ANTI-BULLYING INTERACTIVE CROSS-MEDIA

Raising awareness against bullying in schools across 7 European countries through an interactive digital platform, designed, written, directed and produced by Elena Zervopoulou. Within the framework of the launch of the European Anti-bullying Campaign initiated by the EU, we were commissioned to produce an educational tool for adolescents. 

We conceived, developed, filmed, and produced online & offline interactive videos with multiple scenarios that aim to raise awareness against bullying in schools around Europe. We have created two stories (one of verbal/physical violence and one of cyber bullying). Each one is seen from three different points of views (the child who is being bullied, the child who bullies, and the observer).

We chose a non-linear story-telling narrative to encourage an interactive, participatory approach. The user is invited to participate in the narrative process by choosing the main character and the development of the story. We carefully planned the different scenes and points of views and accompanied them by a manual for school teachers or parents. When used in class, the cross-media tool offers the possibility to further analyze the characters, to discuss the bullying phenomenon, and to draw conclusions regarding prevention.

This cross-media project is officially approved by the Greek Ministry of Education and has been used in schools across Greece for the past 8 years. Italy, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, England (other European partners of the project) have been using it, adapted into their languages, in their countries as well.