Four high school students will intern in media outlets, following the journalism sprints held in the schools

Four secondary school students will attend a one-month internship at MTV, TV 24, PlusInfo and SDK.mk, where they will learn more about news production and how is it like to work in a newsroom, under the mentorship of experienced journalists. The students were selected in a competition for best high school ideas for a media product, which followed the media labs held in their schools, called “Journalism Sprint”.

The five journalism sprints included participation by 122 high school students selected on a public call, from the following gymnasiums: „Georgi Dimitrov“ and „Nikola Karev“ from Skopje, SOU „Josif Josifovski“ from Gevgelija, SOU „Bogdanci“ from Bogdanci, SOU „Kocho Racin“ and SSOU „Dimitrija Chupovski“ from Veles.

The high school students learned why journalism matters, how newsrooms work, what criteria are used to select news, how algorithms that determine what information we will see work, what types of manipulative content exist out there and how to identify them. They also practiced structuring and processing of journalistic topics through practical work.

After completing the media labs, the high school students were invited to come up with an idea for a different media product format and a topic that concerns young people and use those to apply for an internship in a national media outlet. A total of 23 candidates applied for the competition, from which four secondary school students were selected to do the internship during the summer holidays.

The “Journalism Sprint” is organized by the Institute for Communication Studies (ICS) and IREX, as part of the USAID Media Literacy Project “YouThink”.