Three Caribbean teams ready to pilot media literacy initiatives on MIL Action Days

Team Guyana: “Digital Detective: Stop Cyberbullying”

The team: Somattie Sayrange (University of Guyana [UG] Library Services), Lauristan Choy (UG Faculty of Education & Humanities), Shamar Semple (UG Centre for Communication Studies), Kojo McPherson (UG Faculty of Education & Humanities), Valissa Peters (UG Early Childhood Care & Education), and Shifille Aulder (UG Library Services).

Team Guyana’s MIL Action Day falls squarely within Global Media and Information Literacy Week, an annual UNESCO observance that pushes for critical, responsible engagement with information globally. The team is bringing that global moment home with a two-hour workshop on cyberbullying and responsible digital citizenship for 12-14-year-olds at a local high school, hosted at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus.

The session is designed to help students recognise different forms of cyberbullying, including AI-enabled cyberbullying; understand its consequences; and respond appropriately when they encounter harmful behaviour online. An “AI Detective” activity puts that last point into practice, challenging students to assess videos and justify whether they believe they are AI-generated. A closing “circle of sharing” lets participants reflect on what they’ve learned.

For the team, getting to their Action Day has meant navigating both real institutional groundwork and curriculum design. Central to the team’s mission is keeping the activity safe and age-appropriate, with safeguards built into the design, such as parental consent, the use of fictional scenarios rather than real incidents, and access to counselling support during the session.

“We chose the classroom because young people spend so much of their time online and are often directly exposed to cyberbullying and AI-generated content,” said team member Somattie Sayrange. “The classroom gave us a safe and familiar space where students could ask questions, share their experiences, and learn practical ways to recognise harmful or misleading content and respond responsibly.”

Team Jamaica: “Pause, Check, before you Connect!”

The team: Dr. Paulette Stewart (UWI Mona, Department of Library and Information Studies), Daniel McLeod (RJR Gleaner Communications Group), Sherez Jackson (PBCJ), Gabrielle Thompson-Jackson (PBCJ), Samantha Dorah (CARIMAC), Keisha Myers (Jamaica National Library), and Tasha Gaye Saunders (CARIMAC).

Ask Team Jamaica what their workshop is about, and the answer comes down to one golden rule: pause before you forward. Their 90-minute session will be piloted with community leaders and adults aged 50 and older at a local library. The team will walk participants through the SIFT – Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims — method before they act on or share anything they receive on WhatsApp.

The workshop is built around real-world scenarios drawn from Jamaica’s own information landscape, such as a fabricated flu cure message, a fake government seniors’ relief grant promising payouts, and a hoax voice note warning of criminals posing as utility workers. The team will guide participants through each scenario in small, facilitated groups, teaching them to spot red flags such as artificial urgency, vague or unnamed sources, and suspicious web links, before testing what they’ve learned against a pre- and post-workshop assessment.

For Team Jamaica, the small details matter as much as the method itself. The printed SIFT checklist participants take home is designed as a handy, lasting reminder, that can easily be accessed whenever a suspicious message comes in, rather than a one-off handout. They’re also building in a simple, anonymous feedback form, which they hope will help sharpen the workshop for the next community group. It’s hoped this kind of practical follow-through will build lasting confidence in an audience less used to formal digital literacy training.

Team Trinidad & Tobago: “The CLEAR Concept”

The team: Dr. Géraldine Bengsch (UWI Department of Literary, Cultural & Communication Studies); Suzanne Gajusingh-Ramoutar (National Library and Information System Authority); Kimfa Maurice-Cooper (University of Trinidad & Tobago); Sherienne Mellington (Radio Tambrin); Delora Reyes (UTT Libraries); Tyrell Gittens (UWI Today); and Abina Quashie (NALIS).

The T&T Champions’ initiative centres on the CLEAR (Check, Look, Examine, Ask, then Respond) framework, designed to help people evaluate information from any source before acting on or sharing it. For their MIL Action Day, the team will pilot the project with their primary audience of adults aged 50 and older, with the wider public as a secondary audience.

“Our initiative is geared to getting persons to apply the CLEAR concept to evaluate information from all sources to avoid the spreading of unverified information, so that it can be applied to their everyday life and encourage the ‘practice makes permanent’ proverb. Our activities were chosen as we thought them suitable for the target group of older adults and the calypso would be appreciated by them too. The ‘Before you share, be C.L.E.A.R.’ tagline is catchy and easy to remember as well.” – Kimfa Maurice-Cooper, T&T MIL Champion

The team has set out an ambitious offering for their Action Day, including a 90-minute interactive presentation at a public library, combining videos, talks from subject matter experts, and a Q&A session. A “Spot the Fake” game will also challenge participants to identify real scam attempts circulating in the community, alongside a testimonial from someone who was targeted by fake information to emphasise the real-world impact. Participants will leave with a take-home fact-check sheet, reinforced with branded materials, signage, and a calypso theme song, sung by one of the team’s members.

What’s next for the teams?

Following the pilots, the project moves to a regional impact evaluation session on 16 November, where MIL Champions and wider stakeholders will assess outcomes, share lessons learned, and identify how these initiatives, and the cross-sector collaboration behind them, can be sustained and scaled across the Caribbean.