We are planning to lead workshops in the local high schools, if it's going to be possible in actual classrooms, otherwise over Zoom. We would like to educate young people about media literacy. We all have a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and we would like to give young people all the tools they need to understand the media (key concepts, google tools, phrases commonly used in fake news etc.). We think that strong media literacy is really important for political participation.

Slovenia, Styria, Upper Carniola, Primorska.

First of all we would like to provide them with basic concepts for a better understanding of media (such as basic concepts of democracy, left and right politics, fake news and populism).

With the help of these concepts (and through case studies) we want show them why understanding the media and political engagement is important and how they can make a difference. We want to give them the tools to help them stay informed and also show them where they can access quality information about what is going on in politics and in their social surroundings in general - and how to participate in these activities.

We want to reach as many high-schoolers as possible (from the mentioned regions) and educate them in the fields mention above. Their ages vary from 15 to 19. In Slovenia people get their voting rights at the age 18, so we believe that these ages are the most important for their future political engagement.

Our workshops are going to be divided in three sections:
- Understanding the media: fake news, fact checking, teaching young people about basic concepts that are used in media all the time (democracy ...), giving them different tools to recognise fake news, teaching them about basic media ethics and giving them a basic understanding of media freedom and media ownership.
- Media and society: how media can affect marginalised groups such as LGBT communities and migrants and also how gender equality, abusive behaviour and other topics that are important to society can and should be represented on media ethically and responsibly.
- Media and politics: how to better understand politics and the basic concepts of political action.
- A brief review of political institutions on the local and national level.

We will give the participants an option to write an article about what they have learned in our workshop and how they might implement the knowledge in their daily lives. Then we will choose the best three articles and publish them on our website. These winners will receive rewards (such as the internship, visiting one of Slovenian media institutions, notepads or tablets etc.).
We hope that they will be more engaged in local and national politics and that they'll feel empowered and interested about these topics that shape our lives. We expect that the participants will collaborate with journalists and mentioned municipalities through the Facebook group we will create for them. We also hope that our participants will come up with new ideas and collaborate with each other through that group.

They will receive the knowledge which will help them to think critically about political events in their local communities. In workshops they will work in groups which will strengthen the connections among the group members. These connections can help them amplify their voices about the topics that are important to them. Tools that we will provide them with include: understanding basic concepts of media, society and politics; understanding fake news; media ethics and a basic understanding of political institutions on the local and national level. Our goal is to inspire and empower them.

As already mentioned, we expect that the participants will collaborate with journalists and mentioned municipalities through the Facebook group we will create for them.

The team behind the idea consist of four former journalism students that all worked in different media fields and institutions in Slovenia. Throughout our studies and our work we have learnt how important it is to really understand media to be politically and socially active in the society. Two of us are from Styria, one is from Upper Carniola and one is from Primorska, so these regions are personally important to us and we would like to make a difference – especially among young people.

Staff (our work): 4000 EUR (1000 EUR for each of us)
Travel and accommodation costs: 500 EUR
Speakers: 500 EUR for speakers per workshop (we plan to hold at least 5 workshops: 2500 euros)
Basic equipment for participants: notebooks, pens, microphones - 1000 EUR
Travel and accommodation costs for speakers: 700 EUR
Gifts for the three winning articles: notepads or tablets (3 for 500-1000 EUR)
Costs of promotion (FB, IG, adverts, PR, videos): 1000 EUR
Food and drinks: 500 EUR

Our idea is to inspire and empower young people so they will be encouraged to participate in their local and national political activities. We want to do that through media education that we think is vital to that cause. We would also love to get inspired by other ideas.