The Media for Informed Civic Engagement (MICE) project is a five-year activity funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project is jointly implemented by Media Initiatives Center (MIC), Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF) and Internews (USA) in partnership with the Yerevan Press Club (YPC) and the Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC).
The goal of the five-year MICE project is to increase citizen access to independent and reliable sources of information about reforms that impact society, with an emphasis on reforms in decentralization, transparency and accountability, and social sector policy. The project also creates a demand for public awareness as a necessary mechanism for participation and involvement through improved quality of journalism and media literacy.
The MICE project works with selected media outlets across the country by training them to use modern tools for fact-checking and news-verification, to conduct quality investigations, to use innovative approaches in reporting, such as data visualization and data journalism, and to develop effective multimedia products.
Objectives
- To increase availability and accessibility of fact-based quality content on targeted reforms across the country via multiple platforms.
- To enhance the targeted media’s role as effective and multi-media watchdog platforms to monitor and debate on performance and implementation of priority reforms.
- To increase citizens and CSOs’ knowledge and skills for becoming savvy media consumers and demanding better quality media.
Through objectives
- Grants for media, journalists: Investigative journalism; News verification and fact checking; Cutting edge tools; Reforms related content production
- Grants for Infotuns
It is anticipated that the media’s independent and reliable content produced in the framework of the MICE project will help increase the citizens’ participation and impact on reform processes in the country. This will be achieved through:
- Engaging journalists to produce appealing multimedia content that stimulates a vibrant discussion in society about reforms
- Equipping media with skills to conduct in-depth investigative and reliable fact-based reporting and digital storytelling
- Empowering society by giving voice to CSOs, advocacy groups, and citizens of Armenia by training them to use skills to launch effective advocacy and informational campaigns
- Engage people at large
- Educating public through media literacy programs that build consumer demand for better quality media and journalism
- Improving journalism and alternative content for both local and national media in reforms-related issues
- Increasing awareness among citizens of the reform processes, which have an immediate impact on their everyday life
- Providing access to information
- Building media platforms that allow citizens to engage in larger national discussions about reforms