Through the Media Education Exchange Talks (MEET) Western Balkans program, American Councils for International Education seeks to contribute to strengthening the demand for objective, evidence-based and reliable information in the region’s communities through the promotion of media and digital literacy and educating local audiences. Also, the goal of the program is to improve educational and cultural exchange between Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia and Serbia. Through the MEET program, American Councils will gather high school teachers and university students to work together on training for high school students to empower them to recognize inaccurate and false information while educating themselves in media discourse analysis, media agenda ideology, so-called infotainment phenomena, and learning about the role of public and private interests in determining the policy of the media, film and music industry, etc. MEET: The Western Balkans program is designed to create a network of teachers, students in the Western Balkans as a basis for future multilateral and cross-border cooperation aimed at promoting media freedom.
Media Education Exchange Talks – MEET program concept is based on the eponymous pilot program for the exchange of knowledge on media literacy between teachers and students from Serbia and Kosovo (October 2020 – May 2021), funded by the US Embassy in Belgrade. The regional edition of MEET: Western Balkans (November 2021 – June 2022) is funded by the Balkan Trust for Democracy (a project of the American German Marshall Fund) and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Belgrade.
