A Research Team from the Media and Public Communications Department Presented Their Studies at an Expert Meeting on Media Literacy

A research team from the Media and Public Communications Department presented the results of their studies at the expert meeting on the Best Practices in Developing Media Literacy in Bulgaria and Germany.

Lecturers from the Department are in the final stage of a three-year project on the Media Literacy Training Practices in Bulgaria and during the Forum Chief Assist. Dr. Ivan Valchanov presented the results of a survey among 534 Bulgarian teachers. According to the results, the Bulgarian pedagogues have readiness to integrate media literacy topics into their subjects. The main keys to implement this are a clear government policy and the availability of training for teachers as well as teaching resources.

The event organized by the Media Literacy Coalition and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom was also attended by Prolet Velkova from the Council for Electronic Media, the German media literacy experts Isabella Schmitt and Janis Hahn, researching namely the integration in the formal education as well as Iglika Ivanova from the Media Literacy Expert Council at the Ministry of Culture. The panelists and guests agreed that the key to rapidly increasing the media literacy is the joint efforts of all stakeholders working on the topic.

The project of the members of Media and Public Communications Department at UNWE also includes interviews with experts, profound literature review of definitions and concepts of media literacy, analysis of strategic documents, foreign practices and training resources. The results of the separate studies will be published in scientific articles in prestigious research journals in the fields of communication and pedagogy and the entire project will be presented in a monograph which will be issued by the end of 2022.