Members of the EurAV team were at Virgin Media studios, recently, to accept a Media Literacy Ireland national award for their work in helping the older generation to navigate, what has become, an increasingly tricky online world.
As part of the DiSeRA project – Disinformation of Seniors in Rural Areas, EurAV teamed up with like-minded organisations across the EU to develop training for the older members of our society that was easy for them to engage with.
“The four countries involved were Italy, Slovakia, North Macedonia and here in Ireland,” explained Moira Cassidy of EurAV, who managed the project for the Irish organisation. “Our task was to develop the training and present it in a radio-like format which, our research showed, was one thatt our target group were used to and not threatened by. We were helped out by NearFM community radio station with the use of their studio and we had media experts Fiona Ashe and Bill Tyson join us to create a podcast series where we broke down the lessons into discussions that proved really successful.”
EurAV backed up the training with a series of workshops across local communities to ensure that senior citizens could engage with the project on their own terms, in their own space.
“To be awarded one of just five awards for media literacy categories was very special,” said Moira. “Being recognised for the work we do really does help to motivate us for the next challenge. We’re now looking at using DiSeRA as the basis for a larger project that will look at television rather than radio as a familiar medium to help promote media literacy.
To find out more about the project and access the resources, click here
