YouthMediathon: Youth Voices for Social Change
Overview
SmartUp designed and delivered Mediathon: Youth Voices for Social Change, a media and storytelling programme empowering high school students to become active changemakers on issues affecting their communities. Through workshops, mentoring, and team-based project development, SmartUp trained students in media literacy, critical thinking, and campaign design, guiding them to build and launch their own media campaigns on bullying, inclusion, mental health, and civic engagement.
SmartUp engaged 47 students and teachers from seven secondary schools in Skopje, organized into student teams that each produced and launched a full media campaign — including short films, social media content, and community engagement activities — reaching wider youth audiences through school channels, Instagram, and TikTok. The project builds on SmartUp's experience designing youth-facing civic engagement and media literacy programmes in North Macedonia.
The challenge
Young people often lack opportunities to actively participate in addressing issues that directly affect their school and local communities.
Limited media literacy and storytelling skills reduce young people's ability to critically evaluate information and create meaningful media content.
Social challenges such as bullying, cyberbullying, discrimination, social exclusion, and low civic engagement require youth-led awareness and prevention initiatives.
Students rarely receive structured mentoring and practical experience in developing advocacy campaigns that combine creativity, teamwork, and digital communication skills.
Activities and methods
1. Engaged 47 students and teachers from seven secondary schools in Skopje in a collaborative media innovation programme focused on youth-led social change.
2. Delivered three interactive workshops and tailored mentoring sessions covering media literacy, research, storytelling, campaign design, digital communication, teamwork, and leadership, enabling students to transform social challenges into actionable awareness campaigns.
3. Supported eight student teams in designing and implementing media campaigns addressing issues relevant to their communities:
- Moderna Fantastika (SUGS "Nikola Karev") – Inclusion
- Invictus (SUGS "Rade Jovchevski Korčagin") – Bullying
- Iskrenost (SUGS "Orce Nikolov") – Bullying
- Rodeni Borci (SUGS "Vlado Tasevski") – Common Good
- Sajber Heroi (SUGS "Sajp Jusuf") – Bullying
- Hrabri (SEPUGS "Vasil Antevski Dren") – Bullying
- MEDLAB 2 (SUGS "Marija Kiri Sklodovska") – Inclusion
4. The student teams produced a diverse portfolio of awareness materials tailored to their selected topics, including short films, teaser videos, educational videos, interviews, surveys, posters, flyers, social media campaigns, and community engagement activities. Their work was disseminated through school social media channels, dedicated Instagram and TikTok profiles, and other online platforms to reach wider youth audiences.
5. Notable campaign outputs included:
- Moderna Fantastika developed three posters, a teaser, and a short film promoting inclusion.
- Invictus created video interviews and a "Wall of Problems" initiative encouraging discussion on bullying.
- Iskrenost conducted a student survey and produced awareness videos on bullying.
- Rodeni Borci produced a video campaign promoting the common good and community responsibility.
- Sajber Heroi launched a social media campaign on Instagram and TikTok addressing bullying and responsible online behaviour.
- Hrabri developed posters and awareness videos focused on preventing bullying.
- MEDLAB 2 combined flyers, posters, videos, and a school afforestation activity to promote inclusion and community engagement.
6. Through hands-on collaboration, students strengthened their media production, communication, critical thinking, teamwork, leadership, and advocacy skills, while gaining practical experience in designing and implementing campaigns that addressed real social challenges within their schools and communities.
Impact and learning
The project demonstrated how experiential learning and media production can empower young people to become active contributors to their communities rather than passive consumers of information. By combining media literacy, storytelling, design thinking, and civic engagement, participants developed practical communication, leadership, and advocacy skills while addressing issues that directly affect their peers.
The seven student-led campaigns generated tangible awareness-raising products—including short films, videos, interviews, posters, flyers, surveys, and social media campaigns—that continued reaching audiences through school communication channels and dedicated social media platforms after the Mediathon concluded. The campaigns successfully addressed pressing topics such as bullying, inclusion, and the common good while encouraging dialogue and positive behavioural change within school communities.
Beyond the media products themselves, the project inspired students to take ownership of local challenges and transform their ideas into meaningful civic action. It also strengthened collaboration between schools, students, mentors, and the OSCE Mission to Skopje, creating a replicable model for youth participation that combines media literacy, creativity, digital engagement, and active citizenship to address social issues.
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Planning similar work?
SmartUp can support research, co-creation, facilitation, digital tools, implementation, or learning documentation for related programmes.