Academic CentreThe IREX Baltic Media Literacy Programme at the University of Latvia is a project funded by the United States Department of State. It aims to educate media literacy students at the University of Latvia and the general public. The project is implemented at the University of Latvia at the Advanced Social and Political Research Institute at the Faculty of Social Sciences.
The programme includes educational, creative, and research activities. Within the framework of the project, new study courses have been developed ("Journalism in the Era of Disinformation" (6 ECT) for Communication Science students and "Fundamentals of Media Literacy for Information Specialists" (3 ECT) for Information Management students). In August 2020, summer studies for students of the bachelor level programmes at the Faculty of Social Sciences "Three Stories of Media Literacy" took place. In January 2021, 50 students from nine social sciences and humanities master level programmes of the University of Latvia participated in the winter excellence studies "(Post)pandemic Media Literacy". Practical media literacy training for school youth, prospective students, students, and employees of the University of Latvia has taken place.
At the end of the study course "Journalism in the Era of Disinformation" students themselves become ambassadors of media literacy, creating educational media literacy materials for various social groups or leading media literacy classes. In the autumn semester of the 2021/2022 academic year, more than 110 participants took part in student-led classes, including online and face-to-face events in six different Latvian schools, including schools in Riga, Liepāja, Madona, Tukums, Balvi, and other. Students' media literacy materials, on the other hand, have received IREX certificates of recognition and have been distributed to a broader audience. For example, the podcast "Info-demic" (Info-dēmija), created entirely by students from their homework, grew into a 30-episode programme that aired on Radio NABA and is now available on Spotify.
An online discussion on media literacy in the work of memory institutions was organized in the spring of 2022. This topic will be continued in autumn, creating helpful analytical material for students and staff of memory institutions.
At the end of April 2022, a digital collection of new media literacy lesson plans and assignments "Be Media Literate!" will be presented. Also, the results of social media monitoring carried out by students on the disinformation spread on social media and its circulation will be published.
The project will continue until November 2022. A project manager is Dr. sc. comm. Klinta Ločmele (klinta.locmele@lu.lv).
IREX is an education and global development organization based in the United States. One of its activities is to work with universities in the Baltic states to facilitate critical appraisal of information and provide young people training as media literacy coaches. The IREX Baltic Media Literacy Programme at the University of Latvia has been implemented since the spring of 2020.