StoryBox – Share Your Story!

A Media Empowerment Project for Girls and Young Women in Berlin

Background of the StoryBox project

Media play a major role in the lives of adolescents and young adults; social media and messenger services in particular are everyday companions. A distinction between offline and online hardly takes place anymore among the so-called “digital natives”. Teaching young people critical media skills can provide them with knowledge and skills that will enable them to use social media (self-)safely and on their own responsibility.

Media discourses also have a major influence on the integration of people with migration biographies, as they can influence not only the opinion of the “majority society,” but also the sense of belonging of migrants.

In addition, even in 2021, German media is still largely a male-dominated and non-diverse industry. Although one in four Germans has a migration history, this diversity is not reflected in the media houses, both in front of and behind the cameras and microphones, in the editorial offices, in the planning and supervisory bodies, and in the executive suites. This can have a discouraging effect on young women (with and without migration biographies) interested in the media when it comes to choosing a career or orienting themselves toward a course of study.

Focus and benefits of StoryBox

This is where the StoryBox project comes in. A leisure and media educational program for girls and young women with and without migration biographies is designed to promote integration. A female* safe space provides insights into often male-structured media branches. Within the framework of pedagogically accompanied media workshops, the participants have the opportunity to exchange low-threshold and intercultural information about life-world issues and experiences, to process these jointly and creatively in the media, and to publish them via relevant social media. Girls and young women are empowered by:

  • Creatively dealing with life-world topics and trying out media and creative forms of expression.
  • participating in social discussions by designing and disseminating their own creative content
  • the experience of self-efficacy through authentic and self-determined (self-)presentation in social media
  • the reflection of social action ability through the mediation of media competence
  • the promotion of media criticism skills, such as dealing with sources, data protection and research.

The homepage of the project can be found here.

The StoryBox project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Housing and the Pfefferwerk Foundation.