Young leaders from Montenegro, R. North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia talk about values, media and voluntarism

Organized by Alfa Centar and The Balkan Forum young leaders from R. Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia discussed about:

THE CORE/COMMON VALUES AND THE VALUE SYSTEM THEY ARE GUIDED BY? 

Young leaders from the Balkans put emphasis on family and tradition, solidarity and sense of belonging to community of European citizens. Traveling/moving freely to European Union is among the main factors for our societies to change mentality and way of thinking. They also talk about the values among the young and older generation in our societies and point out to commonalities and differences, and argue that younger generation are more liberal and mobile but perhaps not very much concerned of what happens in our societies, and their participation in the elections is low but increasing. Older generation is said to be liberal, too, and more optimistic, and that they would expect institutions to provide some solutions to problems. While, younger generation think how to individually find solutions, so more of an individual approach. However, building trust with parents and among different generations and working together is crucial for our societies to achieve change.

Watch below the 50 seconds official trailer on VALUES and at the end of this page the entire discussion on VALUES, MEDIA AND VOLUNTEERISM.  

MEDIA INDEPENDENCE, INFLUENCE, OBJECTIVITY 

On the question whether media is perceived as independent or under the influence of domestic or foreign influence, participants in this debate argue that this differs from country to country. In some of the countries media are independent or largely independent and in some of the countries are not very independent. Common to most of the countries is that ruling political parties and governments (though depends from party to party and government to government) use or try to use national TV/media for their own propaganda and that media are perceived to be either pro or against a certain political party, as opposition or pro-government. They also agree that all media should be independent and that young people/people in general should play a role to ensure they are.

It is said that how independent media (and journalists) are depends on funding, which they can’t secure nor prosper from what they get from the readers/viewers. So, they rely on sponsors who may be business actors connected to politicians and political parties who may have their own agenda. That’s why they may be self-censored and even take side. Participants also argue that some of them are not objective, are populist and are creating content that provoking and creating tensions. It is said that to some of them are not interested in good/positive news. But there are alternative, some small, good, local media which put little stories of ordinary people into their public space, however they, too, depend on funding. Big, more established media, who may be funded by governments are good in producing content in a simple way that is more understood by ordinary people, while alternative media sometimes struggle to do so. And, all participants agree that the biggest concern is fake news and disinformation.

MEDIA LITERACY

On the question of media literacy, participants believe that it is low in our societies, that they should learn how to research and identify the fake news, and create their own opinion, not always trust what media produce, even media that they think are good. Education and fostering critical thinking among young people is said to be extremely important, so that they learn to question what media provides and not expect that the truth is going to be told to them always. But that people should increase solidary with some small, local, alternative media, both financially and by providing them with content and stories. Participants suggest that practical, easy thing to do to identify fake news and disinformation, is to look at more media outlets (3 – 5, if possible in different languages and from different countries), so that you can compare what different media are saying in same topics/issues. Before taking the information as granted, is always good to minimally check 2 - 3 sources and what they are saying for the same thing. Another practical step to check how credible an article/media outlet can be is to look whether the name of the author is mentioned in articles/news items, and whether in the web pages of media outlets you can find any address, contact details and who owns it, as most of online media or web portals do not have this information.

Watch below the 54 seconds official trailer on MEDIA and at the end of this page the entire discussion on VALUES, MEDIA AND VOLUNTEERISM.

IMPORTANCE OF VOLUNTEERISM AND HOW DEVELOPED IS IN THEIR COUNTRIES?

It was said that people in the Balkans have the culture of helping and solidarity, and that volunteering brings many rewards and changes a person’s life. It helps to better understand the communities and societies and rewarding because you give and receive a lot – you support and learn at the same time. Volunteering is also motivational as it makes a person feel good for helping and changing somebody else’s life (in a positive sense). For example, helping kids in some communities to go to school, and if you are not there they may not go to school. It was also stressed that young people and NGOs should help more older people who may not have family members to look after them, and also to protect animals.

Watch below the 28 seconds official trailer on VOLUNTEERISM and at the end of this page the entire discussion on VALUES, MEDIA AND VOLUNTEERISM.

Watch below the entire discussion on VALUES, MEDIA AND VOLUNTEERISM