Getting started

First steps

The first step is to put together a team of very motivated individuals that will bring the project to life and see it through. This will be the editorial ‘core’. You can also bring in regular and occasional participants to be in charge of op-eds, photos, writing jingles, person-on-the-street interviews, longer interviews, social media, uploading podcasts, and scheduling guests. Then you should draw up the roadmap to creating your media outlet and assign responsibilities according to participants’ preferences.

Coming up with a format and identity

• Ask what the aim of your media product is: Do students want to actively shape the life of their school or club? Allow as many young people as possible to express themselves? Encourage their own discussions on the topic of media?
• Determine your target audience: Students in a school? Members of a club? An entire community?
• Figuring out the tone is also vital: Should it be funny? Satirical? Investigative and research-based? Do you want the style to be more direct or more literary?
• Choosing a title (and logo) should also be taken seriously. After all, this is what will set you apart, affirm your identity, and (literally) make a name for your product.
• Finally, you need to take stock of the resources you need for your media product and desired publication frequency. The number of team members, their commitment, and their availability are major factors as well as your available equipment and budget.

Choose your media formula

To maintain the interest of your audience, draw them in, and pique their curiosity, you need to be sure that you supply information in a variety of ways.

Here are the main genres of journalism available to you:

Reports, investigations, and interview pieces are the main genres of journalism.

Editorials, op-eds, news briefs, regular columns, reviews, summaries, portrait pieces, and person-on-the-street interviews offer a wide range of options for adding variety.

Coming up with a topic

• Setting the angle

Choosing a topic is just the first step. You cannot cover every aspect of that topic, otherwise you may end up with an article that is too long, convoluted, and difficult to read. In other words, you may lose your audience. Therefore, you need to pick an angle, or point of view. You need to pick out which of the topic’s aspects you want to highlight and which ones you do not.

Example: ‘Podcasts’ is a topic, ‘women in podcasting’ is an angle.

• The six essential questions

In order to write an article, student journalists need to ask the questions Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?

Creating your media product and bringing it to life

• Simulating an editorial board:
• Setting up an editorial meeting is, firstly, a chance to bring together and introduce the various participants as well as to come up with a name.
• Secondly, the meeting is a chance to discuss the editorial line, the topics to be covered, the various possible angles, and also the formats (report, interview, debate, newsflash)

Ideally, the board should meet once a week or at some regular interval to encourage engagement.

• Assigning roles:

This is also the time to:

• Assign the roles of ‘journalist’, ‘expert’, ‘presenter’, and ‘crew’ (camera operator, editor) so everyone knows who is in charge of what.
• Give guidance to each participant to help them prepare (research, list of questions, reporting, commentary)
• Form groups of two or three based on participants’ skills and preferences
• Students will need to give their media product a visual identity:
• The instructor show students Canva (https://www.canva.com/) to create visual aids (logo, banners, illustrations, etc.).
• Instructors can also point out the tools offered by Madmagz, a newspaper (print and online) design app for young people: https://madmagz.com/ (see Sheet 17)
• Disseminating and promoting information:
• In order to increase your content’s visibility on websites like WordPress, it is important to pay attention to additional enhancing features, such as headlines, ledes, photos, and snippets that show up on search engines.
• These features need to be eye-catching to grab readers’ attention and curiosity.
• Tags (keywords for the topics covered in the article) are also important to improve referencing.
• Social networks can be a forum of expression, a place to post content, and also a platform to raise visibility. Do not hesitate to have a presence on multiple social networks to maximise the reach of your content. Promotional texts should be short and to the point.
• Regardless of the medium or aids (photo, video, or sound) it is crucial to link to other sites.

An article that contains one or more of these features will get many more views than one that is just text with no options to interact with other platforms.

• You must also pay attention to the level of language, which should be neither too formal nor too familiar.

PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES

This lesson sheet can also be used as a basis for a media creation activity with young people.

