1 Media Literacy Education of ‘Those, Who Should Stay Quiet’

It is not the issue that they would not want to talk. They are afraid to talk. Because vocational schools are attended by the kids, who were to be quiet at elementary schools. The teachers kept telling them to be quiet, because they needed to discuss something with those who were to continue their studies at the more elite grammar schools. So, they are quiet at elementary school, to get by. And then they are also quiet at vocational school, to get somehow by. (Vocational schoolteacher, Czechia)

The youth have been spending more time with the media than sleeping (Couldry, 2016; Performics, 2016). The time spent on-line has doubled in this segment of the society over the past ten years (Šmahel et al., 2020). Media offer unexpected citizen participation (CP) options to the youth, who are not yet allowed to legally drive a car, go for a drink, or vote for the president. With the help of technologies, whom they often master better than more mature citizens, youth have helped push President Obama to revise the migration policy (Jenkins et al., 2019), call together demonstrations attended by millions of people in 150 countries (FridaysForFuture) or boost the longitudinal resistance of the inhabitants of Hong Kong against China (Zhong, 2019). In the form of media, (not only) the youth have access to citizen-participation tools undreamed of by the previous generations.

However, media competences are not distributed evenly (Hargittai, 2003; Gapski et al., 2017). In line with international research (e.g., Gapski et al., 2017), Czech media literacy research shows that media skills are unevenly distributed among different groups of students. Vocational school students and graduates are much less media literate than their grammar school peers. (Člověk v tísni, 2018, p. 13). Similar trend can be observed regarding their citizen participation (Linek, 2013).

We are facing what Jenkins (2009) calls the ‘participation gap’, which relates to the access to media, but also media literacy. Using media does not yet mean searching for something else than entertainment. Not all youth are media literate enough to be able to fully use their citizen possibilities. As “school-based media literacy activities provide a means of responding to these gaps in digital media literacy among youth” (Kahne et al., 2012, p. 4), media literacy education is often discussed as one of the ways to increase youth’s civic participation (Kotilainen, 2009) and political engagement (Kahne et al., 2016). This was first mentioned in the Grunwald Declaration in 1982 (UNAOC, 2008).

Traditional political participation such as voting or taking part in a political campaign (van Deth, 2001) has been declining among youth over the past two decades (see, e. g. OECD, 2019; Livingstone et al., 2007; Linek, 2015). Although the young voters often receive labels such as “insufficient” (Bečevič & Dahlstedt, 2021) or “sceptical regarding their impact on politics” (Rada mládeže Slovenska, 2017, p. 83), studies have shown that youth are creative in searching their own ways to be heard (see, e. g. Bennett et al., 2009; Jenkins et al., 2019; Vinken, 2007, p. 48). According to Cho et al. (2020), “young people are less invested in ‘dutiful’ citizenship acts, favouring personalised engagement through digital networking, self-expression, protests, and volunteerism” (p. 3).

Though many are optimistic about MLE improving also civic participation skills (see, e. g., Mihailidis & Thevenin, 2013; Jenkins et al., 2019; Hobbs, 1998), some academic work warns that MLE work may not be going deep enough (McDougall et al., 2014; Supa & Neag, 2020) or that there is not enough space for such interventions in the already restrained time for MLE (Römer, 2020). In spite of the growing number of relevant studies, work in the field of MLE linked to CP has several further gaps. For instance, very few studies in the field come from Central and Eastern Europe, and relatively little data focuses on the disadvantaged youth. Finally, MLE studies from Czech vocational schools are almost non-existent.

The following sections present the background, the methodology, the key findings and concludes by setting the study into the broader context.

2 Strongly Researched Area. Or Not?

2.1 Disadvantaged Media Users

The number of definitions of media literacy education has been expanding since the seminal definition of Aufderheide, who understood it as “the ability to access, analyse, evaluate, and produce media in a variety of forms” (1993). More and more precise and specific labels have been being invented, calling for digital literacy, film literacy, visual literacy, information literacy, media, and information literacy etc. (Frau-Meigs, 2012). However, this research joins the rather opposite trend, attempting to reunite the fragmentated field, whether it is under the umbrella of “transliteracy” (Frau-Meigs, 2012, p. 20), or simply “literacy” (Potter, 2012). The chapter will follow the Czech context, in which the term ‘media literacy’ education is dominant, and it will be understood in the broad sense as Aufderheide put it.

Even though media literacy education (MLE) had a strong position in the Czech Republic in the pre-WWI. era, the forty years of communism brought it to a halt and its resurrection after 1989 was challenging. MLE is now a compulsory part of the curricula for elementary schools and for the more elite high schools called grammar schools. As for the vocational schools (the high schools stressing more technical or manual study programmes), it is not explicitly obligatory (MŠMT, 2009). Although vocational schools ‘produce’ 70% graduates in the country, MLE is almost non-existent at these institutions. In contradiction to the international trends (see, e.g., Kotilainen & Pienimäki, 2019), also the Czech MLE research regarding these students is scarce. According to the People in Need (Člověk v tísni) NGO, at 63% of vocational schools, MLE takes only 10 or less hours during the entire high school studies (2017). It almost does not exist there as separate subject, but it is exclusively taught as part of other classes or, very often, it is practiced in the form of one-shot workshops or debates (ČŠI, 2018, pp. 37–38). Numerous studies indicate that vocational school graduates are significantly less media literate than their peers at grammar schools (ČŠI, 2018; Člověk v tísni, 2018).

Although they are no homogenous group and although there are huge differences between these schools, there are many reasons to generally call Czech vocational school students/their graduates ‘disadvantaged’. According to the Czech statistical office (ČSÚ), their average income is 20% below the country’s average (2018). They deal more frequently with low self-esteem, resulting from challenging conditions related to family, school, or challenging socio-economic conditions (Römer, 2020). More often than their peers in the grammar schools, they deal with issues like teen pregnancy, drug use, and the imprisonment or alcoholism of family members (Römer, 2020). And, finally, they are disadvantaged due to the abovementioned lack of MLE at these schools, as a growing number of academics have noted that media literacy is one of the key prerequisites for full participation in society (see, e.g., Mihailidis & Thevenin, 2013; Frau-Meigs et al., 2017).

2.2 Disadvantaged Citizens

Turnout among young voters has been decreasing for the past two decades (OECD, 2019; Banaji & Buckingham, 2013). According to an OECD countries study, the participation of 18- to 24-year-old voters in elections is on average 17 percent lower than it is for adults aged twenty-five to fifty (OECD, 2019).

Citizens in general, but youth especially, are spending more and more time online and they have access to media connecting them with each other and, potentially, with a mass audience. As discovered by the EU Kids Online I report, which is based on research conducted with children aged nine to sixteen from nineteen European countries, European children and youth spend twice as much time online now as they did ten years ago (Smahel et al., 2020). And more and more of them are using this time and space to join in public debate (Jenkins et al., 2019). As Swedish research of Bruhn (1999) showed, the young did feel the need to engage and be a part of a community (Bruhn in Milner, 2002). The youngest citizens are moving from conventional political participation (Letki, 2003) towards the non-conventional citizen participation, which includes not only voting of participating in political campaigns, but also for instance joining citizen protests, civic movements, or volunteering (León Rosales & Ålund, 2017).

However, not all youth have full access to digital technologies or internet and not all young have fully developed the digital participation competencies. We are facing what Jenkins et al. (2009) call the ‘participation gap’. But MLE can ‘provide a means of responding to the gaps in digital media literacy among youth’ (Kahne et al., 2012, p. 4). Numerous studies have shown that MLE can improve also civic participation abilities of disadvantaged youth (Kahne et al., 2012; Kotilainen, 2009). An increasing number of academics draw on the citizenship model of MLE defined by Hobbs (2010). The model understands MLE as a way to enhance the “life skills that are necessary for full participation … in society” (Hobbs, 2010), including the power to make more responsible choices by comprehending information and ideas, creating content in a variety of forms, reflecting responsibly on one’s own activities and communication behaviour, and working individually and with others to share knowledge and solve problems (Hobbs, 2010, vii–viii).

