GMK and IAME hold their join webinar on 23th November 2023 with with Valeria Kovtun presenting Filter, a Ukrainian media literacy project.
This online workshop took place in the framework of the 40th GMK Forum Kommunikationskultur.
Topic
From protection to empowerment: a story of Filter, Ukraine’s first national media literacy project
About Filter
Filter is the national media literacy project that works with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine to increase Ukrainians’ resilience to misinformation.
Filter is dedicated to offering creative solutions for tackling misinformation and promoting media literacy. We help organisations develop strategies for addressing the spread of dis- and misinformation, including initiatives for media literacy training and campaigning.
The project’s online platform aims to bring together the best solutions and materials implemented by state authorities, public initiatives, international partners and media community in Ukraine and worldwide.
About the speaker
Valeria Kovtun has worked in media development, project management, and journalism in diverse cultural environments across Europe. Through her leadership roles in Ukraine’s national media literacy program and consultancy for international organisations, such as IREX, OSCE, UNDP, Valeria delivered a series of impactful awareness campaigns and played a key role in shaping media literacy policy in Ukraine. As the founder of Ukraine’s first government-backed media literacy project, Filter, Valeria built and led a team that developed its brand and strategy, reaching over 12 million Ukrainians annually. Valeria has a journalistic background, having worked as an editor and producer with BBC Reel in London, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague and national TV channels in Kyiv. She was also one of the RAF fellows at the UN in New York. Valeria is a Chevening scholar and holds an MSc in Media and Communication Governance from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Valeria Kovtun gave insights into the Ukrainian project Filter. Filter was initiated by the Ministries of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine and exists since 2021. The project starts with the approach of understanding and marketing media literacy as a form of well-being and empowerment. Through various strategies, which are listed in more detail below, Filter has become a nationally recognized and visible project to promote media literacy in Ukraine. In particular, the goal of empowering people to filter disinformation became particularly relevant again with the outbreak of war. With a mascot and nationwide actions, as well as many different stakeholders, the project grew and spread as a teaching unit on national television.
The project went through the following steps from 2021 until the outbreak of the war:
• Develop branding, including mascots and marketing;
• Build networks and build trust;
• Develop social media strategies (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook), a total of 5 million views so far, organic (no money invested), language and presentation adapted to the platform;
• Live music events and walk-in excursions to reach people in different ways;
• Cooperation with schools and the Ministry of Education;
• Publication of a book in the form of a fairy tale on the topic of disinformation;
• Poster campaigns in metros and trains with the message „Ask more questions“ to stimulate critical thinking (happened shortly before the outbreak of the war. During the bombing, many people then sought shelter in the trains and metros; the war is happening not only in the field but also in the media, so the message was important);
• 4 ministries sat around a table to discuss Medialiteracy’s strategy for the next five years, nine hours later the war began, so all planning was no longer important.
Changes with the outbreak of the war:
During the war, there was no longer any need to convince anyone of the relevance of the project, because people knew that it depends on their own safety to get the right information and filter the wrong ones. Media literacy also became a tool to build and strengthen national identity.
Therefore, Filter changed the strategy and focused in his work to strengthen national identity, e.g. to debunk and demystify the myths about life in the USSR and the Soviet Union. This became an important element, especially for young people, and important and valuable discussions on social media.
In order to further strengthen the national identity, series have now been examined more closely and examined for Russian propaganda. Here it became clear that stigmata are often used with regard to the people in Ukraine. Furthermore, in a further step, successful people from Ukraine were presented online and their heroic stories were told.
In addition, lessons were developed and streamed into the school via national television. The schools teachers picked up on the content together with the students in class. This reached about 1 million people and the project website was visited by 185,000 people during the television lessons.
Communication of these events was essential.
Every year (2022 and 2023) there is a national media literacy test, based on real situations and news. This test is available for a limited period of time, so that the results from the two years could be compared. The dissemination of the test was supported by well-known influencers. To increase the motivation of participation, there was a raffle at the end.
Filter is a recognized project with enormous reach, which is working together with the government of Ukraine on a Medialitercy Policy and creates an example of how media literacy can be presented to the public with marketing strategies.
More information about filters:
https://filter.mkip.gov.ua/en/about-the-project/ https://www.undp.org/ukraine/press-releases/all-ukrainian-media-literacy-lesson-reaches-near-million-audience
Host of the Workshop: Anja Pielsticker, freelancing Media Educator und IAME-Board member