Critical thinking: a core concept of media literacy

When it comes to media literacy, critical thinking means paying close attention to available information by researching the topic and finding evidence for that information. It is about having a critical eye that does not overgeneralise, jump to conclusions, or blindly accept received wisdom, prejudices, and baseless allegations. In general, critical thinking means thinking autonomously, rationally, and deliberately. It also means being able to analyse and understand media content while bearing in mind the author’s motive.

Critical thinking is based on three principles:

• The principle of autonomy: being able to think for yourself, independently of the people and environment around you.
• The principle of self-awareness: knowing the limits of your understanding of events and knowing how your own cognitive biases and emotions as well as others’ can affect our judgment and beliefs.
• The principle of learning: Critical thinking is learned and acquired through the knowledge and discoveries that lead to intellectual awakening. Specific examples of critical thinking include comparing hypotheses and checking the sources of information.

In concrete terms, thinking critically about media means being committed to the following practices:

• Being informed: Taking the time to become informed, seeking out information and understanding it before judging it, commenting on it, or sharing it.
• Evaluating information: Identifying and checking sources before endorsing the information
• Differentiating fact from interpretation: Separating actual facts from interpretations of events.
• Seeking interpretations: Familiarising oneself with different interpretations that a piece of information might elicit and accepting this diversity.
• Categorising interpretations: Classifying in order of legitimacy the interpretations confirmed by experimentation and research, hypothesis, and opinions arising from belief.

How journalists verify information

Critical thinking is the heart of journalism, which involves examining information thoroughly before publishing it. To do this, a journalist needs to inquire, investigate, and find sources. They analyse facts and possible explanations and put them into perspective.

The practice of journalism is even more vital in today’s digital society where false information, doctored images, and manipulated videos run rampant on the internet.

In media literacy education, the journalistic practice of verifying information has been condensed down to a list of best practices to accommodate a young audience:

• Find out about the site where you found the information. The ‘Legal Notices’ and ‘About’ sections will usually tell you what kind of website you are looking at (blog, humour site, government, etc.).
• Trace the information back to its source. Quite often on the internet, information is shared, spread, and sometimes also distorted, decontextualised, or interpreted. It is therefore important to find out where the information came from.
• Check the information’s publication date. These days, information quickly becomes outdated or is confirmed or denied.
• Check the identity and reliability of the author of the information. Is it a journalist? Are they a specialist in the subject?
• Identify their aims and intentions. Are they looking to inform? Manipulate? Are they selling something?
• Ask the right questions. Be curious and question the author without becoming distrustful or paranoid.

Why it is important to check sources

The source is where information comes from, its starting point. When we talk about finding out where information comes from, we call it ‘tracing it back to the source’.

Cross-checking information is one of the most important and fundamental rules of journalism. Information is moving ever faster, partly due to the explosion of social media and to economic pressures, which have sadly taken a toll on this principle.

A reliable source is usually a qualified person or entity – an expert or informed person on a subject – who is giving information on that subject.

To increase reliability and the chance of being considered correct, information needs to found and confirmed by other sources or be viewable on other media. We say that information must be corroborated to be verified.

There are four main kinds of source:

• Institutional sources: public authorities, governments;
• Intermediary sources: NGOs, professional organisations, political parties, trade unions;
• Personal sources: discreet or secret sources that the journalist has amongst the powerful and within professional circles;
• Occasional sources: spontaneous sources, statements provided voluntarily or on request depending on circumstances, eyewitness reports.

The internet’s opportunities and risks to young people

The internet and mobile telephones, beyond their entertainment value, provide a new way of socialising and accessing essential knowledge for today’s children and teenagers. These new technologies represent an excellent chance to improve the quality of life of young people all over the world and provide unlimited knowledge in all essential areas – including education, health, science, and culture – with just a mouse click. The advances of the digital era are not without downsides, however. The virtual revolution has created dangers and risks similar to those of the real world that young users must face.

UNESCO has identified and classified the risks to young people online. These include exposure to paedophilic content, hate speech, and fake news as well as inappropriate advertisements, commercial scams, and manipulation of personal data.

