Media Education Exchange Talks (MEET) Western Balkans
Through Media Education Exchange Talks (MEET) Western Balkans, American Councils for International Education aims to strengthen the demand for objective, fact-based, reliable information in local communities by fostering an expanded domestic audience, promoting media and digital literacy, and increasing educational and cultural exchange among Albania, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, Kosova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. American Councils will bring high school teachers together with university and high school students to disclose and prevent disinformation, falsified information, and propaganda through examination of news discourse, media agendas, infotainment phenomena, public/private interests in media, film, music, and more. MEET is designed to create a network of teachers and students across the Western Balkans as a basis for future multilateral societal collaboration toward media freedom.
Media Education Exchange Talks program started initially as a pilot media literacy themed exchange between high school students and teachers from Serbia and Kosovo - sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade (October 2020-May 2021). The regional edition of the program, MEET Western Balkans (November 2021-June 2022) is funded by the Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
