The unemployment rate for youth in the EU under the age of 25 is at staggering 22.9%. Such extreme unemployment has a negative effect on their future employability and self-esteem, increasing their risk of poverty, deskilling and social exclusion. It affects the role the young people have in the society and presents an economic burden on state finances, producing a negative effect on economic growth and productivity. As one of the key issues in the EU, youth unemployment is often discussed without sufficient participation of the young people themselves, which adds to the feeling among the youth that their situation is given, and that the causes and the scale of the problem are too great and too far removed from their sphere of influence. This feeling prevalent among the youth, and the tendency to focus on the negative, leads to a loss of motivation and active participation in the society. Without this active participation, the youth increase their risk of cultural, economic and social exclusion, but even more importantly, they fail to actively contribute to the wellbeing of the society by providing creativity and innovation, needed for economic growth and productivity. In doing so, they are not missing the opportunity help themselves and to grow into responsible, active and contributing members of the society.
The first objective of the project is to develop a new training program and MOOC in mobile journalism. The program will consist of six modules:
- Media Literacy and Human Rights
- Mobile Journalism Technology
- Mobile Journalism Storytelling
- Mobile Journalism Production
- Intellectual Property Rights
- Digital Entrepreneurship.
Each module will present a 16-20 hour learner workload in blended learning format, with maximum total program duration of 120 hours. The second objective is to develop the European Youth News Exchange (Y-NEX) as a service which will draw on the news-gathering and production resources of all the youth trained in mobile journalism, and be used for dissemination and exchange of news in text, photo, audio and video formats – created by the youth, for the youth.
The first target group of the project includes youth workers and staff active in education, which will be trained as trainers and act as multipliers in youth empowerment. The second target group includes high-school pupils, students, trainees, volunteers and unemployed young people who will be trained in mobile journalism.
Through an innovative training program in mobile journalism, the project will contribute to the empowerment and active citizenship of young people, increasing their capacity for political and social participation. Through the creation of the European Youth News Exchange (Y-NEX) service, the project will enable young people to connect with the general public, express their opinions and have an influence on the political and social processes affecting their lives.