Education is the best way to respond to these threats that await any young internet user. It is essential for parents and other responsible adults to teach media literacy so that young people learn the best practices that will shield them from the dangers of the internet.

These include properly managing your online digital identity by choosing the right settings for your social media profile and protecting your personal data. Raising awareness about good online citizenship is also important: respecting others’ privacy, thinking before you post, respecting your friends’ right to their image, and so on. These are essential ground rules that help prevent abuses such as cyberbullying.

Teaching young people about filter bubbles

Digital platforms such as Google and Facebook use algorithms to provide content based on our online behaviour, that is, our past interactions such as clicks, likes, purchases, and browser history. Tech companies use algorithms to offer a personalised online experience based on predictive analysis that seeks to anticipate our expectations. For the tech giants, the goal is to influence our behaviour for profit.

The influence of algorithms is far from harmless. It creates a problem for internet users and consumers like ourselves – and especially young people – known as a ‘filter bubble’. This is a situation in which “the information internet users see is the result of a personalisation mechanism that has been deployed without their knowledge”. The term ‘filter bubble’ refers to the isolation created by this mechanism: each user sees a different, unique version of the web. The risk is then that users remain stuck in a narrow digital universe that pushes a continuous loop of the same kinds of information. This algorithmic imprisonment drastically limits sources of information, reduces awareness, and undermines critical thinking. It therefore deprives users of the theoretical broadening of horizons that the internet promises; they no longer benefit from encounters with a range of opinions, which are essential to intellectual development.

This is why media literacy is needed to raise public awareness of the dangers of the algorithmic echo chamber. Understanding how it works is a vital step to breaking out of it and increasing the sources of information one sees. It is an essential condition to making the internet live up to its original promises of emancipation and freedom.

Traditional media

Traditional media are the media that were established before the internet: radio, television, and print media. Starting with the digital revolution of the 1990s, the way information is supplied and consumed began to change, which led to traditional media adapting their content to keep up with their audience and, quite simply, to survive. As a result, written press, radio, and television have been overhauled to offer online versions of their content as well as versions for smartphones and tablets. Even though we have these new ways of getting our news, it is important to remember that traditional media still have the same goal: providing the same information to a large group of people at once. It is up to the people receiving the information provided to them whether they pay attention to it.

The prime asset of traditional, legacy media – characterised by their practice of professional journalism and fairly rigid formats (editorial constraints, periodicity) – is their reputation. Even today, they are still considered reliable sources of information, especially with the rise of news that comes from social media.

Social media

The year 2004 marked the appearance of a new media presence to compete with traditional media: social media (‘new media’). These are digital platforms whose content is generated by users and that rely on users interacting with each other. This collaborative principle is unique to Web 2.0: users, who had previously been mere viewers of web pages, now have an active role. Today’s biggest social networks include Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and LinkedIn.

Social media, which have become one of the primary sources of information for the general public, especially young people, have a number of distinguishing features that have revolutionised the media landscape. First and foremost, these platforms encourage interaction: nowadays, news programmes are designed to encourage social media commentary, especially Twitter, which promotes discussion amongst its users. Social media also have the power of being instantaneous. Today, thanks to tools such as ‘livetweeting’, users can follow an event as it happens without having to be there. They know what is happening well before it comes on the evening news. Social media have also broken the news monopoly once held by traditional media; because of platforms like Facebook, anyone can be witness to an event and share it with the entire world the very next second. This practice has led to the birth of ‘citizen journalism’, which makes every social media user a powerful producer of information.

Information in the digital era: risks and opportunities

The rise of new, digital forms of information (online news, blogs, Wikipedia, YouTube, social networks, etc.) encourages greater access to knowledge, freedom of expression, and public participation. Today, the coexistence of various print, audio-visual, and online media has increased access to information and has created a culture of participation where the public is not satisfied to just consume information, but also contributes actively to its production and dissemination.

The main risk in this overhauled media landscape is disinformation. Mass use of social networks leads to questions about the veracity of information. What gives someone the credibility to talk about a particular topic? What about the risk of creating confusion around fake news and making it even more difficult to tell fact from fiction on the internet? From this standpoint, ‘classic’ journalism retains its relevance; its mission of curating, analysing, and interpreting information remains indispensable.

