Promoting Media literacy in Palestine (2015-2026)
The Kvs Foundation has run MFA-funded media literacy projects in Palestine since 2015. This media literacy programme supports the building of Palestinian civil society by strengthening media literacy and its training by training trainers and producing teaching materials. The aim of the program is to promote the right of the people in the region to information, and to strengthen the conditions for civil society and democracy.
During four different project periods the target groups have varied. The first project in the area offered media education workshops for media students and professionals and the second extended media literacy education to citizens living in vulnerable areas and refugee camps. In the third, the target group was NGO workers. In the ongoing project we work closely together with Bethlehem University, aiming to integrate media literacy into the entire university curriculum.
In the programme courses organized across the West Bank and through distance learning in Gaza, topics such as social media, fact-checking, the ethics of journalism and the basics of the self-regulatory system, as well as online safety and security are covered. Finnish media professionals and students have worked as volunteer trainers alongside the local trainers trained during the projects.
In 2015-2016, a total of 272 media professionals and communicators working in organizations and public administration participated in 15 training modules, with some participants taking part in more than one module. Between 2019 and 2020, a total of 80 active citizens were trained. All in all, over 30 Palestinians and 18 Finns have received Training of Trainers (ToT) and some of them have worked as volunteer trainers in the media literacy courses of the project.
Project in 2021-2022 trained 12 local journalists and teachers to work as media literacy trainers. Secondly, three ‘Training Media Literacy’ courses around West Bank targeted trainers, youth workers, community leaders working with youth, women and other vulnerable groups in in West Bank. Training of Trainers and all ‘Training Media Literacy’ courses were conducted through hybrid learning.
The local partners were the Media Development Center from the University of Birzeit and the Institute for Community Partnership from the University of Bethlehem.
Current
The current project supports the development of media literacy and its teaching within Palestinian civil society.
Media literacy is currently not included in the Palestinian national curriculum, and it is seldom integrated into university education.
The goal is to incorporate media literacy into Bethlehem University’s curriculum, enhance the pedagogical skills of university teachers, support critical media literacy among journalism students, and increase community participation in Palestinian territories.
The project aims to train a total of 28 teachers and trainers, engage 80 journalism students in media literacy courses, and organize 30 community projects that utilize media literacy. These community projects will be implemented in rural communities in West Bank.
Publications
The following publications have been produced under the program:
Trainers’ Guide – How to help others to learn (editor Anne Tastula, 2022) The guide can be read and downloaded in pdf format in English and Arabic at mediaguide.fi.
Media Literacy for Adults (edited by Karoliina Knuuti, 2020), an adult media literacy guide, published in English (ISBN 978-951-9140-74-2) and in Arabic electronically and in print. The book can be read and downloaded in pdf format at mediaguide.fi.
Media Literacy Course Curriculum (edited by Anne Tastula, 2020), a guide for organizing an adult media literacy course. The guide can be downloaded in pdf format from mediaguide.fi.