New grant will fund media literacy and PJ project

I'm thrilled to announce that I have won a Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund Rapid Response award from the U.S. Department of State. The $9300 award will fund a project titled, “Media Literacy for Students: Lessons from Covid-19.”

The project will take place in the greater Kansas City area. It will utilize virtual seminars and projects to educate and inform students about our society’s information challenges as illustrated by disinformation about Covid-19 and other current issues. The project’s activities will be grounded in the principles of effective media literacy training (including media content analysis and critical thinking); and informed by the fundamentals of peace journalism, which seeks, among other things, to debunk propaganda, reject ‘us vs. them’ constructs, give a voice to the voiceless, and facilitate societal discussions about solutions.

The first virtual seminars will be held in September 2020, followed by the creation of a student-produced magazine and podcast discussing and analyzing media. The project will culminate with a Zoom media literacy summit in January, 2021.

Student participants in the project will hail from Center Middle School, Center High School, Johnson County Community College, and Park University. As part of the project, Center Middle and High School students will receive tablets and digital subscriptions to the Kansas City Star.

Beside myself, other project trainers include Lewis Diuguid, journalist and multicultural education consultant in Kansas City; and Allan Leonard, journalist and fact-checking expert based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

This funding opportunity is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and implemented by Partners of the Americas in partnership with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Alumni of U.S. government-funded exchanges are eligible to apply for Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund Rapid Response grants. Youngblood could apply as a two-time J. William Fulbright scholar (Moldova 2001; Azerbaijan 2007).

For more on the Rapid Response program, see https://www.partners.net/citizen-diplomacy-action-fund-us-alumni