What is digital citizenship?

Nowadays, it is difficult or even impossible to live either our professional or private lives without the internet. As ubiquitous as it is, however, it is worthwhile learning how best to use the internet, which includes having better control and understanding of our digital lives.

Definition: Digital citizenship refers to the way in which internet users behave and interact online. Essentially, it is the behaviour we adopt in our online interactions with other users when dealing with sensitive topics of a social or political nature. The rights and obligations we have in real life are the same online. Our behaviour and interactions also define how others perceive us on the internet. At the same time, the way we connect online is not just limited to how we act or what we post, it is also defined by how we protect our privacy in terms of passwords, location, and internet history.

This means that digital citizenship also asks us to have a critical view of the internet and how we use it, especially when it comes to the personal information we share, sometimes without knowing it.

Best digital practices

Definition: ‘Best practices’ refer to both the way we should behave to make the internet a place of freedom and mutual respect as well as the rules that websites and apps require us to follow. In fact, many sites and web services set rules of conduct and rights of users.

Example: The web application Twitter gives this advice for using its tools:

Consider what you Tweet. You are in control of how much information you share on Twitter or any other website. Don’t post information you consider to be private, and be thoughtful about when you want to publicly share your location. Be wary of any communication that asks for your private contact information, personal information, or passwords. If you are ever unsure before you Tweet, we recommend you ask yourself the following questions: Who am I sharing this information with? How much and what type of information am I sharing? How many people can see the information I am sharing? Can I trust all the people that see this information?

But the app also has some essential rules:

Violence: You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence. Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.

It is therefore useful to remember as much as possible that our virtual behaviour has a real impact on people and that online harassment, for example, can lead to real-life tragedy.

On the other hand, the internet nowadays also represents a real instrument for the people. It makes it possible for citizens to be more informed and democracy more participative, as well as making access to information much more fluid. It is a tool that enables the discussion of ideas, communication, and can be used to speak out against dangers and risks to society at large, as is the case of ‘whistleblowers’ who use the internet to denounce corruption or attacks on liberties (see the film/documentary Citizenfour on Edward Snowden).

Maintaining a digital footprint and a positive mindset

Definition: Your digital footprint is the sum total of information on the internet about your online activity. It is an image of you, built up according to your behaviour and posts and your personal choices.

For this reason, it is important to keep a positive digital footprint! You can keep a blog on a particular topic, share your talents, film a video tutorial, collect money for a charitable cause, or help to organise events. The list of possibilities to transform your digital footprint is endless!

What is citizen media?

Definition: The term ‘citizen media’ contains the words ‘citizen’ and ‘media’. It does indeed refer to media – that is, radio, TV, the internet, and other tools that are used to convey information to a large audience. In addition, the modifier ‘citizen’ indicates that the people who write these articles and conduct these investigations are not professional journalists, but rather average citizens who want to lead discussions on specific issues or problems that affect society at large.

As a result, readers stop being purely passive and get involved in shaping and spreading information. Participation is therefore a very important part of citizen media, be it on the radio (online or otherwise), blogs, vlogs (blogs that primarily use video), podcasts, or other means. It allows average people, researchers, or NGO workers to have their voice heard by a large audience.

Example: Blogging as civic engagement in Albania: The blog Peizazhe të Fjalës (‘Landscapes of the Word’), created in 2007 by Ardian Vehbiu, presents itself as a separate, independent space: a sustainable model in the rapidly changing, financially drained, credibility-challenged, and largely politicised Albanian media landscape. In the words of its creator, ‘from the start, the blog has strived to be a “sanctuary” of Albanian free thinking that is protected from intimidation, shaming, humiliation, stigmatisation, trials, indictments, “silencing of the majority”, and other contemporary forms of censorship in public discourse’.

