European project: DYI - Debate Your Issue | Mediawijs - Vlaams Kenniscentrum Mediawijsheid

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European project: DYI - Debate Your Issue

The aim of the project Debate Your Issue (DYI) is to strengthen the awareness of young Europeans (18-25 years old) on the topics of politics, democracy, tolerance and their threats: disinformation, intolerance, polarization and hate speech. Debate can teach young people how to stand up for their opinions and views in a well-founded and convincing manner. Furthermore, by dealing with relevant socio-political questions in a critical manner, it contributes to political education in the targeted region.

Activities

In November 2020, Debate Your Issue was launched in six European countries (Belgium, Serbia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland). In each country, the young people received plenty of training to prepare for the debating contest. This consisted of various parts: an online module, a debate training, workshops, and conversations with policymakers.

Below, we describe how we approached the training modules in Belgium and what this has taught us.

Online Module

The online training consists of various modules with assignments, for which we consulted with a number of experts.

Module 0: Introduction
Module 1: Let's talk about the EU
Module 2: The role of (social) media
Module 3: Propaganda
Module 4: Fake news & Conspiracy theories
Module 5: Critical thinking
Module 6: Polarisation & Hate speech
Module 7: Start to debate

You can find the different videos on our YouTube Playlist.
The whole online training can be found on Moodle, but is for now private.

Debate training

During the project the young people will access knowledge of relevant socio-political issues, and acquire skills of the art of debate. We had planned a specific course for the debate training sessions and modules in collaboration with Debatunie, a Dutch debating organisation, based on the JD debating structure.

The topics of the training

Presentation and debate structure
Argumentation
Preparation and strategy
Judging and conclusion
Practice

You can download the full poster at the bottom of this article.

In the second part of the project they will take part in a debate competition, in order to compete with their peers from other countries.

Curious about the Belgian delegation?

In Belgium, 27 enthusiastic young people participate in this project. This for many different reasons. But they are all very motivated to master the art of debating. Would you like to dive behind the scenes of the Belgian delegation? Svitlana wrote down her adventures of the past months in various articles for Dwars, the student magazine of the University of Antwerp.

Or listen for yourself to what some of our young people have to say in the video below.

More information?

Follow all our adventures on the website of Debate Your Issue, or on Instagram or Facebook.

The partners in the project are:

The Debate Your Issue project was co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission.
The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission.