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True or False? Can you tell the difference?

2020-3-DK01-KA105-0940322020Youth mobilityfinalized
Countries: DK|PL|RO|HU|PT|ES · Grant: €25,358.07
Civic engagement / responsible citizenshipICT - new technologies - digital competencesEU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Objectives

Fake news is not only linked to a pandemic outbreak but is also to other content being posted online anytime. A simple selfie can cause an outbreak of harsh comments depending on who is on the picture and where it is posted etc. There is a famous saying: “A picture says more than a thousand words”, which can be accurate, but if the picture in question has been manipulated, then 900 of the words it “says” might be untrue. But how can we define what’s true or not in this digital age? That is what we want to explore doing this youth exchange. We want to give the youngsters a chance to tell their own story, the way they want it to be told, and at the same time, learn to stay critical towards any content that is posted online. Visual content is becoming more and more popular, and a very few actually read the caption connected to the picture. This tendency might distort the intention of the photograph and create a completely different story. We will invite the youngsters to take a picture of something, posting it without a caption, and see what the comments will be during this project. Afterward, we will ask the individual to tell their version of this picture and discuss the similarities and differences that might come up. We will also ask the participants to collect local newspapers, and we will then cut out the pictures and discuss the image, and only afterward, we will read the article that originally came with it. Further, a lot more statements made by the youngsters have been gathered for this project. So to sum it up, the youngsters want to: - understand what is fake, what is not, and block the chaos. - Not to be manipulated by fake news. - Know how to spot fake news. - Make the world a better place to live. - Learn and understand why people are creating fake news. As a youth worker, I would like to help the young people distinguish between the various news they see online. In these times, the online digital world is growing rapidly, and it is hard to keep up for everyone. With memes and other sarcastic elements roaming, I see many people just scrolling and liking random posts without actually checking the source. Because it is done so fast, nobody really takes notice of it, but the sub-conscience does, and the worst-case scenario can lead the youngsters on the wrong path and become radicalized in some areas.

Project partners (6)