Media Literacy For All with DCMS & Nesta

We partnered with Nesta and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to create a Media Literacy course, which was then launched in 13 Youth Clubs and Secondary Schools across the UK during the strictest lockdown period. At the end of the Media Literacy programme, young people were connected with a local journalist from their area. The journalists delivered workshops, giving the young people a chance to ask them questions about their career path into journalism, the importance of public interest news and the connection between a free and fair press and a healthy democratic life.

We also designed and transformed our E-portal’s blogging feature into a Digital Newsroom, which enabled project participants to share articles on the issues they cared about and to receive feedback from the journalists. The best articles from the Digital Newsroom were published in local and national media outlets, such as The Big Issue North, In Your Area, Sheffield Star, Exposure Magazine, Restless Development and Billboard TV. Quite excitingly, the article on mental health provision in Leeds, published in The Big Issue North, received an official response from NHS England, promising to improve the visibility of mental health provision in the area. The project demonstrated the importance of providing young people with meaningful opportunities to have their voices heard – when this happens, they are able to hold their representatives and institutions accountable.

ClientNesta & the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and SportServicesMedia LiteracyYear2020Linkwww.nesta.org.uk