Involvement on social media

Social media have also transformed how information circulates; whereas the model used to be vertical, with news coming down from the top, its spread today has become more horizontal. Anyone can produce and spread content within their own network and even beyond it. Not only do you do have the chance to have your voice heard virtually, but also before or during real-life campaigns on the ground. During the Arab Spring, for example, social networks played an undeniable role, but the political changes came as a result of social movements, such as protests and blockades. Social networks allowed information and ideas to spread quickly, but societal-level change only came about when these actions met physical reality on the ground.

Example: Serbia’s #1of5million movement started in late 2018 and was able to benefit from new technology and modern means of communication to mobilise the public by sharing content online and exchanging information on social networks. The movement was in turn quick to attract a large audience on Facebook and Twitter, which allowed it to create discussion groups and mobilise masses of people against the political system’s creeping authoritarianism and for freedom of expression.

Risks and drawbacks

Remember that journalism is a profession that requires a special skill set and adherence to a code of ethics. At the same time, anyone can train to become a reporter, especially by talking to professional and amateur journalists. Sharing knowledge makes it possible for citizen media to become real, alternative, and reliable sources.

The ease with which anyone today can become an amateur journalist also brings some risks. Producers of information are sometimes unaware of fundamental ethical standards in journalism and publish incorrect or even completely manipulated information.

With citizen media, television channels, written press, and even social media, the amount and variety of information available today is larger than ever. This richness requires keeping a critical mind when faced with all of these sources of information.

Furthermore, while the internet is a place of freedom, it is also a place of economic exchange. The logic of marketing is invading both the internet and social media, turning information into another source of profit.

The spread of certain types of information, especially that which plays to readers’ emotions, is also a potential source of profit in a system that is funded by advertising. Clickbait is on the rise, enticing users to click on a link to visit a website and read an article. The author of the article and owner of the website then get paid by the advertisements on the website based on the number of views the article receives. This also constitutes a source of risk because it is possible to spread misinformation to attract viewers.

Conspiracy theories

While they are not actually a new phenomenon, conspiracy theories have been very popular in recent years, particularly because of how they spread on social media and on the internet more broadly.

Definition: A conspiracy theory is a seemingly coherent and ‘logical’ story or theoretical narrative that aims to demonstrate or reveal the existence of a small group of powerful people who secretly plan illegal or harmful acts to change the course of events or who are trying to take over the world.

Conspiracy theories differ from false information in that they come from an aggregation of hypotheses and arguments that are manipulated to support a particular theory. False information is sometimes used in conspiracy theorists’ arguments, but it does not always align with the theory.

The media and false information do play a crucial role in the extent of the phenomenon. Firstly, wariness or even distrust of the media increases conspiracy theories’ credibility and popularity, all the more so in countries where the media are seen as corrupt or under the thumb of the political system. Secondly, false information uses the same mechanisms as conspiracy theories, such as leveraging fear and manipulating facts, and are often about the same topics.

Examples of some of the best-known conspiracy theories:

– The Illuminati are a secret society whose members include the world’s most powerful people

– The world is flat instead of round – No one has ever landed on the moon

– A plot between Germany and the Vatican is responsible for the breakup of Yugoslavia.

There are also more topical conspiracy theories about 5G, coronavirus, and vaccines.

Hate speech and moderating hateful content

Conspiracy theories are a major part of our relationship with information and with society. They straddle the intersection of prejudices, political leanings, and beliefs and can even have close ties to hate speech. As such, they can quickly sow conflict when they spread. This has been the case, for example, of theories about a worldwide Jewish conspiracy.

Definition: When we talk about hate speech, we are referring to expressions of hatred that may take the form of a phrase, text, sound, or image that expresses rejection of others, is hurtful and thus encourages feelings of hatred. When such an expression of hatred is made public, it can also incite witnesses of it to prove their hatred for one or the other – to choose their side – and sometimes to express that hatred again with similar or higher levels of violence as a result of pressure from the group. This what is known as inciting hatred.

When combined with a lack of critical thinking, this type of content, based on stereotypes and misconceptions, leads to divisive and violent speech by turning one group into a scapegoat bearing all responsibility and guilt, which then leads to overgeneralisations and a feeling of paranoia.

