Media education in the third space: case study of the university occupation and high school protest camp in North Macedonia
Dimitrievski, Angel (2019)
2019
Master's Degree Programme in Media Education
Kasvatustieteiden ja kulttuurin tiedekunta - Faculty of Education and Culture
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2019-05-13
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201907082508
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201907082508
Tiivistelmä
Media education in North Macedonia is still marginal topic in the institutions of the formal system. Young people migrate their usage, interaction and learning about media in places that are out of school and out of home named as third spaces. This master thesis examines the potentials of the North Macedonian student protest environments as places for media education.
The overall objective of the research is to examine the media potentials of the protest environments in North Macedonia as a step towards their replication in the formal educational system (primary schools and high schools). Moreover, the research aims of the thesis are to investigate: “How have protest camp and Faculty occupations (autonomous zones) in North Macedonia in 2015 enabled students to learn the fundaments of media literacy?, “What third space learning characteristics the protest camp and Faculty occupations in North Macedonia have shown?“, and “Is it possible to replicate any of the practices from the protest camps and autonomous zones into formal education and how?“
As a qualitative research the data is drawn from 14 respondents who participated in semi-structured interviews, semi-structured interviews with combined photo elicitation methodology and one focus group interview. Qualitative content analysis was used to review, analyze and synthetize the results and to contextualize it with the relevant theories and previous research.
The findings revealed that the students exercised the creation of media content inside the protest environments such as writing press releases, media denials or giving interviews. They demonstrated interest for evaluating media professionalism, understanding and reconstructing media narratives and reclaiming media space. Furthermore, they have acquired valuable skills such as critical thinking, debating and soft skills. Their learning was based on peer education, non-formal education and multimedia education which as such identify as different from the formal learning and are specific for a third space.
This research illustrates how students understand, produce and evaluate media inside the third space. The study also suggests how can these practices be further introduced or replicated into formal education, however it sets the path for future research to be conducted in how the schools as formal environments can accept and introduce these changes.
The overall objective of the research is to examine the media potentials of the protest environments in North Macedonia as a step towards their replication in the formal educational system (primary schools and high schools). Moreover, the research aims of the thesis are to investigate: “How have protest camp and Faculty occupations (autonomous zones) in North Macedonia in 2015 enabled students to learn the fundaments of media literacy?, “What third space learning characteristics the protest camp and Faculty occupations in North Macedonia have shown?“, and “Is it possible to replicate any of the practices from the protest camps and autonomous zones into formal education and how?“
As a qualitative research the data is drawn from 14 respondents who participated in semi-structured interviews, semi-structured interviews with combined photo elicitation methodology and one focus group interview. Qualitative content analysis was used to review, analyze and synthetize the results and to contextualize it with the relevant theories and previous research.
The findings revealed that the students exercised the creation of media content inside the protest environments such as writing press releases, media denials or giving interviews. They demonstrated interest for evaluating media professionalism, understanding and reconstructing media narratives and reclaiming media space. Furthermore, they have acquired valuable skills such as critical thinking, debating and soft skills. Their learning was based on peer education, non-formal education and multimedia education which as such identify as different from the formal learning and are specific for a third space.
This research illustrates how students understand, produce and evaluate media inside the third space. The study also suggests how can these practices be further introduced or replicated into formal education, however it sets the path for future research to be conducted in how the schools as formal environments can accept and introduce these changes.