#NewME

Project Title: #NewME – New Media for Green Citizenship. Empowerment of Youth as Active Reporters for Sustainable Citizenship through the Development of New Media Skills.

Participants: Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Ukraine); Arbeitskreis Ostviertel e.V. (Germany); LIFE-PROJECT (Poland); Association for Cultural and Educational Development YOUTH ON BOARD (The Republic of North Macedonia); NESEHNUTI Brno (Czech Republic).

Duration: 28.02.2022 – 27.02.2025.

Objective: To engage youth actively in green citizenship by developing new media skills. The project aims to help young people and youth workers learn to use digital tools to create content promoting sustainable community development and addressing pressing environmental issues.

Project Details: The educational potential of online media is still underutilized. Every citizen must be able to use, understand, analyze, and create digital media. Therefore, developing and implementing new media is a vital focus of the #NewME project. Today, it is crucial for youth to be actively involved in content creation and critical consumption of digital media. This can only be achieved by enhancing their skills and providing tools and methods to youth workers, who play an essential role in this process.

Sustainable development, environmental issues, a “green approach,” and the circular economy are increasingly relevant to society. Therefore, it is vital to harness young people’s interest in these topics and turn it into real action. New media is a tool that youth find “cool.” As stated in “Environmental Safety,” systems of values and norms influence the formation of knowledge about nature and attitudes toward it and behavior. Therefore, developing environmental awareness from an early age is extremely important. The project’s primary goal is to empower youth to be active reporters for “green” citizenship by developing new media skills. This is reflected in the three main outputs of the project:

– A toolkit and methods for youth workers;
– An e-learning platform for youth in new media production;
– A cross-media blog where youth and youth workers can be “green journalists,” expressing their views and proposing solutions to combat climate change.

Each participating country has its unique environmental strategy, and the project’s goal is to make some aspects of this strategy a part of everyday life for young people. We aim to teach youth and youth workers to use online tools not only for communication, work, and entertainment but also for sustainable environmental development in their communities. This will be achieved through education and information campaigns and by incorporating digital storytelling and responsible citizenship as a natural part of youth’s daily lives alongside social media.

Social media platforms have already become essential tools in daily life and political and public debates, replacing some traditional media functions. Our project is based on the idea of new media. Given the development of social media, media devices, and applications, providing independent distribution opportunities is no longer as important. Instead, thorough media education has become vital because teaching people media production will make them more responsible consumers. Today, students are always online with their mobile phones—on their way to school, during free time, or while eating. The use of new media for education perfectly meets the needs of modern students. #NewME offers exciting, personalized, and flexible learning. Through a well-designed e-platform and cross-media blog, students manage their learning on their terms and develop decision-making skills.

New media is gaining popularity in partner countries, and the young audience is becoming not just consumers of content but also its creators. Ecology is one of the critical topics of this interest, as we all must feel responsible for the planet’s future. With the support of youth workers, young people can convey important messages and make a real difference.

The project will help build strong connections between youth and local communities through new media. This experience will impact their attitudes toward ecology and raise awareness of the potential to use media platforms to address pressing environmental issues. Local communities will be able to expand their knowledge of digital media and environmental issues while consuming youth content focused on “green zones,” sustainable citizenship, and local, yet European, development systems.

Given the project’s digital presence, youth workers in partner countries will use the manuals and materials prepared within the project’s framework in their work on environmental issues and journalism skills.