The Centre for Media and Information Literacy
Upon first glance, it looks like an ordinary image – a tractor being driven along the road by a man. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that where there should be wheels, there are only round social media icons. Similarly, the trailer also contains only a large pile of social media icons where there usually would be wood or paddy or other produce.
“I drew this because our lives are now being driven by social media” explains Jaffna University student D. Mohanraj when asked about the image – his first attempt at doodling. Mohanraj applied the knowledge he gained at a recent training session conducted by the Centre for Media and Information Literacy on doodle art to arrive at this striking image.
The training sessions, delivered by CMIL trainers Saranga Narampanawa and Ruwanthi Nirmani, were attended by Media Studies undergraduates from the University of Jaffna. During the session, participants were given hands-on training on developing various types of doodle art such as identifying story ideas, developing emotionally powerful characters and narratives, following a story arc, developing suitable scenes and applying all of these concepts when drawing doodle art. The participants were also trained on using social media and other media platforms to promote their doodles and spark discussions that engage the larger online community.
Mohanraj was not alone. During a session on social media, almost ⅓ of participants stated that they used social media late at night until they fell asleep or needed to put their phones aside in class. Another prevalent issue that was highlighted through the sessions was the rise of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in their communities – when asked to draw a prevalent community-based issue of their choosing, the majority of the participants chose the topic of GBV. This included the domestic violence, harassment and discrimination faced by women, girls and the LGBTQIA+ community.
During the training session, CMIL Director Dr. Arafath stated that he was happy to see the students were concerned about the critical issues affecting their communities such as GBV. “I am sure that giving these future journalists an opportunity to learn digital doodle development to highlight vital community issues affecting them and their communities has given them endless opportunities to exercise their freedom of expression,” he said, adding that these tools should be used widely in advocating for gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, and active citizenship.
CMIL looks forward to seeing the creative doodles these young journalists will create in the future to illustrate their stories.
These training sessions were made possible by the EU-funded inSPIRE project which aims to empower future journalists from four Sri Lankan Universities (the Universities of Peradeniya, Jaffna, Sri-Jayewardenepura and the South Eastern University) by training them on core skills and competencies related to journalism. The program is implemented by HELVETAS in partnership with SDJF. CMIL is the training provider for the project.