This study therefore addresses some of the research gaps identified above. It is the first in the Czech Republic to explore a conscious application of the citizenship MLE model on disadvantaged youth. The area is deeply under-researched, and it belongs to the less researched fields also in the international context (Kotilainen & Pienimäki, 2019).

3 Methodology

The study was designed as participatory action research (PAR). PAR has been successfully used in research aimed at improving MLE practices (see, e.g., Kotilainen, 2009 or Ranieri & Fabbro, 2016) and when working with disadvantaged groups in the past (Kotilainen & Pienimäki, 2019).

The highly cited five-stage methodology introduced by Susman (1983) was applied. This methodology consists of diagnosing, planning action, taking action, evaluating, and specifying lessons learned. Strict internal and external ethical guidelines (see, e.g., Graham et al., 2013) applicable to conducting research with youth were applied. Written GDPR informed consents were collected from parents and students. These included approval for the use of the students’ photographs in the presentation of the project. Further, the study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University (case number 4/2021).

The core of the study consists of two cycles of the PAR, applied from the year 2018 to 2021 at the vocational school in Louny (Střední odborná škola generála Františka Fajtla v Lounech). The first cycle took place from January 2018 to June 2020. The diagnosis stage of the research included a literature review, focusing on MLE, MLE with disadvantaged youth, civic participation, and their intersections. It also included a preliminary study, in which nine MLE vocational school Czech teachers were interviewed in 2018. The interviews explored the limitations and challenges they experience in their classes.

Based on the literature and on the preliminary study, a group of twenty characteristics of MLE teaching methods was identified, to be tested in the empirical part of the research. These characteristics are presented in Table 10.1.

Table 10.1 Recommended characteristics of MLE teaching methods when working with disadvantaged youth
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Then, in the planning action phase, a vocational school in the Czech town of Louny was contacted and the pedagogical team consisting of two internal teachers and the researcher, and her supervisor designed a three-month long intervention, which was delivered within a practical training unit of the school’s curriculum of the students in the ‘interior decorator’ programme. There were 17 student participants (SP); 16 girls and one boy aged 17 to 19. The design of the participatory action research focused on Hobbs (2010) citizenship model of media and information literacy (MIL). It built on students’ previous experiences and knowledge (Buckingham, 2019).

For the ‘action stage’, the intervention was planned as a part of the ‘Sametové posvícení’ (Velvet Carnival) in Prague. The name of this satirical parade is inspired by the 1989 Velvet Revolution, which ended communism in Czechoslovakia. The parade uses non-violent, satirical tools to constructively critique current political and social issues and it has been celebrated every 17 November in Prague since 2012. The fusion with the parade was chosen especially to intensity the impact of the public action of the students, as the parade typically gets a lot of media coverage and tens of thousands of people watch the parade live. Despite its public attention, the parade seems to be especially important to its participants, rather than to the audience (Rybníčková et al., 2015), as the process of preparing for the parade has highly transformative potential. In this three-month-long period, intense individual and group reflection on current political and societal issues occur. Usually groups consisting of NGOs, schools, or friends typically participate in the parade. The research participants from Louny were the first vocational school students ever to participate in the parade and the first non-Prague group.

In ‘action’ stage, thirty-five lessons were delivered, each forty-five minutes long, between September and November 2019. The author took a non-hierarchical, interactive, and participatory approach to all the classes. For example, the students were allowed to choose the political or societal problem to be addressed (they chose animal rights) or they could decide about the method how to choose the topic. To learn to address different audiences, the students spoke with local media and organised a press conference. They also created and administrated a profile of the project on social media of their choice (Facebook and Instagram). Next, they produced laminated masks, costumes, and a trolley for the parade. On 17 November 2019, they took part in the Velvet Carnival – they handed out pamphlets and performed a short theatre play.

The evaluating part consisted of the analysis of the multimodal data collected. This included: field observation notes in two research diaries kept by the project’s principal investigator and the student’s teacher (7000 and 3500 words, respectively) and pre-course and after-course surveys filled out by the students. These consisted of answering twenty questions using a ten-point Likert scale, which enabled them to evaluate their experience and their attitudes towards the media and civic participation. Seventeen surveys were collected, and they were followed-up by semi-structured interviews with four students (30–45 minutes long) and with the teacher (90 minutes long). After the transcription and anonymisation, they were openly coded using NVivo software and analysed thematically. Reflection and identification of findings was the core of the final, PAR phase in its first cycle (Fig. 10.1).

