February 1 2024 marked a major milestone in the South East as youth radio station Beat 102 103 launched its first-ever Digital Media Literacy Tour supported by Comisiún na Meán. The tour aims to showcase vital digital information for students in secondary schools across the region over the coming months. Digital literacy is important for many reasons, especially for younger people in Ireland as they integrate with rapidly growing platforms and technologies. This roadshow strives to help students identify misinformation and disinformation online and enables them to have the skills, knowledge, and understanding of how to process content on and offline. The roadshow brings to life a media literacy short course that is currently being taught as part of the Junior Cycle curriculum. The course for first year students is devised by Beat in consultation with teachers, the radio sector’s training network Learning Waves and draws on Media Literacy Ireland resources and the Be Media Smart messaging.
The roadshow is hosted by a variety of well-known voices on the popular radio station including Beat Breakfast’s Niall and Sho, Beat Throwbacks’ Cillian Doyle, Bring the Beat’s Michelle Heffernan, The Takeover’s presenting duo Megan O’Regan Byrne, and Kirsten Mate Maher. Over the coming months, Beat will travel to 20 secondary schools, reaching thousands of teenagers encouraging them to “Stop, Think and Check” that the information that they are getting, from whatever source, is accurate and reliable.
Beat began their roadshow at St. Angela’s Ursuline Secondary School in Waterford City. Six sessions were delivered throughout the day to almost 200 first-year students. Speaking after the inaugural presentation, Beat Breakfast Presenter and Head of Station Sound Niall Power said: “With a reach of 163,000 listeners weekly and an online following of over 850,000 the Beat team is well placed to talk about the positive and negative aspects of digital life. Our listeners often reach out to us when they encounter a problem or scam online. Last year, a few Beat presenters, including myself, had our social media accounts cloned which was a real wake-up call for us. It’s great that we can share our experiences with young people trying to navigate a confusing digital world” added the Waterford native.
Beat Breakfast co-host Shonagh Lyons says the tour aims to help students feel more secure when online. Shonagh who hails from Wexford highlighted that “the opportunity to engage with young people in schools about their digital lives is so important to Beat as a youth station. Considering so many of us are heavily reliant on our phones as a source of news, maintaining connections, and as a social outlet, we feel it’s important to share our knowledge and skills. It’s also a chance for them to open up to us about their online habits, any worries they might have and provide resources to help them feel secure as they encounter the changing landscape of the digital world”.
R. Kirsten, Mate Maher and Michelle Heffernan with 1st year students from Ursuline Waterford.
CEO of Beat 102 103 Gabrielle Cummins says ensuring an engaging experience for students in the region was paramount when planning the tour. The Tipperary born Beat Boss added that “teenagers today have a vast amount of information coming at them from a variety of media platforms. As the leading radio station in Ireland on Tik Tok which is one of young people’s favoured platforms, Beat 102–103 is ideally positioned to use its dominant position to positively influence this young demographic. Co-funded by Comisiun na Meán, this regional Media Literacy tour is aimed at encouraging thousands of first-year students around the South East to develop healthy digital habits. During the session, we also equip them with simple and helpful tools to better protect themselves in their digital life. Six Beat presenters host this roadshow so it’s also an effective way for Beat to come face to face with teenagers in a fun, engaging manner while also showcasing radio as a leading trusted media source” concluded Gabrielle.
The Beat 102 103 Digital Media Literacy Roadshow will visit secondary schools across the South East from February to May 2024. One of the twenty schools will win €1,000 in cash while one lucky student will win an iPad.
If you would like your school to be one of the 20 visited by Beat, you can register via www.beat102103.com/medialiteracy