Example: The Roma community is often the target of discrimination and prejudices, being portrayed as dishonest or thieves, all of which keeps them from getting skilled work. Roma are twice as likely to be unemployed than other groups and many of them still live in areas where homes do not have running water.

Moderating particularly hateful content on social media, for example, while providing more inclusive education in civics, media, and digital technology can help limit the slippery slope that leads to physical and mental violence.

Definition: Moderation means deleting, penalising, or even punishing creators of hateful content to prevent its spread. This type of content may include a violent comment on a post, sharing an article, video, photo, or infographic that stigmatises a particular group of people, or a private email or instant message exchange.

Fighting conspiracy theories

Definition: Conspiracism is the tendency to incorrectly present events or phenomena as being the result of an organised conspiracy. It is a way of thinking or attitude that denies generally accepted explanations of facts and replaces them with a conspiracy whose shadowy aim is unknown.

The consequences of conspiracism:

• Generates hate speech
• Makes people believe in unproven theories
• Locks people up into a logic of distrust and misconception, which limits the discussion of ideas
• Makes it more difficult to keep the powerful in check and reveals real political malfeasance or possible conflicts of interest.
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Ways to limit conspiracism:

1. Regulating and limiting hateful content and false information (fact-checking websites, holding social media platforms accountable, etc.)
2. Developing the public’s critical thinking skills through media and information literacy training in order to:

• Question the mechanism of the conspiracy: Is this really sufficient proof?
• Encouraging caution to raise and maintain vigilance among the public (without confusing caution with distrust or doubt with suspicion)
• Channeling criticism and allowing people to be better informed by using logical and verifiable procedures – and finally looking at the world around us objectively.

MYTHS IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Typology and purposes of myths

Definition: Myths are a fictional construct used to explain and justify certain social practices and act as rallying points. In addition, though, they also constitute a special type of discourse that is reminiscent of dreams and legends. According to historian Raoul Girardet, fictional constructs loom large in the history of political ideas because they may explain the strong pull of some political systems that lack a religious basis.

The young post-Yugoslav republics all have an interest in creating national myths and symbols in order to create a common sense of belonging to the nation or group. Historian Raoul Girardet suggests four recurring themes found in most myths that show the fundamental importance of fictional constructs in the evolution of society and political ideas:

• The unity myth: This myth exalts the homeland, the collective, and the community, which is represented by one single group of similar individuals (reinforcing ‘us’ versus ‘them’-type thinking).
• The saviour myth: This myth singles out a hero, a guide that can be identified as a role model and who confers legitimacy.
• The golden age myth: This myth idealises the old days, creating nostalgia for a bygone era and attachment to parts of the past in the quest for stability in the present and future.
• The conspiracy theory myth: This myth points the finger at a foreign culprit. The group’s woes are blamed on an enemy figure, which mobilises people in the group against the external enemy.

In general, myths are used as political tools during times of turmoil – moments of identity crisis or anxiety resulting from changes in society and lifestyle. As internal tensions rise, a mythos becomes necessary. These fictional constructs are thus a reaction to changes, lost bearings, and challenged traditions. Myths therefore have a clear political function: to rally the population around a story and common reference points.

Just as an image can capture an idea or event, a myth can capture people’s imaginations. This happens even more so among certain demographics, such as young people searching for an identity, looking to explain the world around them, or who are faced with an uncertain future.

EXAMPLES OF IMPORTANT MYTHS IN THE BALKAN REGION

Every culture has a variety of myths, and not all of them serve the same purpose, but the rich culture of the Balkans has enabled a number of myths specific to the region to spread and thrive.

Example: ‘Descendants of Alexander the Great’

In North Macedonia, the myth that says the Macedonians are the heirs of Alexander the Great is very widespread, even though it is impossible to match the territory of modern Macedonia to the Macedonia of that era, or even to find an ancestral link between the people that lived there in the past and those that do today. Although some of North Macedonia overlaps with some areas controlled by Philip II when he died in 336 BC, Alexander the Great’s kingdom was centred around Vergina in Greece. In addition, the people of the Balkans today are the result of complex intermingling stemming from successive invasions and migrations that have swept the region for more than two thousand years.

