The danger from disinformation, Hoxhaj: Media education should become part of the school curriculum

University professor, Remzie Shahini Hoxhaj considers that media education should become part of the school curriculum in order to raise the awareness of the whole society about the importance of factual information.

In an interview for The Geopost, she emphasizes that in this way disinformation is fought and Kosovo joins the Western countries, which have already taken steps in this direction.

“Media education should not be seen only as a subject, as an aspect of learning in schools, but also the media should create programs, write articles like your work, to inform the public what should and what should not be done in the information process” , she says among other things.

Full interview:

The Geopost: Professor, thank you for this interview for The Geopost. As a professor, tell us what media education is and how much Kosovo does for media education?

Hoxhaj: Yes, media education means education for the media and education with the media, that is, through the media. It is a more complicated notion than we would initially say because media education includes all aspects related to information, the media, the use of information technology in our communication, etc. However, I would say that education through media and for media is probably the best possible description that describes media education.

The Geopost: You said media education, is this education enough only for journalists and people working in the media? We have seen concrete cases in media education in Western countries where media education has entered primary and secondary schools, there are also cases in kindergartens, there are special bodies for media education.

Hoxhaj: Yes, that’s why I said not education itself for the media, but also with the media. This means that media education means the process of equipping people with information related to communication, the use of technology, the use of media. I believe that the need that appeared most openly was during the pandemic, when we were faced with a different information system, with a different form of learning, the need for the issue of media education appeared, why, at that time also we as teachers, but also the students, i.e. our pupils, students, had never faced a form of education such as ‘online’, i.e. a virtual form of learning and information perception. That time of the pandemic when we did not have the freedom of movement forced us to turn our homes into classrooms and turn our facilities into workrooms, so media education is not only for the media and journalists, it is also for the general public, i.e. everyone who is involved in the communication process must have this aspect of media education because we are simultaneously producers of information, but also recipients, those who perceive the information, so this must to include all demographics, it should include all levels, i.e. journalists as well as the public, as well as pupils, students and others.

The Geopost: How media-educated is Kosovo?

Hoxhaj: As a journalism department, we have seen the need for such a thing since 2010 and since 2011 we have included media education as part of our program curriculum, i.e. our students are equipped with knowledge about the aspect of media education, but we have tried to become a public voice, we have tried to apply this in the wider sphere, we have tried to talk with the responsible institutions such as the Ministry of Education, other commissions for education within the Assembly to introduce the issue of media education as part of the school curriculum. I believe in the world it has become very evident that the information disorder that has occurred, i.e. disinformation, misinformation, propaganda, have caused many countries to raise awareness and introduce the issue of media education as part of the school curriculum, as you mentioned. also in primary and secondary schools, even in other countries there are also in nurseries, for example I know that I was part of a conference in Brussels in 2015, which is a conference on freedom of expression and media development and a professor of the Sorbonne from France has shown that in the case of Charlie Hebdo, the attack on the satirical newspaper ‘Charlie Hebdo’ in 2125 in France, the French government has taken measures and has introduced media education as part of the school curriculum and students, children should learn from kindergarten . It has been extremely interesting for me to understand why they have seen the way to introduce media education in kindergarten and she explained to me that for example they were interested in showing children to be able to tell where the difference is between a a journalist and a blogger and when you see it, this is a very important difference, especially in the time in which we live, where everyone can give me some information. This goes beyond that, to the verification of information, because a journalist has a newsroom and an editor-in-chief and that information passes through several filters, while a blogger, a freelancer, publishes it as he thinks it can be the truth , but often we manage to fall prey to misinformation, precisely because of the speed of news in the time in which we exist, trying to be the first to give the information, we often spread misinformation, because we do not verify this information is it correct or not, and this is exactly what is very important to explain to students and children, students because in the time we live in, freedom of expression is much freer than it was in the past because the Internet has given voice to those who have been voiceless. However, at the same time, the Internet has become a platform where even fools can spread their information, as Umberto Eco has said.

The Geopost: You also mentioned misinformation, which is the biggest challenge of the 21st century, how endangered is Kosovo and who is endangered by the spread of this misinformation?

Hoxhaj: I think that the issue of media education had been, one of the solutions, so to speak, of the awareness of the population and the general public, but at the same time it would provide both the students and the public with knowledge, which they would have entered into their service to be able to distinguish misinformation from factual information. Precisely for this reason, it is important that media education becomes part of the school curriculum, as it is in all countries of the region, but also in the world. Often we target the youth, we equip the youth with knowledge, but we forget that we have a large part of the population that belongs to an older demographic and we should not abstract them because they are part of our daily communication . I have seen ideas and projects on how media education has been developed in Brazil, which has a large number of the population and they have created special programs on radio and television where they deal with the topic of media education and disinformation specifically for this generation , for these ages. We know that today’s young people are much more media and technology savvy than the old ones because they went through a different time period and didn’t have the opportunities that we have. They have created special programs, where they have targeted these age groups as well, and we seem to forget them many times. Therefore, media education should not be seen only as a subject, as an aspect of learning in schools, but also the media should create programs, write articles like your work, to inform the public what should and what should not be done in the information process .

/The Geopost