Using MIL games to reach young Ukrainians with sensitivity

From cyberbullying to fake news, young people encounter dangers every time they go online. This is where media and information literacy (MIL) can help. MIL teaches skills to fight disinformation, hate speech and harassment. For younger users, whose lives often play out online, these skills are critical to functioning safely in the digital world.

Yet keeping the attention of young media users, especially those who have dealt with trauma, can be difficult. DW Akademie and its partner Public Media Academy Juniors have been developing new games for Ukrainian students to hone their media literacy while keeping their specific needs in mind.

"These young people have suffered and continue to suffer trauma," said Yulia Alekseeva, a DW Akademie project manager. "Therefore we have to keep their attention and do it with sensitivity."

DW Akademie's trainers noted that young people began to appear less attentive at online trainings during the COVID-19 pandemic. With students locked inside, many of them attending school online, having extracurricular online meetings was ineffective. Students suffered from both lagging attention and remembering what they had learned.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine followed the pandemic lockdown and exacerbated the problem. The war has forced many students out of their homes to other parts of Ukraine or the country altogether. Ukraine seemed to experience collective trauma and, at the same time, online mis- and disinformation flourished.

The solution: make it fun. DW Akademie's network of MIL experts took MIL concepts and developed board games and other formats.

Victor Pichuhin (left) plays his Dungeons & Dragons-inspired MIL game with participants at the 2024 Global Media Forum.

Fun and effective

The games are specifically designed with Ukrainian teenagers in mind and connect MIL principles with creative approaches. MIL trainers host the games and are supported by team members who have experience dealing with trauma.

In The Museum of Forgotten Tales, Ukrainian journalist Victor Pichuhin uses immersive storytelling like that of Dungeons & Dragons, bringing adventurers through a series of rooms in a fantastic museum. Through each ordeal, heroes must ask the right questions and discern the truth from the stories they hear to make the right decisions.

"When I play this game, I feel I'm in a safe space," said 17-year-old player Sofiia. "I can communicate with my peers and be creative. I imagine being the hero and it empowers me a lot."

A young Ukrainian player Sofiia (right) introduces The Museum of Forgotten Tales at an event in Bonn, Germany

In Media Busters, participants play as either a media house or a media buster. As a media house, they try to build a complete working media organization, including platforms and editorial teams. As media busters, they work to thwart the media organization at every turn. Players learn how a media organization works, what platforms are important and how the pieces come together to produce news.

The MIL mobile escape room, designed by Arminas Varanauskas of the Knowledge Economy Forum Lithuania, can be taken anywhere. It consists of puzzles whereby students must identify AI images, decode messages and find facts to escape.

The team is also developing a pop-up escape room that will travel through Ukraine and other European countries and can be set up in libraries, museums and cultural centers.

Gaming around the world

Beyond Ukraine, DW Akademie partners use gamification to teach MIL in other countries. 

In the Baltics, DW Akademie and its partners have created games for the region,which, like Ukraine, is heavily affected by Russian disinformation.

And in Bolivia, the media outlet Muy Waso has developed Bomba Viral, a board game of practical exercises in which players must overcome the virus of misinformation.

"Bomba Viral generates spaces for dialogue and collaborative work," says Jhoselin Granados, Muy Waso's project manager. "We can't face the disinformation monster individually. We need to act as a team to counteract its rapid advance." 

DW Akademie Muy Waso developed the MIL game Bomba Viral for youth in Bolivia

These approaches have a much more broad appeal and can connect with students that MIL might not have resonated with before. The sessions and trainings are foremost about active MIL skill development for its players.

"The best thing about games is that they are for everyone," said MIL and gamification expert Arminas Varanauskas. "Usually those students who like to sit in the last rows, who sometimes are referred to as 'troublemakers' are the ones who are the most engaged in the games."

Like in social media, learning is all about engagement. These MIL games offer both the hook and the opportunity to expand young people's media skills.

MIL games in Ukraine have been developed with Public Media Academy and are funded by the European Union and the German Federal Foreign Office. Bomba Viral was developed with support from the German Federal Ministry for Development and Cooperation (BMZ).