Reading the world: journalism, communication, and I

Scholars and journalists have long hoped that media education could positively tackle the information challenge and enhance social goals such as political and civic engagement particularly among youngsters. This paper seeks to present the way the “Academy for Reading the World: Journalism, Communication and I” promotes an interdisciplinary approach to media literacy amongst young adults (14y-21y) through an immersive media experience for participants, who are supposed to develop critical thinking, self-regulation, and communication competences. Its framework is established in a nationwide network, engages more than 300 high school students, 150 university and polytechnic communication and journalism undergraduates, more than 30 professors, journalists and media and communication studies researchers, and a wide range of partner institutions, such as media outlets (RTP- Rádio e Televisão de Portugal; Lusa; Público) and cultural organizations (News Museum). In this paper, we analyse the experience of this Academy in Faro, Portalegre, Covilhã, Abrantes, Setúbal and Lisboa and assess the youngsters’ engagement in this national collaborative experience, whose media and communication agenda aims at empowering youngsters for a more conscious reading of our demanding world. The goal is also to provide the much-needed data for media literacy and see how knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values can together be mobilized.N/