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EUth Media

2019-1-BG01-KA105-0620502019Youth mobilityfinalized
Countries: BG|MT|IT|LT|CY|EL · Grant: €17,465
ICT - new technologies - digital competencesEU Citizenship, EU awareness and DemocracySocial dialogue

Objectives

During a training course which addressed at “You(th) in the centre of Youth Exchanges” a SALTO training implemented in Cyprus in April 2017 we noticed that while we worked in a workshop of “partner finding”, we had many common visions about how we see the development of youngsters. We decided to carry out this project together (6 partners) because the future of Europe is in the hands of informed young people that have their opinions on burning problems of the EU (EuropeanCommission, Meeting of the media literacy expert group, 14.12.2017). Media has changed dramatically in quality and quantity. Now young people of Europe feel the need to form an opinion according to their values, knowledge and experience. The fight with the disinformation should be clear, quick and effective – people should check a great amount of information. Young people do not know the world without Internet and have access to almost all communication infrastructures. There are a lot of initiatives at EU level: EP Pilot Project "Media Literacy for All", • EuropeanLiteracy Conference, January 2016, „Media meets literacy“, May 2015 and May 2017, campaign #SaferInternet4EU, Dogital education Action Plan, many surveys were published. We have seen that even the EU has fined social media companies for the publication of fake news, big companies and even government stop using certain social media platforms for their advertising campaigns because they could not control where their adverts were shown, in some cases with radical news. So, if it is difficult for large institutions to make sense of social media and the information provided through media, how do young people know what is true and what is projected on them? We will examine the issue of Human rights, how are these rights respected, how are they abused, and how do we respect and accept our rights. A recent study showed that many students use Wikipedia as a source of information for their research. Many universities have disallowed the usage of Wikipedia as references and others have requested that a date-stamp be used when referencing it. So, are facts real or are they changing so often that we are losing control of facts? Freedom of speech is a right we all have, however if this right is used to manipulate the truth or to project a certain belief, how do we control the information that young people receive and how do we distinguish fact from belief? In Michael Caufield`s book `Web literacy for students fact-checkers` he wrote: "The Internet is both the most powerful propaganda machine and the most wonderful means of verifying facts”. The process of verifying the facts on many different channels is of importance for the media literacy of society. This can be done by self-checking or using a fact-finding platform, which also requires the right skills. By talking about verifying the facts, we have to bear in mind that this is a very complex process that combines multifaceted approaches, practices and tools. In the course of the exchange with our partners, we shall provide a target guide for verification of news to enrich the practical knowledge of the participants. Moreover, such fact-checking practices and tools can be useful for almost all users, whether they are students, journalists, or just citizens involved in countering counterfeit news. The main goal of the youth exchange named EUth Media (EU and Youth) is to increase the media literacy of young people aged 18 - 30, who are our target group. Some of the objectives are: - To understand what media literacy is. - To Introducing a digital media environment. To learn who the “players” in cyberspace are. - To provide tools to young people to apply critical thinking on the information they receive and to work with media and multimedia content. - To develop the skills needed to identify opinions from facts - To be aware of the nature of fake news - To acquire fact checking skills - To develop competences in audio-visual technics and editing - To raise awareness on hate speech off-line and online. - To develop competences to create media content Among the most important skills from `the kitchen` we will acquire or improve are those for: - Tracking sources of information, including recognition of sponsored and paid content; - Verifying the authenticity of photo and video material online, such as checking for old images transmitted as current; - Lateral reading and perception of the data in details - Evaluating sources of information through domain verification, assessment of source expertise, quote verification, etc. - Checking URLs, checking social networking accounts. This project will work on developing a greater understanding of how youth perceive information and how they process it. Working on methods to help young people gain skills and competences in the fields of media and social media so that we can enhance their employability while still learning through the methods of non-formal and informal education.

Project partners (6)