A collaborative media production project on human rights: bridging everyday and media education

Given the importance of media institutions and universities as spaces of knowledge productions, development of 'critical media pedagogy' becomes crucial for the establishment of a responsible and ethical media environment. Drawing from the collaborative project of The First Step into Human Rights: I do not do it! - A Short Film Project on Human Rights, this study discusses the significance of media students' involvement in an interdisciplinary and collaborative project dealing with the realities of 'everyday' in the development of critical media pedagogy in Turkey. The study is based on the authors' personal observations as the supervising media instructors who have participated in the development and application of the project as well as the accounts of the media students who were actively involved in the process. The authors have argued for the integration of various partners into media education, perceiving this as a necessary extension of the learning process beyond the walls of the classroom in order to build connections with the realities of others - an important dimension in the development of a media environment promoting social justice and cultural dialogue.