After a two years break, the media and Digital Literacy Academy was finally taking place again at the Institute of Media Research and Training (IMRT) at the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut, directed by AREACORE member Dr. Jad Melki. MDLAB aims to develop media and digital literacy education in the region by providing the needed training, curricular material and resources, and motivating faculty, students, journalists and activists to transfer what they learned to their institutions.

This year, MDLAB 2022 hosted 75 participants from Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Germany, including faculty and students from AREACORE. Funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD and the Public Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and ), the academy emphasized issues of representation of women, youth, and other marginalized groups in the coverage of protests and civic activism campaigns, as well as advanced the digital multimedia skills and knowledge of activists, journalists, and media educators. Participants benefitted from lectures, workshops and trainings and presented their produced projects on the final day of the academy. Moreover, MDLAB 2022 brought together guest speakers with different expertise to help participants with their projects, including Clemencia Rodríguez, Temple University; Antonio Lopez, John Cabot University; Jennifer Rosales, Barnard College, Columbia University; Dina Aboughazala, Founder of Egab; Anna Antonakis, Free Berlin University; Gretchen King, Lebanese American University; Jad Melki, Lebanese American University; Ahmed Al-Rawi, Simon Fraser University; and Steffen Moestrup, Danish School of Media and Journalism.

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To find the MDLAB 2022 lectures, click here

This year’s Media and Digital Literacy Academy in Beirut focussed on women and youth empowerment. In their projects the students were able to chose between media visualisations or short clip productions – or the combination of both. The final presentations included 5-min talks on the chosen topic accompanied by Power Point Presentations or the produced clips. We are unable to capture the PPPs in our format here, but in the following you can enjoy the movie productions by the MDLAB students and get a glimpse of the amazing work and creative exchange that has been part of MDLAB 2022.
Click the picture in order to view the full clip on Youtube.

MDLAB is generously sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service.