Mediathon: Youth Voices for Societal Change
Young people play a crucial role in shaping our future. The Mediathon provided a unique platform for high school students in Skopje to voice their opinions and creatively tackle important, everyday challenges they face, addressing them through media campaigns. During the 3 workshops, the students not only discussed these challenges but actively developed strategies to address them, bring awareness and foster a sense of empowerment in their school environment.



The goal
The project’s main goal was to empower high school students to voice their opinions and use various forms of media, targeting societal challenges they experience in their daily lives. The issues addressed included Bullying (Cyberbullying and Gender-Based Bullying), Inclusion (Mental Health and Social Inclusion), and Common Good (Activating the Community). These topics were specifically chosen to reflect the realities faced by young people and to inspire positive change within their school environment.
With 47 students and teachers from seven high schools across Skopje, the Mediathon provided a collaborative environment where young people were able to freely express their thoughts, creativity and together through brainstorming were able to strategize and create relatable and meaningful media solutions, designed to raise awareness and inspire action.
Process
The project began with an online pre-workshop, setting the foundation for participants to identify problem areas and brainstorm initial ideas. During this session, students were encouraged to conduct interviews and surveys in their schools to gain a deeper knowledge and perspective regarding their chosen topics.
Following this initial session, two in-person workshops were held at the StartUp Club Skopje, each building on the previous steps. During the first workshop, students refined their ideas and developed detailed strategies to bring their initiatives to life. Working in teams, they mapped out their projects and received valuable feedback from the mentors, learning the fundamentals of effective storytelling and campaign planning.
In between workshops, all participants worked together in their respective teams. During the second workshop, they received additional guidance from their mentors, who provided practical insights on how to finalize and polish their projects.
In the first week of November, each team participated in dedicated mentoring sessions where they gained expert feedback, fine-tune their campaigns, and build confidence in their projects.


Outcomes
The outcomes of the Mediathon reflect the passion and dedication of the students involved. Of the 7 teams, 1 focused on “Common Good,” 4 addressed the issue of “Bullying,” and 2 worked on the topic of “Inclusion.” Through their collective creativity and teamwork, the students produced a variety of impactful media pieces, such as videos, posters, flyers, and short films, to help raise awareness and drive positive change in their communities.
Through the Mediathon, the students gained hands-on experience in media production, problem-solving, teamwork and leadership. But most importantly, they emerged with the skills and inspiration to become proactive voices in their communities, advocating for change on issues that they are most passionate about.
TEAMS
SOLUTIONS
Moderna Fantastika
SUGS “Nikola Karev”
3 posters, teaser and a short-length film, shared on their school‘s social media profiles on the topic of Inclusion
Invictus
SUGS “Rade Jovcevski Korcagin”
An interview, wall of problems and videos addressing the problems, shared on their school’s social media profiles on the topic of Bullying
Iskrenost
SUGS “Orce Nikolov”
Survey and videos, shared on their dedicated Instagram profile on the topic of Bullying
Moderna Fantastika
SUGS “Nikola Karev”
3 posters, teaser and a short-length film, shared on their school‘s social media profiles on the topic of Inclusion
Rodeni Borci
SUGS “Vlado Tasevski”
Videos shared on their school’s social media profiles on the topic of Common Good
Sajber Heroi
SUGS “Saip Jusuf”
Videos shared on their dedicated pages on Instagram and TikTok on the topic of Bullying
Hrabri
SEPUGS “Vasil Antevski Dren”
Posters and video shared on their dedicated Instagram profile on the topic of Bullying
MEDLAB 2
SUGS “Marija Kiri Sklodovska”
Flyers, posters and videos, afforestation activities within their school on the topic of Inclusion



Partners
This activity is part of the project “Development of youth-led initiatives aimed at solving problems relevant to youth“, implemented by SmartUp – Social Innovation Lab, with financial support from the OSCE Mission in Skopje.
