In response to national efforts to confront misleading media messages with the aim of cognitive and cultural empowerment of Jordanian Youth, building their capabilities in dealing with information sources and accessing more reliable media content, King Abdullah II Fund for Development launches the second cycle of Media & Information Literacy Project.
The idea of the project is based on promoting the values of digital citizenship, fighting rumour and counterfeiting, and tackling hate speech, especially on social media platforms, through the ability to critique and evaluate news and limits the spread of misrepresented ones.
The project aims to provide the youth with technical skills in the field of verifying images and videos, uncovering misinformation on the media, digital communication, and information security, as well as enhancing the capabilities of youngsters to participate in the production of media content that serves the values of tolerance and pluralism and is based on the inclusive national identity and the values of the Jordanian state.
The project targets youngsters within the age of (18-25) years, aiming to provide them with the capabilities and skills they need to deal with modern media and verify their information and media messages before they are circulated.
Participants will undergo training courses to be held in various regions of the Kingdom aiming at developing their skills and providing them with the necessary experience in this field.
Marwa al-Dabbas, one of the participants in the previous course, describes her unique experience and says: “I managed to learn the mechanism for accessing real news and separating rumours from real news, as well as not contributing to its circulation by searching for official and reliable information sources.’’
On the other hand, Mutasim Al-Shayeb, a 23-year-old-young, pointed out that the Media & Information Literacy Project has become an urgent necessity for all societies, especially the youth community that uses the most media and information content, indicating that the project contributed to receiving various experiences, the most important of which, according to his opinion, was his acquisition of the skill of networking with a group of media professionals.
In its first cycle, which was launched in 2019, in conjunction with the Kingdom's celebrations by the second decade of His Majesty King Abdullah II assuming his constitutional powers, the project provided (168) direct and indirect opportunities, through which a training manual was developed and deposited in the National Library.