RESPOND! NO to Antisemitic Hate Speech Online!
Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating a Media Competence Training on Countering Antisemitic Hate Speech Among Young People on Social Media

The collaborative project RESPOND! works to provide young people with the tools to speak out against antisemitic hate speech on the German-language web. Building on a combination of basic and applied research, RESPOND! aims to develop effective tools and approaches for both educational and preventive work. The project’s goal is to strengthen young social media users’ media literacy to help them recognize and respond to the discursive tactics of antisemitic hate speech online, even in its modern and more subtle manifestations. These goals will be addressed in four steps:

1. A content/discourse analysis of antisemitic hateful rhetoric on the most relevant social media platforms used by young people in Germany (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube).

2. Focus group interviews exploring the susceptibility of young people in Germany to antisemitic hate speech on social media, as well as their ability to respond to it with media competence.

3. The development, implementation, and evaluation of the Train-the-Trainer RESPOND! Media Competence Training in order to enhance young people’s media literacy in confronting antisemitic hate speech on social media. The training will be conducted with 600 young individuals.

4. Sensitizing 600 teachers in the areas of Berlin, Potsdam, and Bielefeld to the vulnerabilities and competencies of young people in confronting antisemitic hate speech on social media.

A one-year empirical study is planned for each step. The four studies build on one another. To this end, RESPOND! will bring together a scholarly team of experts made up of antisemitism researchers as well as media and cultural psychologists with experts from the fields of inclusive pedagogy, racism prevention, and social services. Participating institutions include Touro University Berlin. A Campus of Touro University New York, the University of Potsdam, and the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld.  We are working with our practice partner (Praxispartner, a cooperating organization in the field), the Jewish Community of Berlin (Jüdisches Gemeinde zu Berlin, JGzB), to ensure that the RESPOND! Media Competence Training has practical relevance. This collaboration will also help strengthen the transfer of knowledge between researchers and practitioners. The Community both contributes relevant experience with antisemitism in Germany to the project as well as insights into existing forms of antisemitic hatred. It will be key in recruiting young Jewish people for the planned empirical studies. Furthermore, the JGzB will bring insights from this project to the general public and promote dialogue on these matters with citizens – activities that are central in their work.

RESPOND! verwendet partizipative Forschungsmethoden und bezieht die Teilnehmer:innen in die Entwicklung des Medienkompetenztrainings mit ein. Im Rahmen des Projekts werden die Teilnehmer:innen aufgefordert, sogenannte Medientagebücher zu erstellen (1. Schritt). Anschließend werden Fokusgruppendiskussionen mit ihnen durchgeführt (2. Schritt). Das RESPOND! Medienkompetenztraining ist ausdrücklich auf ihre Erfahrungen, Vulnerabilitäten und Fähigkeiten zugeschnitten (3. Schritt) und wird in einem Vorher-Nachher-Kontrollgruppendesign evaluiert. Es ist als Multiplikator:innentraining angelegt, in dem Absolvent:innen des Trainings wiederum weitere Personen trainieren.

Die ersten beiden Studien ergeben die Notwendigkeit, Gespräche über antisemitische Hassrede zu lernen und damit verbundene Ambiguitäten und Identitätskonflikte auszuhalten. Das RESPOND! Medienkompetenztraining baut auf den drei Schwerpunkten „awareness“, „reflection“ und „action“ auf: Dabei soll es nicht nur um die Vermittlung von Wissen zur Erkennung von Antisemitismus in sozialen Medien gehen. Das Training fokussiert darüber hinaus gewaltfreie Kommunikation, Identität, Emotionsregulierung und den Umgang mit Unsicherheiten und Ambiguitäten.

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