On June 6, the Youth and Students for Peace held the second Catch the Wave online conference on positive internet content. Taking part in it were active young people representing Russian regions as well as Belarus, Moldova and even Angola.
The conference was divided into two parts: theoretical and practical. During the first part, experts in various areas described their notion of positive content and how information influences its users, as well as their experience in creating socially important projects.
Journalist Mikhail Kalmatsky spoke about how traditional and new media influence society.
“Mass media, blogs and social networks do not only inform users but also put ideas in their heads. This tool can be used both in good and bad faith,” Mikhail said and urged the participants to regard any information with a fair amount of skepticism.
Damir Nigmatyanov, co-founder of the Obshcheye Delo Foundation, followed up on the topic. He believes that by influencing others we also influence ourselves, so creating positive content can help develop useful skills, acquire new knowledge and change views on local and global events.
Victoria Bunchuk, press secretary and social project manager of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, spoke about the criteria for positive content developed by the Working Group on Children’s Information Security under the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights. The Coordination Center makes up part of this group and participates in the discussion of issues related to digital literacy and children’s safety. “Criteria can be used for quality assessment and when creating internet content, videos and printed materials. We believe that positive content means educational, topical and well-written content. Its layout, usability and logical structure are also important. The content must also be safe: vulnerability-free with good protection of users’ personal data,” she said.
Projects carried out in the domain .ДЕТИ (such as веб-ландия.дети, библиогид.дети, and касперский.дети), the Coordination Center’s interactive educational project Explore the Internet & Govern It, and a series of Digital Dictations are good examples of positive content. Victoria Bunchuk also called on the audience to create positive content by taking part in the DOT Journalism: Young Correspondents contest for aspiring online journalists aimed at improving the quality of information on domains and new technologies.
The practical part of the conference followed this report. The participants left for session web rooms where together they tried to come up with ideas for positive content (infographics, longreads, PSAs, challenges and flash mobs) that could help address specific real-life cases.
