Students and professionals discuss: Conclusions from the roundtables of the School of No Bias

In March 2026, as part of the 3rd cycle of the “School of No Bias” project, WHEN organized and hosted two roundtables at the WHEN Hub, with the participation of secondary school students and professionals from the fields of communication, advertising and media.

The goal of these meetings was for children to meet and talk with adults working in the fields of journalism, advertising, social media, and media education, and to exchange opinions and views on the way in which, media, shape and reproduce gender stereotypes, and the role that young people can play in shaping a more inclusive media landscape.

Particular emphasis was placed on the role of media literacy as a key skill for understanding and critically evaluating the content we consume daily. Participants also discussed the pressure created by the need for “clicks” and readability in modern media, as well as the responsibilities shared by content creators, brands, platforms and users themselves.

Great importance was given to the interventions of students who were conserned, recognized stereotypical representations and highlighted the value of critical thinking when consuming news and content on social media. The meetings confirmed that adolescents do not simply passively accept media messages, but can behave as active and critical users, contributing to the creation of a more inclusive public dialogue.

The third cycle of the School of No Bias project is implemented by WHEN as part of the programme “POWER – Promoting Organisations’ empoWErment to guarantee women’s human Rights and stop gender violence”. POWER aims to empower Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Italy, Greece and Spain to protect, promote and foster broad recognition of the fundamental rights of women and femininities, as well as to combat gender-based violence.
POWER is co-funded by the European Union through the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV – 2023 – DAPHNE) and is implemented under the coordination of We World (WW), in partnership with ActionAid Hellas (AAH) and Asociación Bienestar y Desarrollo (ABD).

Funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or ActionAid Hellas. Neither the European Union nor ActionAid Hellas can be held responsible for the views expressed.