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Youth vs Disinfo

2021-1-CY02-KA152-YOU-0000115342021Mobility of young peoplefinalized
Countries: CY|EL|LT|PL|RO · Grant: €29,124
Information and communication technologies (ICT)Media literacy and tackling disinformationDigital skills and competences

Objectives

According to the UNESCO Institute for Information Technology in Education, media literacy is defined as a set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, competencies and practices that allow effective access, analysis, critical evaluation, interpretation, use, creation and dissemination of information and media products using of existing tools and instruments for creative, legal and ethical basis. Media literacy, the ability to determine the truth of facts and news, to analyze and evaluate the value of information messages are defined as "21st century skills". In the last few years, scrolling in the media and social networks has become increasingly popular, with aimless action being an invisible threat to young people. Naivety and lack of experience for them is the key to the success of online advertising. While checking your Facebook and Instagram accounts used to be less complex, but today social platforms are filled with ads for alcohol, drugs and narcotics, and advertisements are often intimate and sexually explicit. Young people become easily vulnerable and can quickly fall victim to online digital harassment. In the process of online learning and most of the time spent in front of the mobile screen, the threat of spreading fake news, drug and alcohol advertisements, as well as invitations for intimate relationships with strangers on social networks increased by over 60% compared to previous years. The spread of false information about coronavirus infection, anti-vaccine populism and lack of digital health hygiene is the biggest threat facing young people. The main goal of the project was to educate young people by showing them how to critically analyze the information they come across and to determine the extent to which it is relatively acceptable in the hustle and bustle in everyday life. New digital platforms have unleashed innovative information practices that enable novel forms of communication and greater global reach than at any point in human history. But on the other hand, disinformation and hoaxes that are popularly referred to as “fake news” are accelerating and affecting the way individuals interpret daily developments. Fake news” and “fake facts' ' have become not only fashionable keywords but actual threats to democratic values nowdays. Disinformation, bias, fallacies, fake news and access to reliable information are a very huge concern of all European societies. Therefore, young people across Europe need empowerment and knowledge to outsmart the ever-present flow of intentional misinformation through fact-checking abilities and improved their Media and Information Literacy - MIL. Access to new literacy practices is increasingly seen as a basic human right and a necessary condition for social and civic participation in democratic societies. Education, including non-formal learning, is the most powerful vehicle to increase and strengthen critical thinking through adequate media literacy and fast-checking ability in detecting fake news. Educating recipients, the youth trainers in the first place, in which hands lies the ability to raise the awareness among youngsters and to teach them about responsible and critical media consumption, helps in building resilience against discrimination and indoctrination of the fake news, and ensures that everyone uses media in an informed and responsible way. The project ‘’ Youth vs Disinfo’’ aimed at fostering youth media and information literacy (MIL) skills for empowering European youth to critically analyse news and recognize bias, misinformation, and lies. Main objectives: • fostering young people’s Internet literacy, creating awareness of intentional misinformation, enabling young people to identify “fake news” and to avoid them • To raise awareness of participants of media education in the context of fake news in youth organisations • To share and compare the realities among participating countries in the field of Fake news • To allow a systematic approach to digital literacy for young people and use a knowledge-based fact-checking system to recognize bias, spin, misinformation, and lies • thinking about Information and Media and think critically in the Age of ‘Fake News’ • To equip them with skills that will enhance their professional and personal development. We aimed to develop critical thinking and creative thinking skills in our youth. In addition, with non formal education our participants were able to think among themselves, to be aware of daily life problems and to produce solutions, to question, to change and to innovation. We wanted to develop digital skills to increase the sense of curiosity towards science.

Project partners (5)