IM Cultural Institute

Category: Projects

  • Citizen Journalism

    Citizen Journalism

    Proposal: Citizen journalistic empowerment and sustainable transformations

    Implementation: 2024 to 2026

    Call: CREA-CROSS-2024-MEDIALITERACY – NEWS – Media literacy

    Topic: CREA-CROSS-2024-MEDIALITERACY

    Type of Action: CREA-PJG – CREA Project Grants

    Proposed Budget: 640 983,50€

    Keywords: Training, Citizen Journalism, Sustainability, Media Literacy

    Objective: The project deals with the communication gap that exists in regional discourses and especially in social media regarding the challenges of sustainable transformations. Socio-ecological major challenges such as the climate crisis, digitalization, demographic change and others are accompanied by immense media interpretations and fake news orchestrated under the influence of algorithms, bots, and AI-generated content. They demand self-organized civic communication, especially from young change agents.

    The project activates the potential of citizen journalism in that part of civil society that productively promotes sustainable change in Europe by qualifying them to create their own media. The project’s overall objective is to empower citizens, particularly youth, to communicate sustainable transformations. Sub-goals include qualifying young individuals engaged in climate initiatives with communicative competences and media literacy skills, emphasizing citizen journalistic forms of communication. The project addresses the gap in knowledge-based regional communication, counteracts polarization, and aims to diversify content on platforms like Instagram, Youtube and TikTok. 

    By fostering citizen journalism, the project seeks to facilitate democratic, diverse, equal, and sustainable transformations in public discourse. The project aims to gradually expand in Europe, connect with similar projects and contribute to a global climate protection movement. To achieve these objectives it uses the transdisciplinary method of the real-world laboratory including: Regional focus groups involving young change agents, media and participatory journalism experts, a blended learning program with a transnational face-to-face encounter on media literacy and citizen journalism competences regarding climate crisis and socio-ecological cultural transformation, a digital european exchange platform lead by the young ambassadors and a media literacy handout for youth workers and media professionals.

    Partners:

    • Kolleg Für Management Und Gestaltung Nachhaltiger Entwicklung
    • IM Cultural Institute
    • Glocal Factory Societa Cooperativa Sociale 
    • Athens Network Of Collaborating Experts Astiki Etairia
    • Predict Csd Consulting Srl
    • Hmkw – Hochschule Für Medien Kommunikation Und Wirtschaft
  • Combating, Countering Disinformation

    Combating, Countering Disinformation

    Proposal: Combating, countering disinformation and other forms of interference in the democracy

    Implementation: 2024 to 2026

    Call: CERV-2023-CITIZENS-CIV – Citizens’ engagement and participation – 2023

    Topic: CERV-2023-CITIZENS-CIV

    Type of Action: CERV-LS – CERV Lump Sum Grants

    Proposed Budget: 203 365,00€

    Keywords: Countering disinformation and other forms of interference in the democracy, Promoting democratic participation through debating the future of Europe, Other priority in line with the call objective to promote citizens engagement, Media literacy, Democracy, Inclusion, Europe in a changing world, Civil society, Vulnerable groups, Human rights, Cross-sector cooperation, Citizen engagement

    Objective: The EU recognizes the vital role of enhancing media literacy to combat disinformation, safeguard democratic values, and empower citizens to discern credible sources from false ones, with various policies and initiatives implemented in Member States in recent years. Nonetheless, the heart of media literacy approaches lies in devising inclusive communication strategies while concurrently safeguarding the tenets of freedom of speech. Seeking a delicate balance between fighting disinformation and preserving the fundamental rights of all citizens, including vulnerable groups, to express their views and opinions is our major challenge when it comes to counter disinformation and other malign influences. 

    This project intends to intervene in this sphere to empower European communities, promoting inclusive educational strategies that target and engage vulnerable and diverse age groups, reducing the risk of disinformation targeting marginalized populations. The activities are based on tailored approaches, digital educational tools, lifelong learning and cross-sectoral cooperation, and will focus on engaging citizens, especially the most vulnerable, in order to create a more informed and resilient society, safeguarding democratic values and ensuring that all citizens can actively participate in the digital era safeguarding their rights. 

