10 days before the Parliamentary Elections 2019, students of M.P. Drahomanov National Teachers’ Training University, Faculty of History, played a media game developed by the experts of Nationwide Union of Social Science and Civic Education Teachers. A moderator was Tamara Bakka, the winner of “Media Literacy for Young Voters” competition of AUP’s mini-projects.
Game process was emphasized on mass media impact on the election campaign. The teams tested their media literacy knowledge. The game showed it can turn more attention to the fact that the current election campaigns include a number of leverages to manipulate with the electoral consciousness.
“We do not even think how many ‘dirty’ techniques are used while running election campaigns: regular manipulations, fakes, populism, double standards and black PR – all these things trick people’s mind who cannot distinguish between the truth and lie anymore”, mentioned Oksana Kravchenko, game participant, in the end. Players finished the game with pleasant emotions, received skills that enable to access or interpret political pre-election ads/agitation that helps identify the false and tricky promises of politicians. Also, it was interesting for young voters to comprehend new media literacy tools (critical thinking, analysis of media texts, etc.) during the election campaigns. The game was developed to prevent the voters from getting into the media traps and to let them identify fake information and manipulations.
Project is being realized due to the support of the American people, which was provided through the USAID “Media Program in Ukraine” project, implemented by the international organization Internews. The contents expressed during this event are the responsibility of the Academy of Ukrainian Press and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, U.S. Government and Internews Network.