Fig. 10.1
An overview of the five phases of P A R Phases. It includes diagnosing, planning action, taking action, evaluating, and specifying lessons learned. Diagnosing includes a literature review and preliminary research with teachers and students. Specifying lessons include findings and reflection.

Summary of the first PAR cycle according to the 5-phase-PAR of G. Susman (1983)

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4 The Second PAR Cycle

The Second PAR cycle took part between June 2020 and October 2021. In the diagnostic phase, the findings from the first cycle were consulted with the supervisor, with the internal teacher in Louny, and with the students, and with further literature.

For the second PAR phase, another intervention was originally planned. But due to thecovid-19 pandemic, access of external people to schools was very limited and all contacted schools refused participation in the project. However, as PAR is based on two cycles at minimum (Bradbury, 2015, p. 5), another solution was found. Two focus groups (Morgan, 1996) with MLE teachers at vocational schools were designed instead.

Two focus groups were organised on the Google Meet platform in June 2021. Each of them was 90 minutes long and in total 9 teachers participated. The debate was recorded with the permission of the participants. Most teachers did not know each other before, but they interacted intensively. As the author was keeping contact with the students via the Facebook group chat established during the first cycle of the intervention, the author used the opportunity of the parliamentary elections in October 2021 to ask the students to express and because within the group whether their media competences, but also civic participation attitudes and experience have changed. Three students used the opportunity to fill the adjusted survey used in the first two cases within this intervention on-line. In the fourth phase of the second PAR cycle, the audio recording of the focus groups was transcribed and thematically coded (Cohen et al., 2018).

And finally, in the fifth phase, data gathered from both cycles was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019; Byrne, 2021), which means the analysis took place on the intersection of (1) the data set (2) the theoretical background of the study (3) analytical skills/resources of the researcher (Braun & Clarke, 2019). Although there was no goal of exact und universally valid coding and analysis in this type of analysis, the recommendations of the founders of the reflexive thematic analysis were respected (Braun & Clarke, 2019, p. 594) and another researcher, author’s colleague Jakub Hodboď, joined the analytical process, to increase the richness of the interpretations. Eventually, the findings were discussed with the participants via the shared Facebook group.

5 Findings

The presented intervention had three main goals: to improve media competences and CP skills, and to explore the specific needs of disadvantaged youth in the field of MLE to support CP. As a part of this, functionality of a set of twenty characteristics of teaching MLE methods was observed. The following theme presents the findings.

5.1 Media Competences vs. Civic Participation

This section explains how the students’ immediate MIL competences improved, while change in their long-term attitude to civic participation remained ambivalent.

When choosing the central topic for the parade, the students researched and reflected the problems surrounding them. Once the topic was chosen and explored, they discussed how to reflect upon their various possible audiences and suitable media channels to reach them. This sometimes led to important realisations: “I knew one can use social media for political participation. But I never realized that I could do it. Then I experienced the process live” (student participant – SP 3) (Fig. 10.2).

Fig. 10.2
A screenshot of a Facebook profile page. The text is in a foreign language.

Screenshot of the Facebook profile of the project, run by the students

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For all the student participants, this was the first time to create media content with a political and civic purpose. And creative production was what these students, who were in the end studying the creativity-based ‘decorator’ programme, appreciated the most within the project; ‘making the masks was the best, I had never worked with clay, and it was just so cool to feel it taking shape’ (SP4) (see Fig. 10.3 below). The students also used Photoshop for the first time in their life during the project and enjoyed it: ‘It took me some time to figure it out, but I enjoyed it and I hope I can use Photoshop later at work’ (SP3). When spreading the message about the project, the participants learned how to target different audiences: local journalists (with press releases), the general public (with their social media content), and tourists and the general public (with the parade).

Fig. 10.3
A photograph of two women handling the clay molding task.

