Kaleidoscope

 Kaleidoscope Awards

These are awards for complimented and criticized articles published in the Lithuanian media about countries and regions facing certain challenges. In some countries, historical, political, economic, social, environmental problems and / or challenges are greater than elsewhere. However, poverty, military conflicts, natural disasters and other phenomena are not self-evident, but have very specific and clearly identifiable causes, often due to the current world we have created on the basis of exploitation and inequality.

The kaleidoscope symbolizes for us how the heterogeneous reality of states can be viewed differently and how it itself can be dynamic and colorful. At the same time, it is about how much we choose to see, so the Kaleidoscope Awards welcome those articles and their authors who see the variegated reality of states and criticize those who create their stereotypical negative images, do not delve into the situation, are unethical, narrow-minded.

Why is it important to pay attention to these articles?

There is not much attention giving to talk about other cultures in Lithuania, so what we choose to talk about must reflect high quality. Unfortunately, unethical and inaccurate communication about individual countries or even continents in the media and other public spaces has become commonplace for us. This is often due to a lack of critical thinking, a lack of appropriate information, racism, incitement to discrimination, or simply ignorance and unwillingness to take a deeper interest. Articles based on false stereotypes, drawing negative, deplorable images, or humiliating, unethical talk about states and their people are one of the main sources of misconceptions about society and create attitudes that we often unquestionably adopt as our own. Poor communication dictates the wrong discourse in society and at the same time creates a flawed, unequal relationship between 'us' and 'they', encouraging stereotypical, narrow thinking.

Therefore, by highlighting what we have found in the Lithuanian media as the worst and best on this topic, we seek to change people's perceptions of poverty and state development, promote ethical communication, dispel stereotypes and myths surrounding states, and reduce media stigma. We want to show that countries and regions with which cooperation under the development guidelines is based should not be treated in a limited and one-sided way, especially in the public information space. We hope that this initiative will help to understand how it is (not)necessary to write, draw the attention of the editors of online portals and newspapers in order to filter and evaluate the published information more carefully. 

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