From 1 to 5 December, the International Workshop of the Future Chronicles project took place in Valencia, bringing together 18 young women and men from Italy, Sweden, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Romania and Spain. The workshop represented a key transnational moment within the project, offering participants the opportunity to meet in person, exchange experiences and work collectively on shared challenges affecting young people across Europe.
Over five intensive days, participants engaged in a shared learning journey focused on gender-based disinformation, digital violence, hate speech, narrative strategies and critical news analysis. Through discussions, group work and creative activities, the workshop explored how stereotypes, dominant discourses and normalised imaginaries are constructed in the media, how they are amplified through digital platforms and emerging technologies, and how they can be questioned and deconstructed through critical awareness and collective action.
The programme combined theoretical inputs with hands-on activities, encouraging participants not only to analyse media content, but also to reflect on their own role as media users, storytellers and active citizens within increasingly complex information ecosystems.
Together with journalist Pilar Almenar, participants worked on media literacy and the processes behind how information is produced, circulated and consumed. Particular attention was given to the dynamics of visibility, framing and agenda-setting in contemporary media. Building on this foundation, the group learned how to design and structure a podcast, culminating in the collective production of a 45-minute episode that translated critical reflection into a concrete and accessible media output.
With Sebastian Mellgren, the focus shifted to the narrative techniques commonly used in disinformation. Participants analysed how narratives shape perceptions of “the other”, reinforce power relations and normalise exclusion. Through practical exercises, they experimented with creating alternative, inclusive narratives capable of challenging dominant frames and offering more nuanced and responsible representations.
Journalist Natasa Dokovska guided participants through the realities of contemporary journalism, offering tools to critically approach news, understand power dynamics within media systems and reflect on the ethical responsibilities of information producers, particularly in contexts of conflict, polarisation and social tension.
In a workshop led by Roya Baicu, participants worked on awareness and advocacy campaigns addressing gender-based violence, solidarity and hope. The session encouraged them to move from analysis to action, designing campaigns focused on the forms of gendered disinformation they considered most urgent to address in their own social and cultural contexts.
Finally, together with Nadia Tabib Chouitar, the workshop opened a deep and necessary discussion on gendered Islamophobia. Through an intersectional lens, participants reflected on the interconnected nature of systems of oppression, the impact of overlapping identities on lived experiences and the importance of recognising themselves as part of a shared and complex social fabric.
The Valencia workshop was intellectually and creatively intense, but above all, profoundly human. It created a space of trust, dialogue and mutual learning, fostering new alliances, meaningful connections and shared visions across national and cultural boundaries. More than a standalone event, the workshop strengthened a collective capacity to imagine and co-create more just and inclusive narratives for the future, reinforcing the project’s broader aim of supporting young people as active agents of change within European democratic life.
