“Coalition of Positive Messengers to Counter Online Hate Speech”
Since 2016 The Languages Company has been a partner in a new EU project – Coalition of Positive Messengers to Counter Online Hate Speech which runs from 1 October 2016 until 30 September 2018.
The project involves a consortium of 8 organizations from 7 countries across Europe : Bulgaria, Italy, Croatia, Czech Republic, Romania, Greece and the UK. The central aim of the project is to strengthen the response to online hate speech through the active engagement of local communities in creating and sharing powerful counter-narratives against xenophobic discourse. It also aims to provide new data on the scope and impact of hate speech and to exchange best practices among those already working in the field.
To this end we aim to:
The resources and information developed will be available on line and will be disseminated in a final conference in 2018.
For further details about Positive Messengers contact us enquiries@thelanguagecompany.com.
FREE MATERIALS FOR USE IN SCHOOLS
We have developed a bank of materials for schools to combat hate speech.
These are now available for piloting.
UNIT 1 – What is Hate Speech?
UNIT 2 – Myths, Lies and Truths
UNIT 3 – Safety and Impact of OHS
UNIT 4 – Developing Positive Messages
MATERIALS, RESOURCES , CONTACTS
To access free materials please contact us, with your details including the context in which you work.
NOW AVAILABLE
COMBATTING ONLINE HATE SPEECH :
Draft materials for use in schools are freely available for you to trial. Please contact us for access and further details
Combatting Online Hate speech
On 12 December Positive Messengers invited Arun Devasia from Hope not Hate to help colleagues working with refugees develop ways of engaging with the perpetrators of hate speech.
At two meetings in January we held seminars for over 80 teachers, student teachers, local authority representatives and others to discuss the impact of online hate speech in schools Eric Murangwa of Survivors Tribune spoke about the impact of Hate Speech on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. In a workshop session colleagues worked on some draft materials for use in schools.
There will be follow up meetings in February and March to take forward this work and to plan a social media campaign. For more details contact us.
The Language of Hate – David Crystal lecture
In October Lid King gave a lecture on the language of hate for the Chartered Institute of Linguists and how linguists can help develop a counter narrative, starting with what happens in school.
You can hear the talk here on the CIOL website.
