Fiji Media Watch, a non-government organisation based in Suva is hosting its first school-based workshop for this year, at the Fijian Teachers Association Hall.
Mrs Emelini Naisele from the Ministry of Education’s executive support unit will be chief guest at the workshop on March 1 and 2 with the theme: Children and Media Consumption.
It is the first time for FMW to have both teachers and students from primary and secondary levels, participating in the same workshop.
FMW believes the presence and intensity of media influences such as radio (music), Television, film & cinema, multi-media (internet, video games, ipod & ipad), New Communication Technologies (cell/mobile phones) are increasingly known to play a significant role on the social environment of our children and youths today.
The influences of the media among the younger generation of media consumers in Fiji have become more visible and volatile.
Therefore, workshops such as this are designed to empower participants with media education information and skills.
Both teachers and students will be reminded that among the senses utilised in learning, the sense of sight has the highest percentage score in a normal school context.
The sense of sight should therefore be utilised fully in classroom learning.
Furthermore, media education can contribute to learning in the school setting by encouraging individuals to take more responsibility for and control over their own learning, media use and media consumption.
Media education is also group focused, involves collaborative learning and assumes that individual learning takes place through access to the insights and resources of the whole group.
Similarly, studies show the number of hours children and youths spend interacting in some way with media, as well as the range and capabilities of the many devices and activities that could be considered media experiences, have increased to an extent far beyond the imagining of the older generation when they were young.
Our children use electronic media from two to five hours daily, and infants even in a mothers’ womb are now exposed to a variety of mediums.
When FMW ran its first media education training for teachers in 1999 and 2000, workshop participants were introduced to the concept of media babies.
This week’s workshop participants will also learn additional concepts such as infotainment, media natives and domestic harmony.
Correspondingly, FMW maintains that “information is like a sharp knife, in the hands of a killer, it becomes a weapon to kill, in the hands of a surgeon it is an instrument to remove the malignant parts that help the healthy growth of the human body”.
As an organization, FMW’s vision reads: A media literate Fiji and a responsible Fiji media. Its mission: Is to raise awareness on the power of mass media and to encourage ways in which the media can enrich people’s lives.
FMW runs two further programmes namely, Good Governance & Human Rights in Media Education and Good Governance & Human Rights in Media Monitoring. Some of the activities include media awareness, media education and media monitoring visits, public seminars, input sessions and workshops in communities, schools and institutions around Fiji.
The FMW wishes to acknowledge the contribution of its partners and funders Caritas Australia, EED (Germany), the Delegation of the European Commission for the Pacific (EU) and SIGNIS World. The organization is also thankful to all resource personnel and individual participants for their contributions and support of FMW work.
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