Nevertheless, these myths feed contemporary nationalist lines of discourse in the Balkans, which seek to affirm their people’s history in a particular place in order to legitimise their ambitions.

When a myth spreads, it can strain relations between groups of people in the region. In fact, the issue of Alexander the Great’s Macedonian heritage revived tensions during debates around changing the country’s name in 2018. Greek nationalists, who see the term ‘Macedonia’ as a part of Hellenic heritage, refused to let the former Yugoslav republic use the name. This led to multiple violent demonstrations in both countries.

Example: The myth of the ‘Orthodox brotherhood’

In Serbia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, there is a strong tie with Russia in many people’s minds that comes from a feeling of ‘Orthodox brotherhood’ that unites them especially closely to that country. According to a 2017 study by the Serbian government, one quarter of inhabitants (24%) named Russia as the primary donor of financial and material aid to their country, when in fact 75% of donations and aid come from the European Union or its member states. In addition, over 70% of foreign investment from 2010 to 2017 came from the EU, compared with around 10% from Russia, according to the National Bank of Serbia.

This myth thus arises from an emotional tie rather than a rational one. That emotional relationship endures with the help of politicians such as Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić or Milorad Dodik of Republika Srpska.

To limit their negative impact, myths must be deconstructed through research and in-depth historical or journalistic efforts. However, it is not always easy to conduct research on topics that remain sensitive for the people and governments of the countries involved. Journalists’ lack of resources, the lack of interest from the media in historical research, and the quick spread of conspiracy theories online can hinder the progress of research and the deconstruction of some persistent myths.

It is for this reason that the “Krokodil” Association started a campaign in Belgrade in June 2020 against the instrumentalization of history for political purposes. The goal is to create a space for historical and intercultural dialogue in the countries borne of the breakup of Yugoslavia and to encourage a culture that allows people to come to terms with the past.

Finally, some channels for spreading information can be used to bypass the issue of historical study and the media’s lack of attention to this serious matter. One example of this is cinema.

CINEMA: BOTH A MOUTHPIECE FOR THE PEOPLE AND VECTOR OF MYTHOS

Cinema is another way of promoting a national mythos. Films can be a source of inspiration and are highly likely to have a major impact on public imagination. In fact, unless you are very well-versed in the specific history of the topic in question, it can be difficult to determine the veracity of the events on screen. Furthermore, it is not unusual for some films to have a biased view of events or even to bolster and propagate certain myths, legends, and received wisdom.

Example: In late 2017, RTS (Serbian National Television) produced and broadcast the series Senke nad Balkanom (‘Shadows Over Balkan’) by director Dragan Bjelogrlić. It takes place in Belgrade, capital of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and then of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in the 1920s and 30s. The series presents this period as a golden age for the country. There had already been television adaptations of Mir-Jam’s trilogy (Ranjeni orao, Nepobedivo srce, Samac u braku) between 2008 and 2014, as well as a film that led to a series, Montevideo, Bog te video (2012-2014), all of which are sagas that provide a nostalgic view of this same period in the country’s history

However, films can also be used as a powerful tool of deconstruction and as a mode of expression for civil society to confront important contemporary societal issues.

Example: The 2019 short film Take me somewhere nice, by Ena Sendijarević, a young director originally from Bosnia, tells the story of a young Bosnian woman living in the Netherlands with her family who returns to the country of her birth. The film tackles the issues of immigration, interculturality, nationalism, and the return to one’s roots that can prove complicated for young people.

Example: Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski’s film Before the Rain, which won the Golden Lion at the 1994 Venice Film Festival, talks about the war and ethnic tensions between Macedonians and Albanians.

The power of images

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’

For decades now, images have had an important role in our societies, be they on television, in media, advertising, or more directly in our lives with the frequent use of social media. When you see an image, you think you are getting an immediate and full picture of reality, much more quickly than with written text or a speech. As a result, this type of communication and expression has great symbolic power because it can contain so much in so little content.

