Media literacy, our capacity to access, have a critical understanding of, and interact with the media has never been as important as in today's society. It enables citizens of all ages to navigate the modern news environment and take informed decisions. The coronavirus pandemic has forced us to take a step back from our daily routines. As we spend more and more time at home, we increasingly rely on the internet, be that for working remotely or video calling relatives and friends. During times of uncertainty, like the ones we are experiencing, engaging with information that is trustworthy is more important than ever. This infodemic highlights the important role media literacy plays in all aspects of life, including during moments of crisis. Media literacy education is key in ensuring that individuals can find the real facts among all of the half-truths being shared online and beyond, especially when it can literally be a matter of life or death. As we are seeing now, media literacy is not only a matter of education — it can also be a matter of public safety. We aim to develop critical thinking skills of youth workers and raise the organisations’ capacity in the field of new media literacy in 5 EU partner countries to contribute to the quality of life of young people, emergence of new approaches and development of a more inclusive, tolerant, peaceful society and develop the quality and potential of digital youth work. The project is built on the rationale that by becoming media literate, youth are able to critically and skeptically analyze media messages they encounter every day, become wiser consumers of media who are capable of evaluating online information and are able to protect themselves from deceptive media messages. During the project life-cycle, the partners will develop a guide of best practices for teachers / youth workers in the field of Media Literacy Education. The most obvious project results will be : -A WEBSITE with all the info about the project , objectives , activities , downloadable outputs also a platform on ''Media Literacy for Inclusion ” : with a collection of demand-oriented tools & methods, training programmes, formats for awareness raising activities, short films created during the Project life cycle about media literacy education ...etc -A Booklet of Exchange Of Best Practices '' : In this guide book we will share the methodologies being already used in partner organizations or developed altogether with the experiences gained during the project implementation to nonformally educate youngsters in topics od media literacy, checking the facts, hoaxes and media propaganda. Booklet will consist of the following: a - Presentation of the Project ,presentation logo , presentation of partners' common definition of '' BEST PRACTICES '' b - Description of best practices collected (title - author - objectives - target - description -innovative elements - impact -conclusion) c - Testing results with feedback from participants d-Conclusion The project includes 4 TPMs. the first meeting will be dedicated to project management while from the second onwards, after the Training, during each Meeting we will focus on the analysis of specific BEST PRACTICES adopted / or identified by each partner. The purpose of the LTT in MALTA ; will be multiple, in particular: - To exchange experience, tools and best practices concerning media literacy education especially for youth from disadvantaged backgrounds at local/National level; - To Adapt and transfer the best bractices identified in the 5 partner countries rmethodologies based on formal/non formal education; - To organize Testing Activities in each project partner’s country in order to share, Analyse, evaluate and adapt best Practices selected during the Training; Youth workers will enlarge their knowledge and improve skills on the education of media literacy by sharing and exchanging experiences and best practices with other youth workers in Europe. The project will have a positive impact on youth workers -trainers in terms of: -better understanding of the project topics – disinformation, media literacy, critical thinking. -developed critical thinking and media literacy skills to transmit to young people their work with in order to foster their ability to recognise disinformation and counteract on its side effects by changing narratives -Increased knowledge , skills to put into practice knowledge and new skills acquired in their daily work, thus developing youth critical thinking and promote their participation in their society and countries fighting against disinformation and its side effects. Youth will participate the local testing sessions of the best practices and they will evaluate them with questionaires.'' INFODEMIC'' will empower and create a responsible population that can identify, prevent and block misinformation.
The project was based on the idea that through the project the partners and participants would be able to find the real facts among all of the half-truths being shared online and beyond, especially when it can literally be a matter of life or death. From desk research and through the project activities we identified that media literacy is not only a matter of education but also a matter of public safety concern. Through the project activities, we focused on developing critical thinking skills, and a better understanding of the media and the messages it promotes not only in relation to COVID-19 but all content and sources that we engage with on a regular basis in order to be better equipped to judge the reliability and credibility of information that youths encounter through print, television & internet and as an end result create a more media literate citizenry. As part of our project objectives, we developed the critical thinking skills of the youth workers participants. We assisted in raising the organisations’ capacity in the field of new media literacy in the 5 EU partner countries in order to further contribute to the quality of life of young people, addressing the emergence of new approaches and the development of a more inclusive, tolerant, peaceful society and develop the quality and potential of digital youth work. Through the project, we managed to build on the rationale that by becoming media literate, youth would be able to critically and sceptically analyse media messages that they encounter every day, become wiser consumers of media who are capable of evaluating online information and are able to protect themselves from deceptive media messages. The project achievements can be listed as follows: 1. Enhanced youth workers' capacity to discern the reliability of news sources and their content (in other words, media literacy) 2. The development of a project WEBSITE with all the info about the project, objectives, activities, downloadable outputs, training programmes, short films created during the project life cycle about media literacy education ...etc 3. A Booklet of Exchange Of Best Practices '': In this guide book we shared the methodologies being already used in partner organizations or developed altogether with the experiences gained during the project implementation to non-formally educate youngsters in topics on media literacy, checking the facts, hoaxes and media propaganda. The Booklet consists of the following: a - Presentation of the Project, logo, presentation of partners' standard definition of '' BEST PRACTICES '' b - Description of best practices collected c - Testing results with feedback from participants d- Conclusion
As organisations working with youths we have witnessed the surge in the use of social media by our young people being bombarded with a big wave of data and information; however, this data can be based on deception, gossipy tidbits, rumours, and so on. Misinformation not only impacts negatively on the human body but also the mental health of people, especially young people. Having identified this problem, the partners identified the needs youth workers and youths need to be better informed and knowledgeable on understanding this new challenge, and the challenge of the infodemic which has also set off an alarming wave of discrimination against people of some ethnicities. This discrimination ranges from direct attacks to (unconscious) fear and avoidance. Understanding that young people are the generators of change in every community. Misinformation is false or inaccurate information deliberately intended to deceive. In the context of the pandemic, it greatly affected all aspects of life, specifically people’s mental health, since searching for COVID-19 updates on the Internet has jumped 50%–70% across all generations. Misinformation can circulate and be absorbed very quickly, changing people’s behaviour, and potentially leading them to take greater risks. This infodemic highlights the essential needs which through the project we addressed where we better understood the role media literacy plays in all aspects of life, including during moments of crisis. Focusing on media literacy education is a key to ensuring that individuals can find the real facts among all of the half-truths being shared online and beyond. The project ''INFODEMIC '' was focused on developing critical thinking skills, and a better understanding of the media and the messages it promotes -not only in relation to COVID19 - but all content and sources we engage with on a regular basis in order to judge the reliability and credibility of information youth encounter through print, television & internet and create a media literate citizenry. Through the project, we developed critical thinking skills for youth workers and raised the organisations’ capacity in the field of new media literacy in the 5 EU partner countries to contribute to the quality of life of young people, the emergence of new approaches and development of a more inclusive, tolerant, peaceful society and develop the quality and potential of digital youth work. The project was built on the rationale that by addressing the need of becoming media literate, youth are able to critically and sceptically analyze media messages they encounter every day, become wiser consumers of media who are capable of evaluating online information and are able to protect themselves from deceptive media messages.