    Partners:

    • Federazione Italiana Diritti Umani Comitato Italia
    • IM Cultural Institute
    • Fondatsia Za Predpriemachestvo, Kultura I Obrazovanie
    • Medardo Coboto Treciojo Amziaus Universitetas
    • Asociación De Emisoras Municipales Y Comunitaria
    • Idryma Ergodotisis Ekpedefsis Neoleas (IEEN)
    • Tasc Europe Studies
    • Lab Futura
  • Roma Women to Combat Antigypsyism

    Roma Women to Combat Antigypsyism

    Proposal: Intergenerational solidarity of Roma women to combat antigypsyism in Europe

    Implementation: 2024 to 2026

    Call: CERV-2024-CITIZENS-REM – European Remembrance – 2024

    Topic: CERV-2024-CITIZENS-REM-HOLOCAUST

    Type of Action: CERV-LS – CERV Lump Sum Grants

    Proposed Budget: 163 280,00€

    Keywords: Roma, Roma women, intergenerational solidarity, remembrance

    Objective: The project aims to revive the memories of Roma women, amplifying their voices and experiences for younger generations, particularly Roma girls. The main objective is to foster intergenerational solidarity and democracy in the EU. The project outlines three specific objectives, Recover and illustrate the significance of Roma women’s narratives in promoting intergenerational solidarity through Dialogic Literary and Artistic Gatherings; Establish a Solidarity Network of Intergenerational Roma Women to remembrance the Holocaust, genocide, and war crimes through; Develop training materials that can be scaled-up, thus enhancing transnational impact.

    Partners:

    • Asociación Gitana De Mujeres Drom Kotar Mestipen De Barcelona
    • IM Cultural Institute
    • Tsentar Za Mezhduetnicheski Dialog I Tolerantnost Amalipe
    • Universitat De Barcelona
  • Media Literacy in Social Media

    Media Literacy in Social Media

    Proposal: The project aims at introducing young people and youth workers to the media’s operation.

    Implementation: 2024 to 2026

    Call: Erasmus+ Programme

    Topic: Call 2023

    Type of Action: Small-scale partnerships in youth (KA210-YOU)

    Proposed Budget: 60 000,00€

    Keywords: Media literacy and tackling disinformation, Digital safety and data protection, Inclusion, promoting equality and non-discrimination

    Objective: The project aims at introducing young people and youth workers to the media’s operation in general and, in particular, the transfer of media strategies into the social media universe. In the context of digital expression, where freedom of posting, sharing facts and opinions that become reliable sources of information, is ubiquitous, developing media literacy has become an imperative to navigating social media. 

    Propaganda, disinformation, and misinformation are forms of distributing and manipulating information, hard to recognize in a lack of education. Moreover, understanding media construction, from the writer’s intention to the reader’s own investment in the message, is essential in everyday media consumption. By training young people to access, analyse, evaluate, create, and act within media and social media, the project links with the Addressing digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity priority.

    96% of young people aged 16-29 years in the EU use the internet every day, compared with 84% of the adult population. (Eurostat, 2023)

    When 60% of worldwide young users aged 18-24 years use social media as a source of news and finding information is the primary reason why they use the internet (58.6% for 16 to 24 years old), the focus is to work with youth. (Kemp, 2023) 

    On the other hand, with two-thirds of children and young people aged 25 years or less not having internet access at home, the attention is drawn to vulnerable groups. (UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union, 2020).

    In this way, the Inclusion and diversity in all fields of education, training, youth and sports priority is addressed. 

    Obj1: To build the media literacy of young people and youth workers, and improve competences like critical thinking, problem-solving, the capacity to find, select, access, decode, and interpret information and knowledge on the internet, the readiness to respond pragmatically and intuitively to challenges and opportunities in a manner that exploits the internet’s potential.

    Obj2: To ENGAGE, CONNECT and EMPOWER young people to take charge of their lives and face challenges such as fake news and propaganda. With one face-to-face training event, an online crash course, and workshops, the project offers learning opportunities, motivates the participants to take action and helps them to prepare for active participation in the online scenario.

    Obj3: To network, share good practices, and build capacity within and beyond the local level of each partner organization, enabling transformation and change, leading to improvements, in proportion to the context of each organization. By cooperating transnationally the partner organizations will increase their capacity to operate at the international level, enrich educational resources and non-formal methods to better target vulnerable groups who face social, economic, or geographic obstacles, and prioritize digital inclusion in local activities.

    Partners:

    • IM Cultural Institute
    • Federazione Italiana Diritti Umani-Comitato Italiano Helsinki Ente Del Terzo Settore
    • Autonómia Alapítvány