Bantul, IDEA Yogyakarta – In order to increase the understanding of women's groups about the importance of media literacy for promoting women's issues, IDEA Yogyakarta in collaboration with Atma Connect provided a Media Literacy workshop for women's groups at Rumah Budaya Tembi, Thursday (04/09). The workshop entitled "Women and Digital Media Literacy" involved women's groups representing villages and women's organizations in Bantul.
Overall, this workshop was held to open up knowledge about the map of women's organizing and networking, the identification of women's studies in the public sphere and campaign development strategies, and the identification of the diversity of women's relations.
As is known, women's issues campaigned by women's groups in the mass media are still very limited. News and articles discussing the existing conditions of women's groups and their networks also appear low. The participation of women's groups, which so far have colored many policies and developments in both village and non-village areas, has not been widely published. So it is very important and strategic if women's groups are able to produce news/articles related to women's issues by utilizing existing campaign media.
Isnawati, Project Officer of this program, in her speech said that media literacy is important to become a culture for women's groups. According to her, this is because technological developments are increasingly widespread and easily accessible to all levels of society, including women's groups. However, on the other hand, this condition does not necessarily provide a strong impetus for women's groups to utilize the media in campaigning for women's issues.
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Sunarjo, Director of IDEA Yogyakarta, when delivering the opening material also said that women's groups are also part of citizens who have the same rights. Moreover, according to him, currently many companies employ women, so, according to him, women also directly help increase regional income.
Therefore, according to Sunarjo, the state is obliged to respect and uphold the eco-social and cultural rights of its people, so that the basic rights of citizens, including women's groups, can be achieved. One form of the state's obligation to fulfill its obligations, said Sunarjo, is to create policies that are especially pro-women.
Encouraging Literacy Using the Atmago Application
AtmaGo is a free website and Android application that can be used to report problems, share solutions, find jobs, and post news about the environment around where we live. AtmaGo was created with the idea and spirit of "citizens helping citizens" to create a better environment from the bottom. In terms of ownership, AtmaGO was created by Atma Connect, a non-profit organization headquartered in California.
The use of the AtmaGo application as a campaign instrument for women to seize public space was introduced to participants in the literacy workshop. This media also became an instrument used in managing the knowledge of participants after attending the workshop. As is known, the AtmaGo application has now been used by more than 1,000,000 users and has become a Warga Bantu Warga platform.
Iin Narniyati, one of the participants in this workshop said that she was quite enthusiastic about this literacy workshop. According to Iin, literacy is important for villagers, especially women's groups to convey the potentials and problems of their village to the public. Moreover, according to the woman who is active in the Wonolelo Village Posyandu Cadre Communication Forum (FKKP), currently there is mass media that allows everyone to provide the latest news to the wider public.
Contributor/Editor: AH
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