Summary of topics, aims of the project
“I know, therefore I act! Information War and Youth Participation” is a seven days long seminar for 40 young Europeans about information war, propaganda, freedom of media and right to access information. The seminar will take place in Ukraine from 24th to 30th of April 2016.
We want to gather young activists from Europe and raise awareness on ongoing information wars around us. On the example of Ukraine and by sharing experiences from Belarus and Azerbaijan we will explore its mechanisms and effects on youth participation. We want to explore how youth activists manage to stay relevant and express their message, how can we protect ourselves from the deceptive information and raise awareness in our own organizations and communities. We see this event as another step in building up ways and means of democratic citizenship and strengthening international cooperation among young people.
During the seminar we will develop a statement that will include conclusions of the seminar and disseminate it within our network. We will conduct an online campaign (website, social media, design a poster, spread a message), which would reach wider target group. We hope to make the campaign “viral” and spread it as far as we can. We will establish a blog that will consist of articles and interviews that will convey “success” stories from various and creative examples from activists daily practice in connection with the topic.
Details
- Time and location: 24th to 30th of April 2016, Ukraine
- Duration: 7 working days
- Working language: English
- Number of participants: 40
Main themes
1. Raise awareness about Information war as a serious threat to democracy and youth participation
1.1 To explore the notion of information war, history of the term, political determinations and stakeholders, determining power grids and its effects to media, assembly and expression freedoms.
1.2 On direct examples of Ukrainian case mark turning points and mechanism how information war controlled by political establishment supports raising racism, chauvinism and other discrimination levels.
1.3 Identify interconnection between youth participation in Europe, public trust in civil society and their representation in media in realities of restrained media freedom.
2. Strengthen capacities of youth activists to fight negative public discourses and stereotypes that stigmatize/exclude activists, human rights defenders, social rights and democracy advocators from public debate and participation
2.1 Explore alternative media and activism information channels, through positive and negative context examples and discuss their positive and negative sides and contribution to democracy, transparency and meaningful youth participation.
2.2 Explore, learn methods and tools for self-protection against fallacious and deceptive information.
2.3 Strengthening of cross-cultural support to activists and movements struggling with media and public oppression in Europe Since information war is rather complex concept that affects everyone, we realized we are lacking knowledge and comprehension of its mechanisms to be able to understand its consequences and effects.
Methodology
Program will be based on principles of non-formal education and intercultural learning. We strive for active, inclusive and direct communication and transfer of knowledge. Sessions will be balanced between theoretical inputs, workshops, role-plays, debates, discussions, reflection and other interactive methods of learning.
CALL for PREP-TEAM
CALL for PARTICIPANTS
