BDU in collaboration with USAID organized three days of training on media and information literacy for 60 freshmen students from the 7th to 9th of October 2021. The training was organized with the objective of supporting students to improve their media literacy skills, allowing them to become more aware and responsible consumers and users of media messages.
The training mainly focused on media knowledge and use behavior, the influence of media, key concepts of media and information literacy, social media use, information disorder, critical thinking skills, fact-checking concepts, among others. Students were also trained on how to use fact-checking tools.
The training was well received by the participant students. Ahmed Kedar, one of the trained students expressed: “At present, we are exposed to a wide range of media messages. We sometimes get trapped in the pursuit of our goals due to some trivial issues such as unwise and inappropriate usage of social media. For example, rumors circulate on Facebook from time to time leading to confusion among students. This training helped us get a valuable lesson that will help us avoid falling into those traps in the future. It is therefore beneficial to be trained in media literacy.” He added: “We are a small group here, but we should go and share what we have learned with our friends. We should not keep what we have learned for ourselves only”. Ahmed added: “We appreciate our trainers' for their time and the valuable lessons they taught us.”
Helen Abera, also a trainee student, added that the lesson that they have learned could serve the country in light of the current situation. She underlined that students should put what they've learned to good use by exposing false information that is being circulated on social media at present.
