Sofia and the country, May-July 2019
The campaign against fake news, organized within this year’s edition of the “Journalists in school” initiative of the Valya Kruskina Fund, which BFPA has supported actively since its founding, has reached more the 11 000 from all over the country. The campaigns took place in 24 schools in 20 different locations in Bulgaria. The initiative for the campaign comes from students who want to protect their peers from fake news attacks. Here is a summary of the campaign:
- 1010 high school students who organized the campaigns
- 24 schools hosting the campaigns
- 30 teachers mentoring the student campaigns
- 20 locations included in the initiative
- 11000 in total reached by the campaigns
- 12 prominent journalists actively engaged with the cause
The campaigns had different formats and duration – student competitions, during which the participants are separated in teams and have to guess which news is fake and which isn’t; informational banners and seminars; fabrication and gossiping of fake news in the school community. The students were mentored during the implementation of the campaigns by 30 teachers from different schools.
For example – the closing event of the campaign against fake news for the students from the Professional Tourism High School “Dr. Peter Beron” in Veliko Turnovo had the motto “The title that sells”. Students and mentoring journalists from local media were randomly separated into teams. All teams received the same text they had to put a title on.
Within their separate initiatives the students invited journalists who were awarded with the “Valya Krushkina – Journalism for the people” prize. A total of 12 journalists became the faces for students’ campaigns and met the young people to talk about fake news and how to counteract against them. Traditionally, part of the meetings started with the educational film “Fake news and how to recognize them” created during last year’s edition of the initiative.
The initiative “Journalists in school” is being held for the sixth consecutive time. It aims to increase the media literacy of young people, to stimulate the forming of active citizenship position and to contribute to their future career choice. This year the conversation about the journalists’ profession extended beyond the classrooms into the studio of Bulgaria on AIR TV. The focus of the sixth consecutive edition of the initiative was also on developing the teachers’ ability to discuss the topic of fake news in the classroom and forming a circle of active students who will discuss the topic with their peers and also involve the whole school community in activities for increasing media literacy. Therefore this year the initiative was in the form of student campaigns against fake news. Besides reaching 11 000 students, the initiative attracted another 1010 students as its ambassadors and campaign organizers and more than 82 teachers underwent mentorship training.
“Journalists in school” is a part of the “Valya Krushkina” Fund with the Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation. Over time more than 7000 students from over 45 cities and villages from all over the country took active participation in the format.
