ICS presented the Media Literacy Dictionary at the University of Prishtina

The Media Literacy Dictionary, which is available in Macedonian and Albanian, is a tool that helps students in understanding and interpreting new terms that have emerged with the development of new media, but also in writing academic texts, seminar papers and assignments. The initial analysis of the use of this publication showed that, in the first six months since the promotion, almost one third of the audience that accessed the publication was from Kosovo and Albania.

That was one of the reasons for visiting the Journalism Department at the University of Prishtina. The ICS team, together with the members of the editorial board of the Media Literacy Dictionary, Emil Niami, Ph.D. and Sefer Tahiri, Ph.D., presented the activities within the YouThink project with the eight faculties in Macedonia that include media literacy in their study programs, the scientific magazine KAIROS, media production training for students and young journalists, as well as the annual international symposium.

The fact that the amphitheater was completely full, and the students took active part in the discussion led by Alexandra Temenugova from the Institute of Communication Studies, speaks volumes of the interest of the hosts and the students. “Judging by the interest shown during our visit, I think we are at the beginning of a solid cooperation between the two higher education institutions. We have already agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Dean’s administration.”

Emil Niami, Ph.D. explained the process of creating the Dictionary to the Kosovar students: “Our first task was to determine the corpus of this lexicographic edition, which included about 1,500 terms in the field of media literacy. Then we moved on to the selection of the most frequent and the most important terms, but also including the terms that arouse the greatest interest, so initially we covered about 700 terms. The interpretations are simple and tailored for users from various groups and of different ages,” Professor Niami explained.

Professor Sefer Tahiri presented the media landscape in Macedonia and together with the students they discussed the similarities and challenges faced by journalists in Macedonia and Kosovo.

For the second year now, Media Literacy is being studied as a special course of the study program in Journalism at the University of Prishtina.