by R. Alan Berry, IREX.
The recent article on this site by Emilija Petreska-Kamenjarova highlights critical insights into the media literacy and critical thinking skills of Macedonian youth, based on a nationwide study conducted by Macedonian media regulatory body, Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (AVMU), in cooperation with USAID’s media literacy project in North Macedonia, YouThink. The article reveals a concerning gap between awareness and application in areas like recognising disinformation, deciphering facts from opinions, and practicing online safety. However, the innovative approach and activities implemented by the five-year YouThink project and our partner organizations – IREX, Macedonian Institute for the Media (MIM), Institute of Communication Studies (ICS), and Youth Educational Forum (YEF) – provide a robust response to these challenges. Evaluations of these activities demonstrate their impact on Macedonian youth and the educators responsible for teaching them to be more responsible and ethical digital citizens.
Building on IREX’s Learn to Discern approach, we address the unique challenges of information integrity and resilience in North Macedonia through “whole of society” interventions, focused on: developing critical information engagement skills and healthy digital relationships; raising awareness through inclusive resources, multimedia campaigns, online courses, and public events; and catalyzing education reform.
In this article we highlight our approach and a few of our activities over the last few years to showcase how YouThink is empowering youth and fostering information integrity and resilience in North Macedonia.
Addressing knowledge-action gaps through structured youth programs
Petreska-Kamenjarova’s article identifies significant gaps in how Macedonian youth translate their knowledge of media literacy into practice. For example, while many young people recognise the risks of clickbait or misinformation, a notable percentage fail to act on this understanding consistently. This discrepancy highlights the need for targeted interventions that focus on behavior modification, as well as knowledge and skill acquisition.
YouThink’s activities, particularly our Youth Debate Clubs and Media Literacy Summer Academy, tackle these deficits head-on. These programs target:
- Media Literacy Skill Development: Topics such as information manipulation, cognitive biases, fact vs opinion, journalistic standards, and digital rights and ethics equip participants with tools to critically engage with media.
- Behavioral Interventions: Activities help students practice decision-making in controlled environments using simple strategies for information verification, emotional control, and digital wellbeing, fostering a deeper connection between knowledge and action.
The outcomes from these programs are compelling and demonstrate the transformative impact of our youth activities. For instance, the two-week Media Literacy Summer Academy in August 2024 (N=76) showed improvement in recognising clickbait (from 53.2% in baseline assessments to 89% post-training) and identifying hate speech (from 58.3% to 89%). Other key areas of improvement include:
- Critical thinking and analysis: Debate Club participants who completed a six week media literacy training (N=360) increased their critical thinking skills by 37%, demonstrating a better ability to analyze and evaluate information.
- Information verification: The AVMU national study found that only 3.7% of Macedonian youth respondents knew how to verify the origin of a photo online. By the end of the Summer Academy, 81% of participants were familiar with tools for verifying online images.
- Differentiating facts and opinions: Nearly all Summer Academy youth were able to accurately identify various facts and opinions after the training (94% average), while roughly only two-thirds of the AVMU study respondents were able to do the same (71% average).
Educators as catalysts for change
In addition to our youth-focused activities, YouThink has made strides in equipping educators and schools to integrate media literacy into formal education. Our teacher training program, which trained 8,500 educators, increased knowledge of information manipulation and verification by 43-47%, with 95% feeling well-prepared to teach media literacy (N=7,967).
These efforts align with the Ministry of Education’s reforms to embed media literacy into the national curriculum, with teaching guides and resources co-designed by YouThink. The teachers trained thus far reach over 123,000 students – an entire generation of Macedonian youth who will now receive quality media literacy education. Post-training observations of media literacy lessons in these primary schools showed that over 80% were rated highly effective in domains like lesson planning, teaching implementation, and student engagement. However, the domain of developing critical thinking remains a challenge, with 65.4% achieving high effectiveness: Ongoing development is needed to refine teaching strategies and improve student outcomes.
Long-term implications and recommendations
The impact achieved through YouThink’s initiatives represents a vital step in raising awareness, bridging the knowledge-application gap, and affecting systems change in North Macedonia. However, sustaining and expanding these gains requires a multi-faceted approach:
- Scalable programs: Expanding youth and media clubs to more cities and schools to amplify our impact on youth.
- Continuous and expanded teacher Ttaining: Refresher courses and advanced training modules to help teachers better address critical thinking challenges and new developments and expanding training to secondary school teachers.
- Community engagement: Encouraging greater parental involvement and community-based workshops to create a supportive ecosystem for the spread and practice of media literacy.
YouThink’s efforts demonstrate a powerful model for addressing the deficits demonstrated in the AVMU national study of Macedonian youth. Our activities have significantly enhanced media literacy and critical thinking skills among Macedonian youth and have transformed the education system. Continued investment in such initiatives will not only empower the next generation but also foster a more informed and resilient society.
Author
R. Alan Berry supports IREX’s global media literacy programs as a Technical Advisor and leads programs in Eastern Europe and Sub-Sahara Africa. Alan has worked in media literacy education for over a decade and is a PhD Candidate at the University of Maine, a State Advocacy Leader for Media Literacy Now, and on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of Media Literacy Education.