A double-edged sword

That being said, this great symbolic power is not without its flaws. The tendency to think that an image can speak for itself is a trap to be avoided because images can easily trick our senses, meaning they can be used to mislead or manipulate us. For example, it is very possible to interpret one image in multiple ways.

With the power of social media and the internet, an image, photograph, or video can go viral and global. On the one hand, this virality can be a good thing when spreading images helps to raise awareness, such as the photo of a young Serbo-Croat couple kissing proudly while wrapped in their respective flags, which was disseminated widely on social media. At the same time, however, it means that sometimes we have to deal with the massive and rapid spread of false information or conspiracy theories illustrated by or directly linked to images or videos.

Fabricating and manipulating images

The central role of images and their impact on our societies helps us to understand why the most effective and widespread false information uses visual aids (images, photos, videos). Even when it is not directly linked to a photo, the creator of the false information will usually look for an image (often manipulated or taken out of context) to illustrate it.

There are different types of image manipulation:

• Removing context: This is the most common method because it is very easy to do. It involves reinterpreting the meaning of an image to make it say something else by taking it out of its original context. As a result, the real reasons and circumstances in which the photo was taken no longer matter. The goal is to try and illustrate a statement by only using the surface-level appearance of the image and omitting the backstory, which itself is a kind of betrayal of the image’s meaning.

Example: In August 2020, an image circulated on social media claiming that a 5G antenna had been installed on the roof of a minaret of a mosque in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In reality, the photo showed nothing but the minaret, but the caption said that it had a 5G antenna that was emitting strong magnetic radiation, even though 5G has yet to be installed in the country.

• Doctoring and photo editing: This method involves artificially modifying the original image or photo with the intent of changing its meaning. This can be: 
  • A person or object added to or removed from a photo or video.

Example: After the explosion in the port of Beirut in August 2020, doctored images appeared online that had a missile added into them using video software, implying that the explosion had been a military attack by a foreign country, specifically Israel.

• • The photo can also be cropped to hide part of it, such as during a meeting or demonstration: It is possible to crop out parts of the image where there are no people to give the impression that the whole area was full.

• Deepfakes: This is a manipulation technique that uses artificial intelligence software to replace a person’s face in a video. For example, there is a video of a fake speech by Barack Obama in which he insults his successor Donald Trump. The manipulation was achieved with ‘DeepFake’ technology. With the recent technological advances, it has become increasingly difficult to tell which images have been doctored or manipulated and, with the arrival of new video manipulation methods, even greater caution and more verification of sources will be required.

False information and social media: two connected issues

Sharing photos and videos is a core function of the vast majority of social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat). In that regard, the danger is actually twofold because, on the one hand, it is possible for any person to publish or share images to a large social media audience, and, on the other hand, image manipulation does not require any actual technical proficiency (as was the case of the photo of the 5G antenna on a minaret in Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Newspaper cartoons and caricatures

The symbolic power of images is something the press has been using for a long time to convey its messages. Even before photography existed, newspapers used images as a form of criticism, particularly caricatures. It is interesting to note that even today, despite widespread use of images and photography, caricatures are still used in the press and the technique has even become a profession unto itself.

Definition: A symbolic form of expression that synthesises a concept, issue, or current event by exaggerating a person or phenomenon’s features or appearance. Most caricatures use a humorous tone to censure and criticise.

Example: In Serbia in November 2018, caricatures by the famous cartoonists Predrag Koraksić Corax and Dušan Petričić were the subject of such controversy that the Lazaravac Library had to take down their drawings. The illustrators were very adamant defenders of freedom of expression and an exhibition of their cartoons and caricatures opened on 22 November at the Stari Grad municipal building in Belgrade.

Caricature is an interesting topic when considering the use of images and their impact, but it is a tool that is seldom used by young people. Because of its symbolic power and the fact that it is attached to a specific context or subject, talking about caricatures with young people often requires contextualisation to allow them to understand the issues and topics the caricature addresses.