Cambodia: Indigenous youth learn MIL through theater
In a community center in Ta Veng, a simple wooden hut on stilts, an all-too-familiar scene unfolds on stage one Saturday afternoon. A young man discovers a scooter for sale online at a temptingly low price and happily transfers his savings. He then waits in vain for an answer, while the supposed seller disappears without a trace. The 92 students follow along with curiosity and laugh aloud as the actor stares theatrically at his cell phone, desperately awaiting a message. What is being staged here is a bitter reality many in the audience know all too well.
The play is part of a youth exchange forum on online scamming and disinformation. A local community leader later joined the audience to discuss the play with the young people, who are clearly intrigued.
"This public exchange forum is valuable for me and the entire community, as it helps me to better understand social media platforms and learn how to use them ethically and responsibly without spreading misinformation and fake news," said audience member Charna Nini. In addition, she and her friends want to learn how to avoid falling for online scams, an important concern for Ta Veng’s young people.
The rural community is one of several Indigenous villages in Ratanakiri Province. Reached via a winding road across sweeping hills, rainforests, and plantations, Ratankiri borders Laos and Vietnam. According to the last census, in 2019, at least 22 Indigenous groupswith their own local languages live in Cambodia, a large proportion of which are native to Ratanakiri and Stung Treng provinces.
In both provinces, DW Akademie supported a project to improve media literacy. The aim is to empower youth leaders from Indigenous communities as multipliers, enabling them to pass on their skills to other young people and make them more resilient to disinformation. Indigenous communities are often socio-economically disadvantaged, with limited access to education and reliable information. This makes them particularly vulnerable to misinformation.
Educational barriers and digital transformation
Many of Ratanakiri’s young people live with their families in remote mountain villages and practice traditional agriculture.
"For them, the way from their community to school is often a great challenge," said Soumy Phan, DW Akademie’s project officer in the area. "Their access to education and information is therefore limited."
Language and cultural barriers also contribute to this. For example, many of the Indigenous children and young people do not read or write Khmer, the national language, well enough for basic understanding, nor do they attend secondary school. They often must support their parents in agricultural work and therefore drop out after primary school.
"Young marriages and cultural traditions also mean that many girls in particular leave school early," said Sopheng Yeng, the project manager at Khmer Youth Association (KYA), which supports DW Akademie in its activities.
Despite the hurdles, digital technologies have reached even Ratanakari’s most remote villages and are very popular among their residents.
"The majority of the Indigenous population now owns smartphones and uses them to access the Internet, although network coverage is limited in these areas," explained Phan.
Figures confirm these observations: According to the Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Organization (CIPO), 78.7 percent of Indigenous households own a mobile phone, although the proportion is slightly higher in urban versus rural areas.
Digitalization challenges
Technological progress combined with educational barriers, however, brings new challenges.
"The biggest problems that young people often face are phishing and disinformation," reported Yeng from KYA.
Lottery fraud is one of the most common forms of online scams. In this case, the young people receive fake messages about alleged winnings, the payment of which they are first supposed to transfer as a "processing fee." Social media scams and online shopping scams are other common problems.
As examples of disinformation, young people cite posts on social media channels during the COVID-19 pandemic claiming that vaccines are deadly. Another rumor reported that water would be released from a dam during the rainy season, prompting many to make preparations to escape. Another example of false information concerns school exams.
In addition to the challenge of countering disinformation, some young people also reported considerable difficulties in accessing reliable information.
"Often they only know one or two media sources," Yeng continued. "Although most of them own smartphones, they use them mainly for entertainment and know little about the broader, more productive uses of the technology."
The importance of media literacy for Indigenous communities
Media and information literacy (MIL) is therefore a relevant topic for young people. "MIL can fundamentally change their behavior towards media consumption," Yeng explained. "The improved skills and knowledge also have a cascading effect on the entire community."
The skills the young people acquire during the training enrich their lives, and they pass on their knowledge to their families, Yeng added.
"Media literacy is essential because it equips people with the critical skills needed to navigate and understand the complexities of social media in today's world," said Sopheak Mai, a participant in the project from Ratanakiri.
Media literacy was also important for participant Samith Thann because it helped him find his way in today's news landscape by better understanding facts and not falling for fake news.
The project therefore relies on MIL multipliers identified by KYA and trained by DW Akademie. Together, they produce videos in the MIL trainings which are published on KYA’s social media accounts or in the communities. The final event is the youth exchange forums, where the videos are discussed in a larger circle.
"The video productions and the youth exchange forum were the most interesting for me," said Sreypich Som, a MIL multiplier from Ratanakiri. "It allows participants to showcase their talents in dealing with problems, propose solutions, and learn how to protect themselves from the dangers of social media."
From the stage to life
To ensure that the newly acquired knowledge is not lost, it is all the more important to organize follow-up events.
"This is also the purpose of the Youth Exchange Forums, with which we can reach even more young people and where they enter into dialogue with the local authorities," Yeng said.
The young people are particularly motivated to participate when local authorities are present, because they can discuss their concerns directly with them. For Yeng, it would be ideal if local authorities would then take proactive steps and react to the specific problems, like, for example, supporting phishing victims. The young people could propose ideas and solutions that the authorities could then include in their measures.
Theatre as a tool for Media Literacy
Theatre performances are proving to be an effective means of communicating complex MIL issues. The script was prepared a few weeks in advance based on a collaborative effort based on MIL topics discussed during training.
“It focuses on real-world problems that young people face daily,” said Yeng. “Since many young people lack experience with debates, theatre offers an alternative form of expression where words alone are not enough."
The topics are diverse. One performance addressed the realization that a profile picture on social media can differ from the actual person. Other performances will address LGBTQ-related issues to raise awareness of online discrimination.
"The public exchange forums provide a free and safe space for young people to exchange ideas," explained Yeng.
Souphan Kann, a multiplier from Stung Treng province, agreed. "I believe that the project is incredibly beneficial for today's youth," he said, "as it helps them access reliable information and protects them from the risks associated with social media platforms."
The MIL initiative in Ratanakiri and Stung Treng was implemented by DW Akademie as part of the "Digital Resilience and Dialogue" project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). With the support of the Khmer Youth Association, the focus was specifically placed on Indigenous communities, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the provinces of Stung Treng and Ratanakiri. A total of 94 participants (including 63 women) attended the MIL trainings, and more than 30 videos on the topic of MIL were produced and distributed via KYA's social media channels. The youth exchange forums organized after the trainings attracted 276 participants (including 163 women) and created a valuable platform for young people to discuss key issues facing their communities with their peers and local authorities.
