Did you know that it's not true that kids are always on their phones, not reading the news, not informing themselves, not interested in anything? The reality is that the human race has never read or even written so much news as it does today. Because many people text and post non-stop, Tik-Tok and Insta stories and of course watch and read. In other words, the press is not dying, it has gone into a dizzying, breakneck rampage, and this uncontrolled zigzagging gives the older generation the feeling that 'these young people today are uninformed, they don't care about anything.
The fact is that the rules of these new forms of communication have not yet been established, it is difficult to distinguish news from disinformation, science from pseudoscience, and sometimes even weather reports from advertising.
The HumanBodyText project set out to show the younger generation that, despite the paradigm shift in media, the core values have remained essentially unchanged for thousands of years. Filtering intelligent thought from noise, understanding the basics of how to obtain and provide information, respecting facts and each other are essential for the exchange of ideas that is the basis of our civilization.
Who is doing this and why?
The Journalist’s Association of Eger was founded a quarter of a century ago by young journalists who experienced the intellectual excitement of democratic transition, the power and importance of a free press. The association has been an active part of the local community ever since. In the HumanBodyText project, they provide a round-the-clock podcast studio and mentoring for high school/university students who learn how to shoot, cut, edit, etc. The important thing is that they know they have a voice. At the Association they are confident that anyone who has written even just one rabbit's tail of news correctly in their life will be able to read and comprehend other people's news better. They will be more immune to fake news, pseudo-science and conspiracy theories.
Therefore the association encourages young people to express their opinions, to look for and see the connections, to be able to control the power that doesn't want to be controlled. Or simply to make them feel good about themselves and proud to report what happens to them.
The studio
The project started by setting up a podcast studio, hosted by Labor, Eger's coolest community center.
Then they went to the secondary schools in Eger to present the project and went to festivals to recruit. Sometimes the headmaster invited the association to go to the open days, but sometimes they were not welcome. Fortunately, the kids were much more effective at spreading the word among themselves that there was a HumanBodyText, so they actually did the recruiting themselves after a while by "whispering” to each other that it was good fun.
Lessons learned so far
Many of the assumptions were confirmed, but some were contradicted by reality. The association thought that the secondary school age group was more receptive and open to the world and the free spirit. This has proved to be absolutely true. At the same time, we can see that even in the teenage years there is a very sharp dividing line between young people who are keen to express themselves, who are interested and want to do something, and their peers who are completely disinterested.
It also soon became clear that they don't necessarily want to use verbality to express themselves, which would be logical in a podcast studio, but that they are more captivated by visual expression. It turned out that the (semi-)professional technique the association provided was so motivating that it inspired the guys to shoot two short films. They discussed the creative processes at mentoring sessions, the issues they were concerned about, they shared their own vision, which did not lack a socially critical edge. Since then, two participants of HumanBodyText have gone on to study film (and three are preparing for it), and their etudes made as part of the project have won them awards.
Based on the suggestions of the editorial teams, they also had as guests, among others, Alinda Veiszer, Zsolt Osváth, Péter Új, Árpád W. Tóta, Imre Para Kovács, Tamás Dobos. (All are well decorated members of Hungarian journalism.)
In the Flipper podcast, project participants introduced the candidates running for mayor of the city.
What next?
Spreading the news
People from all over the country are asking how a community studio should be built, how much it costs, how it can be run, what the experiences are. The association is happy to go anywhere to present the project and also regularly receive visitors.
Local publicity is the foundation of local democracy. The old media has been destroyed and there is neither the chance nor the need to rebuild it. The emergence of citizen journalism in the world is a chance to fill this void. It is much cheaper and, with the right, responsible attitude, it can be as reliable a source of news as the Boomer media, operating with well-trained gatekeepers.
HumanBodytext-Seni, the granfluencer incubator
So far, the HumanBodytext project has been a mouthpiece for young people, it focused on giving them a voice, because they think it is crucial for democracy that this generation is able to think critically, to represent their interests, etc.
It is clear that the current regime has given up on young people and the target of the propaganda media is now the older generation, which can be reached easily through the old media. But the elderly trust each other even more than they trust the media. The association receives more and more requests from older local potentates who want to do something, who would like to be granfluencers, to make podcasts, to share their thoughts, concerns and suggestions with the community. But they need more specific mentoring, stronger technical support, etc., and this will be the HumanBodytext-Seni...
