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Tackling Digital Media

2020-2-MT01-KA105-0742922020Youth mobilityfinalized
Countries: MT|BG|IT|TR|ES|PT|RO|PL · Grant: €16,185
ICT - new technologies - digital competencesKey Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) - basic skillsYouth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Objectives

Nowadays, our society is characterized by elements that were unimaginable only twenty years ago. Today, we are living in what is known as the Digital Age and the only constant is that it seems like it will continue to develop and expand for future generations. Therefore, it is important for everyone to develop and expand along with the media, in order to properly understand what is being circulated. For this to happen, we needed to develop media literacy skills. With the subsequent advent of social networks, the same relationship between producer of news (traditional media) and user has profoundly changed making the difference between these two categories increasingly blurred. While this has represented a new era for free information and the circulation of ideas, on the other hand it has offered a powerful and deadly weapon to those who, through the manipulation of information, pursue criminal and illegitimate objectives. The false news, the manipulation of information, the mystifications have been part of every age of humanity but it is thanks to the tools of online technologies that they manage to have a very dangerous effectiveness. Because of this situation, negative phenomena such as fake news, post truth, trolls have become part of our daily lives making it difficult to discern between false information and information, often making many of us involuntary disinformation agents. The European Commission and the Parliament in December 2018 had approved a plan to combat fake news that, based on collaborations between institutions and network operators, requires them to monitor the spread of fake news, preventing their dissemination online. Some of the most important operators such as Facebook and Google have joined the plan. However, a contrast operation that starts from the top will be unrealistic if it will not be accompanied by the dissemination among users of the awareness on the correct use of modern media and on the discernment between true news and fake news. Being media literate allows us to see that information sometimes is untrue and media has underlying messages that affect us. By understanding those messages, we can change how the media affects us. Media literacy is so important to consumers because it can help us to control our actions in response to media, and allow it to have less control over our views. Considering all these issues within our consortium we have done surveys and researches and we have confirmed that not only the general population is affected, but actually, the new generations of young people are also affected by this phenomenon since most of them nowadays never saw traditional media so they do not know other ways were used to collect quality information. So, the main aim of our project Tackling Digital Media was to improve the competences related to media literacy in youth work by training youth workers on the topics of fake news, post-truth, management of virtual identities in a fair way and the concept of entropy. This main aim was achieved through the following objectives: - To explore the concepts of media literacy and all the phenomenon which are affecting journalism and the world of news for young people - To discover and experience the most used tools by young people online and how to deal with them in order to raise awareness of young users - To transfer new competences and tools for youth workers on the topics of fake news, post-truth, troll and entropy who will act as multipliers with young people of their communities - To develop innovative activities on media literacy to be used in youth work at the international level with young people - To create a network of youth workers who promote fair journalism among young people in Europe and facilitate dialogue among different actors of society to propose new policies. - To start a campaign of fair journalism for young people in order to spread the proper understanding of the phenomenon they are nowadays living.

Project partners (8)