Students moulding masks

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Twelve of the seventeen students participated in the final parade. TP1 said the students were especially motivated because the media was covering their project. This nurtured their self-confidence and their curiosity. ‘When the journalist came and started taking their pictures, they felt like they achieved something, like famous, and they completely forgot the preceding fights’ (teacher participant – TP 1). The publicity also helped convince the parents of the students to support the project: “My parents did not want to let me go to Prague, but then they heard my interview on the radio and said that I spoke well. So, I could go to Prague” (SP3).

The increasement of their media competences was confirmed also by the preliminary and final survey. For the statement, ‘I know how to use digital technologies to influence public debate’, the value of the students’ the answer increased from 4.07 at the beginning of the project, to 5.75 at its end. A similar enhancement was observed for the statement ‘I know how to use media (in general) to influence public debate’. For increasement for the thesis ‘I know how to use social media digital technologies to influence public debate,’ was even more dramatic, rising from 4.36 to 7.75.

However, the improvement of their motivation to participate further in civic actions as well as their civic participation skills remained questionable. Only the students with less challenging family and social backgrounds demonstrated a wish to continue civic action in the future. The internal teacher, with whom the author has stayed in contact, confirmed in one of the focus groups which were part of the second cycle of PAR that part of the students still had interest in such activities (Fig. 10.4).

Two students joined the workshop Academy of young citizens. One of them keeps talking about running for the parliament. Five students keep posting comments on animal torture [theme of the project] on Facebook (TP1 in focus group).

Fig. 10.4
A photograph of students marching on the Charles Bridge with a clay horse mask.

Students from Louny marching in the Charles bridge in Prague. In front is the judge, surrounded by horses

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But, as Buckingham says, youth cannot be labelled as homogenous category (1993, pp. 7–18). As shown in the surveys, interviews and field observations, the motivation to participate civically remained low for a part of the class. For example:

I have never cared about politics. There has never been an issue that would bug me enough to try to do something about it. And the project has not changed this (SP2).

I still think that civic participation makes no sense. People are bad, have been bad and will be — there is no way around I (SP1).

Although average value for the statement ‘I know how to affect public debate’ increased from 3.64 to 4.64, the average answer value for the statement ‘I would like to participate in another project that wants to change some public issue’ dropped from 7 to 5.82 points in the surveys. The internal teacher explains this ambivalence by the time constraints of the intervention. Three months are not enough for such complex topic for part of the students, she said (Fig. 10.5).

At least two months more would have been needed to gain their trust. And also, to explain the deeper relationships between public debate, law, and politics (TP1).

Fig. 10.5
A photograph of students marching on the roadside.

Watched by a crowd in the centre of Prague

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5.2 Specific Needs

Most of the 17 students had challenging backgrounds. One under-age student had a child, another came from a family where several members were in prison. At least three students were active drug users according to the internal teacher. One student had experienced severe bullying. Five participants had official diagnoses of learning difficulties (dyslexia, dysorthography). Four students had to work part-time to help support their family financially. Many students struggled with low self-esteem. Said by one of the students:

I don’t care about the outer world. When people ask me what I think, I say nothing. Whenever I have tried to speak, everyone has always been mean to me, including the teachers (SP1).

The students had never experienced MLE or education in civic participation skills. They also had little experience with school group work. A lot of time was thus spent explaining basic theory. The most challenging task in the project was the choice of a topic on which to work as a group. The pedagogical team could have chosen the topic for them, which would have been faster. But the choice was left to the students, and it was accomplished by a mix of reflective methods, such as individual and group dialogue, individual sketches, visualizations, and multi-round voting. 20% of the project’s time was spent on choosing a topic but allowing the participants to choose it proved to be crucial for keeping them motivated. “Choosing it ourselves definitely helped our motivation” (SP3). Constant encouragement and praising the students for every small success were of further help. Further observed characteristics of teaching methods are summarised in Table 10.2.

Table 10.2 Have the recommended characteristics of MLE teaching methods towards citizen participation showed as functional when working with disadvantaged youth?
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The project also had unintended positive impact on the self-confidence of the group. ‘By working in a group, the project increased self-confidence also to the less skilful ones. There was always someone who could help them, and they experienced the shared success of the group’ (TP1).

