International Conference in Skopje, Macedonia

Information Society and Youth Media

"In Macedonia, there is no formal and informal media education. There are 5 national TV channels, 17 satellite broadcast TV channels and 8 daily newspapers. We have too many media outlets for a country which has a population about 2 million. People watch TV about 6-8 hours daily. Young people are constantly exposed to propaganda and political messages. Politicians have got great force over media and the country has got serious economical problems" - Darko Buldioski, New Media Center


By DUYGU KORHAN
from Istanbul, TURKEY


The conference titled "Information Society and its Impact on Development of Youth Media", organized by East-East Partnership Beyond Borders Program of OSI Foundation, Central European Initiative and the Forum of European Journalism Students - FEJS Macedonia, was held in Skopje, Macedonia between 11and 14 September. It was a combination of theory and practice. Distinguished academics as well as young journalists came together to discuss the hottest issues related to the youth media.

Internet (which removed borders and the concept of time, enabled people to stay connected all around the world) and its impact on society were discussed by the Vienna University Professor Thomas Bauer. He underlined importance of medialization of social relations and social networking in today's globalizing world. Bauer also emphasized the necessity of learning about different views and cultures, and media literacy which can be achieved through media education.

After his lecture, representatives of youth web magazines and portals like Café Babel, Infostud.com, Mladi.info and Wave Magazine gave a lecture about their aims and accomplishments so far. These include, presenting the readers / audience, translations of local events and articles published by the editors, providing the members with a space (blogs) to discuss their ideas freely and thus, creating an active public sphere and increasing youth participation and media literacy.

Darko Buldioski, one of the founders of the New Media Center has explained the media environment in his country as follows: "In Macedonia, there is no formal and informal media education. There are 5 national TV channels, 17 satellite broadcast TV channels and 8 daily newspapers. We have too many media outlets for a country which has a population about 2 million. People watch TV about 6-8 hours daily. Young people are constantly exposed to propaganda and political messages. Politicians have great force over media and the country has serious economical problems."

The Center is organizing four training sessions which consist of an introduction to the Macedonian media scene, propaganda techniques, political marketing, critical thinking, analytical and argumentative writing and the use of new media. They are also organizing workshops, discussions and seminars in the field of new media. Until today, they have ninety graduates from their training programs, who are named 'the new young media watchdogs' of Macedonia.

New Media Center has co-authored blogs on its website, which allows its members to share their opinion about media freely. They argue that, new media technologies enable citizens to have a say in the media discourse. By introducing them an arena like this, they expect their young media watchdogs to share the analytical skills they have acquired with the other young people in society and on this way to increase the public awareness about issues related to media.

One of the most significant topics of the second day of the conference was the effect of online communities like Last.fm, Wikipedia, Myspace and Facebook. It was discussed whether these are a threat or an opportunity for the society. It was stated that among the world's ten most visited websites, four are social networking websites. Lecturers shared different views about the effects of these websites. Some defended the opinion that they strengthen the feeling of belonging to a group, whereas others found them to be more individualizing. Mite Kuzevski, a member of the New Media Center, furthermore stated that 'virtual networking and activism does not activate real life success easily', a statement which led to a hot debate about the different experiences of participants coming from different countries. In the end, it was found out that this statement could not be generalized to the whole world, not even to the Balkan region.

The conference ended after a round table discussion about what could be done in the future related to the discussed topics and participants had the chance to exchange news, articles, events, trainings and scholarships about the regional youth online network.


(Published: 10.10.2008.)