OVER 6,500 CHILDREN LEARNED ABOUT MEDIA LITERACY

Zagreb, 8 May 2018 – More than 6,500 children from the whole of Croatia participated in the first Media Literacy Days organised by the Agency for Electronic Media and UNICEF in cooperation with partners. Schools, libraries, media, organisations and kindergartens took part in the project by organising 130 events and activities in 60 towns.

It is estimated that over 5,500 children and young people participated in the activities and presentations during the Media Literacy Days, and a thousand more from 90 elementary schools and secondary schools visited media institutions in Osijek, Rijeka, Split, Zadar and Zagreb as part of the Children Meet the Media activity. Media institutions organised workshops for children where they learned how the media work and how news is made, and they even had the opportunity to create their own features and articles.

Robert Tomljenović, Deputy Chairperson of the Council for Electronic Media, said: “We are very pleased with the response and the variety of institutions that took part in the Media Literacy Days. The response, interest and feedback from children and teachers confirm that the importance of media literacy is widely acknowledged and that such a project is much needed. The project is planned as a long-term platform that will ensure continuous development of media literacy, which is now more important than ever. Therefore, we will continue to work and further expand the number of stakeholders and partners in the project.”

Materials for kindergartens and schools, a picturebook on media literacy for the youngest children and a “Children and Media” booklet for parents, created by local experts, were downloaded from the medijskapismenost.hr portal over 15,000 times. Ten thousand “Children and Media” booklets and 3,000 picturebooks were printed and sent to 288 institutions, including schools, kindergartens, libraries and associations. Applications may still be sent to receive these materials.

“Each day, children are exposed to vast amounts of information through different media, which faces us with the responsibility to support them in developing media literacy skills. We are happy to see the great interest for this important topic, and we believe that next year, even more children and young people from the whole of Croatia will take part”, said Valentina Otmačić, Head of the UNICEF Office for Croatia.

The first Media Literacy Days was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Science and Education.

The project was supported by the Association for Communication and Media Culture, Carnet, the Croatian Film Association, Croatian Radiotelevision, Nova TV, RTL, Večernji list, Jutarnji list, Glas Slavonije, Slobodna Dalmacija, Novi list, Tportal, Media servis and Yammat FM.

###

Media contacts:

Sanja Pančić, AEM, 099 3107 522, spancic@e-mediji.hr
Ana Dokler, medijskapismenost.hr, 091 536 8981, ana.dokler@gmail.com
Gorana Banda, UNICEF, 098 226 681, gobanda@unicef.org
Marina Knežević Barišić, UNICEF, 091 4324 610, mknezevicbarisic@unicef.org