6 Conclusion

The aim of this chapter was to better understand the options and limits of media literacy education (MLE) to support citizen participation (CP) at vocational schools in the Czech Republic and to assess the possible specifics of MLE of disadvantaged youth.

MLE in Czechia has significantly developed since 1989 (Jirák & Zezulková, 2019). It is now compulsory at elementary schools and grammar schools. As for the vocational schools, however, it is not obligatory, although media literacy seems to be a prerequisite to full civic participation (Mihailidis & Thevenin, 2013; Livingstone et al., 2007). This could be, in the end, observed also in practice, for instance on the FridaysForFuture and DREAMers movements, or in the past during the Czech protest week Týden neklidu (Week of Unrest). The students at Czech vocational schools are thus stuck in the space called Jenkins et al. (2019) ‘participation gap’.

The research presented in this chapter was inspired by the findings of numerous studies, according to which the citizenship model of MLE (Hobbs, 2010; Kahne et al., 2012, p. 4) can be the tool to narrow down this gap. The volume of both empirical and theoretical research of MLE towards citizen participation is growing, yet this work is unique with the data from Central Europe (and unique within the Czech Republic where the MLE research has been traditionally focused rather on the elementary schools and grammar schools). In line with the current research of MLE towards citizen participation (Brites & Castro, 2021; Hobbs, 2013; Kotilainen, 2009 and others), the focus was also focused on the specifics of MLE with disadvantaged youth.

The methodological tool of the presented chapter was participatory action research (Bradbury, 2015) based on a three-month-long intervention at a vocational school in Louny. 17 students aged 17 to 19 participated in a set of online and offline media and civic-participatory activities in 2019. A large amount of multimodal data was collected and analysed (15 interviews with students and teachers – 9 in the pilot study and 6 during the intervention, 2 research notepads, three sets of surveys, material artefacts, digital artefacts). These included the preparation of masks and pamphlets for a parade in the centre of Prague at the occasion of the celebration of the anniversary of November 17th, joining the so-called Velvet carnival. They also communicated with the public and local media (by organising a press conference, through a press release and on social media). Further, the students learnt to reflect various audiences and to use a broad variety of off- and online communication channels. By presenting a specific method how MLE towards CP can be taught at Czech vocational schools, the chapter joined the group of other MLE-towards citizen participation projects such as Student Voices or Project citizen.

The chapter contributes to the international debate of the past 10–15 years, whether MLE should extend its goals beyond the generally accepted ones (Aufderheide, 1993) also towards the development of CP skills (see, e.g., McDougall et al., 2014; Hobbs, 2010; Mihailidis & Thevenin, 2013). The author concludes that the presented intervention improved the media competences of the participating students. However, part of the participants faced such difficult life conditions (bullying, drugs, teenage pregnancy, family members in prison, etc.) that the relatively challenging development of CP skills was improved only to a limited extent. Further research on whether and how this goal could be reached also among this youth would be needed.

The study observed a set of 20 characterising of teaching methods of MLE towards CP. Many of them proved to be functional, for example, the blending of online and offline activities (Livingstone, 2016), of the school and private life of the students (Buckingham, 2019) and other ways of breaking the school routine, but also the non-hierarchical approach (Bruinenberg et al., 2019), cooperation with a broader community (Malka, 2016), and creative production (Hobbs, 2013; Kotilainen, 2009). For example, the presupposition that vocational school students are not willing to invest their free time in the MLE project was rejected.

Secondly, the ways through which MLE can support the students at vocational schools also in CP were explored (by testing a set of MLE methods characteristics and by testing a specific project itself). In respect to the findings of the pilot study, stating that the average amount of MLE classes at vocational schools consist of 6 classes per academic year, the application of the citizen model of media literacy in Czech vocational schools seems to be quite a challenge. It is likely that until the introduction of MLE as a firm part of the curricula, it will be difficult to enforce more MLE at Czech vocational schools, and the more difficult will it be to push towards more MLE towards CP here. A better interconnection of the vocational schoolteachers of MLE might be of help.