The Stratcom Youth: International Young Communicators Forum hopes to teach communication faculty students about Turkey's model in that field and bring them together with professionals, said a senior official from the country's Communications Directorate.
"Communication is actually a transforming process. We aim to explain the transformation of communication to young communicators, to put into practice the more theoretical knowledge they received at the university, and to bring them together with professionals," Gökhan Yücel, the head of the Strategic Communication and Crisis Management Department of the Communications Directorate, told Anadolu Agency.
Kicking off on Friday, the six-day event in southern province of Antalya was jointly organized by Turkey's Communications Directorate and Youth and Sports Ministry. The forum, which is hosting 100 young communicators from 13 countries and 42 universities, is one of the side events of the Stratcom Summit 2021 held in December, which brought together experts and leaders from across the world.
Underlining the importance of spreading the Turkish communication model, Yücel said they wanted to inform the youth about the country's communication vision for the future.
"We consider this as a public diplomacy and strategic communication activity in itself," he said.
The Turkish communication model is already a well-known model in the region and world, yet they put in effort to make it more heard, he added.
In the 21st century, communication has gained a more strategic aspect with the development of technology, social media, algorithms and big data, he said.
Regarding the Stratcom Youth Forum, he said they have created a "unique platform in the world."
"There may be one-day summits consisting of several panels and speakers. There could also be a roundtable meeting," he said, adding they will organize mini-summits abroad.
"We are not only in the position of teaching and transferring (at the event), but we also learn from them," he said, adding they noted what are the shortcomings of development issues regarding their faculties.
"Young people met with professionals, journalists who devoted their lives and careers to this job. Internship opportunities arose during the event," he added.
One of the participants, Karam Magdy, said he had the opportunity to increase his network by meeting experts in the industry and communication students from all over Turkey.
The Egyptian student said he learned a lot from the professionals' experience. Magdy added that the panel of Anadolu Agency's War Correspondence touched him the most.
Serhat Akarsu, 22, said he learned about Turkey's communication model.
"I learned a lot of detailed information about Turkey's communication policies," he said.
"The fight against disinformation is the most interesting topic to me. Recently, we have been faced with a lot of fake news on Twitter and other social media platforms. We learned what we can do to handle it," he added.
Madina Zhangaziyeva, a Kazakh master's student, said she was limited only to the theoretical field since she wrote her thesis for a year.
"While participating in this event, I received deep training on current issues in the field of digital media as well as in the practical field. I think this training will be beneficial for me in my professional life in the future," she said.
"I would like to thank the institutions that organized this program. It is a great program for young people to offer such opportunities to both local and international students," she said, adding the event enables them to exchange information with the students.
Jamileh Assad Ali Yousef, 22, said the program was very "productive" and they received training from experts and senior officials in communication.
"Since fake news spreads so fast in this age, we learned how to stay away from such news from disinformation training and always confirm it without sharing the news," said the Palestinian student.
