CONTEXTPartners in this project - PL, NL, TR, RO and IT are united by the purpose of training students to distinguish between responsible and irresponsible journalism, between real and fake news, biased opinions and objective reporting of events, about how to avoid manipulation on TV and social media, be prepared to recognize elements of manipulation in news, public speeches and social media posts.We will ensure that the project activities will contribute to this goal – to train teens in media literacy, build communication and interpersonal skills, permit the exchange of ideas among different cultures. Students work together to analyse and create media products, thus developing their team work abilities, intercultural cooperation and creativity.OBJECTIVESO1. raise awareness about the importance of critical consumption of mediaO2. promote media and ethical journalism as a tool to foster responsibility towards societyO3. enable students to do basic (mass)media analysis and reflect on and combat manipulation practices O4. foster critical thinking and analytical thinkingO5. develop interpersonal and communication skills in multicultural contextsO6. develop intercultural competences and EU awarenessO7. boost students’ creativityPARTICIPANTS - students in the workgroup that are selected at the beginning of the project (minimum 24 students, aged 15-17, from various backgrounds, including at least one third of students from disadvantaged categories. Ideally, we will strike a gender balance in the group composition).They will be working in specialized groups for the local project activities and will be the basis of selection for the exchanges.Also, they will be involved in disseminations as organisers, presenters, or members of the audience, depending on the situation.In the exchanges, we will have 96 students.- 32 teachers (foreign language, social studies, media studies, philosophy) will participate as accompanying teachers and 10/11 teachers will participate in the joint-staff training event.MAIN ACTIVITIESC1-C4 - student exchanges, C5 – joint staff training eventC1 – NL – Media – yesterday and today. C2 – RO – Media and its power to control minds. C3 – IT – The rise of social media, the decline of truth? C4 – PL – From consumers to creators of media.C5 – TR – Media Education in high schools. METHODOLOGY- Before exchanges, students work in groups on presentations and surveys on the topic of each event, take interviews of journalists on different topics.- During the exchanges they participate workshops, attend lectures, visit media companies, work in groups to analyse articles, news reports, create their own news and articles, create posters, exhibitions, do debates on hot topics related to media – social media, fake news, biased reports, reflections of minority groups in the media etc.- During C4, after having improved their ability to analyze media information critically, they learn about the steps to create an e-newspaper. They start work on it and publish it online- During C5 – teachers meet to establish a methodology for initiation of media clubs and on the collection of lessons for different subject in which media is used as a teaching material.Students continue collaboration through the e-newspaper. The newspaper activity will be continued in the future by members of the newly-established media clubs.RESULTSOutcomes: the knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired by students and detailed in each exchange description and as planned through the objectives, effective cooperation among students and among teachers, increased self-confidence, ability to work in multicultural settings, ability to express and defend ideas, improved awareness of similarities and differences among countries, improved cooperation with local media representatives.Outputs: students’ presentations, media articles and videos, workshop materials created by specialists, surveys conducted by students before each exchange on the specific topic, news reports created by sts, collages, video interviews, project dissemination platforms, teachers’ guide for the use of media in class, methodology for setting up media clubs, 5 media clubs.Final outputs: e-newspaper created and run by students during the project which will extend beyond the project, teachers’ guide for use of media in teaching, methodology to start media clubs.IMPACT- all the schools will cover a need identified in the beginning and turn it into an opportunity for future development of local projects- students become more actively engaged in the life of the community and will write articles about local issues- teachers become more active and more engaged in the school activities - schools extend their after-school club offer- schools enlarge their European collaboration network- schools promote a positive image in their local communities