day Care Center for children on the street, the Center for Social Rehabilitation and Integration and the kindergarten \“Joy\“, as well as retirement clubs. Similar trainings will be held in other Bulgarian municipalities.

There are 5 main activities /modules/ for the four separate days of training, including theoretical part, presentations, research, exercises, group work, discussions. Participants will discuss the risks and reliability of different media channels and sources of information, will be introduced to the elements of fake news and how to recognize them, working with misleading and real texts. They will also be informed about propaganda and conspiracies, will identify trolls of political parties and organizations.

A special topic in the training is \“Online fraud, fake profiles and risks on the Internet related to them\“. The elderly often fall victims of scams, and frauds. As a result of the training, participants will get an idea of ​​the types of fraud and the risks of sharing personal information on Facebook and other social networks, will know the rules for creating and publishing media content on the Internet. These 20 residents of the municipality will be able to share what they have learned with their colleagues, relatives and friends.

 

Featured image: Община Костинброд