Abstract:

The “post-truth era” are a threat to democracy. The factors that contribute to this problem are multiple, such as the production and consumption of "false news" that derives from the speed of transmission, the lack of literacy of public news, but also, among others, the absence of practical truthfulness by information professionals. Although the dissemination of misinformation is not a new phenomenon in the history of communication, digital technologies and their speed tend to popularize so-called “fake news”, making this a particularly disturbing moment. The current context of digital instantaneity, the low levels of media literacy and literacy for the news of the users contribute to its propagation.

The media and informational context is in itself a critical environment and must be taken into account in the way citizens position and protect themselves against fake news. “Alternative narratives” can be fight through a focus on media education that critically addresses the complexity of the current media ecosystem in several dimensions: socio-cultural, economic, political and technological. In this article we present a theoretical and critical basis from which we implement a training action for educators in the framework of a European project (Media In Action - LC00632803). What reflections arise when we consider digital storytelling in the context of the news processes in the training of teachers who work with children and young people? What are the most appropriate processes for such training, not only in how to apply the training but also in its contents? We developed a theoretical proposal that incorporates digital storytelling in the training of educators (Ohler, 2013), by integrating different learning mechanisms and with the aim of empowering producers and consumers in constant connection.

In Portugal, two training actions have already been carried out on "Education for the media and citizenship: how to promote the use of digital in school" with teachers of primary, secondary, vocational and librarian teachers. In training, we focused on the research model of participatory action research and in the scope of Communication for Development (C4D). We have sought to promote a more equitable research, with interactive sharing of knowledge between researchers and trainees (Koningstein & Azadegan, 2018). It was crucial that, despite prior preparation to ensure context and training, there was room for participants to define their individual and collective identities and desires in training (Koningstein & Azadegan, 2018). Given that the work of schools can be essential in promoting a critical reading of the world (Freire & Macedo, 2011), the used of journalistic tools is fundamental (Brites, Santos, Jorge, & Catalão, 2017).

One of the first results is strongly related with the fact that the training was identified as something innovative and as an effective need to be considered in all 5 countries: Wales, Italy, Malta, Portugal, and Spain.

Early results point to the need to work with dynamic and participative methodologies and also to cross digital storytelling with the tools most linked to journalism in order to promote a critical reading from the media ecosystem. Educators increased their level of confidence in applying media literacy projects and emphasised, in the first projects they have implemented, the need to increase the learning processes in articulation with critical thinking, digital tools and citizenship.

Keywords:

Digital storytelling, critical reading, new teaching environments, participative methodologies.