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Fake news Lies and Propaganda: "Exposing the Truth: Unmasking Fake News in Politics and Climate Change

2025-3-EL02-KA153-YOU-0003819092025Mobility of youth workersongoing
Countries: EL|AL|TR|LV|IT|BG|MA · Grant: €41,260
Media literacy and tackling disinformationQuality and innovation of youth workEnvironment and climate change

Objectives

The intersection of AI and fake news is a growing area of concern and interest. AI can contribute to the spread of fake news by generating contents, by creating deepfake videos or audio that show people saying or doing things they never did. Alternativelly AI systems can be trained to analyze content and detect patterns associated with misinformation,deepfake detection,bot detection. AI can assist human fact-checkers by rapidly cross-referencing claims against databases of verified information .Politics and climate change are particularly concerning because misinformation can undermine efforts to address the democracy and the climate crisis. Some groups have used fake news or misleading information to downplay the urgency of climate change or deny its existence altogether. This has contributed to confusion, delayed action, and public skepticism, especially when false narratives are spread by influential figures or media outlets.This year more than half of humanity will be called to the polls for presidential, parliamentary, regional or municipal elections in 2025 –4.1 billion voters. As we have seen already, a single piece of fake news can completely undermine the integrity of the vote. .Fake news can spread quickly and easily online, influencing young people’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. This can affect their civic engagement and decision-making processes .Schools and organizations are working to educate young people about the dangers of fake news and how to verify information. This includes teaching them to check the legitimacy of websites, sources, and the accuracy of quotes or figures. The democratic mechanisms for combatting this new type of fake news are not ready, but the elections will go ahead. This is why access to reliable, unimpeded and independent news reporting is all the more decisive during election periods. Unfortunately, this access is declining in some countries where journalism has been undermined. Fake news is a significant issue, especially for young people who are frequently online and exposed to a vast amount of information. The diversity of news distributed via social media communication channels exposes citizens, especially youth, to large scale disinformation including misleading and false information.Propaganda, misinformation and Fake news have the potential to polarize public opinion, to promote violent extremism and hate speech and, ultimately, to undetermined democracies and reduce trust in the democratic processes and other important issues such as vaccination and climate change.Fake news about climate change can take many forms, often misleading people or distorting scientific findings to create doubt or confusion. Among the European Union countries, Greece our country is with 44% followed by Hungary with 42% and Italy with 38% about ‘’Fake News’’. According to the same study, 50% of the people with the most counterfeit news are using Facebook as a means of news.When we look at the rate of disinformation in the counterfeit news area and the rate of news reporting on Facebook, we can see how these two events are related to each other. The survey we conducted at the local level revealed how much this is needed. In the survey, 80 people were asked to reach the correct news-lies and to reach the right news, but 53 people use the social media as a tool to reach an up-todate news. Considering the existence of an unconscious young population especially in geographically remote places such as our, it is thought that the right use of the media and the right news is an important need. In this context, we decided to carry out our project due to the increasing number of counterfeit journalism and the high rate of disinformation in our country. Our general goal is to raise awareness of these false news in social media by informing young people about the right and wrong news, and to develop awareness of researching the accuracy of news against the news they see on the internet. Our specific objectives are: 1) Creating awareness on ‘’Fake News’’ concept. 2) Instilling research awareness against the false news they encounter on the Internet or in life. 3) Showing article writing processes to young people. 4) Teaching the concept of ''Fake News''in politics and climate change with various practices, enabling young people to be familiar with this concept. 5) Develope critical thinking 6) Develop media literacy skills 9)Develop digital green skills Our project aims to help participants learn about the use of AI, its tools, and how to use it to recognize and counter the spread of fake news.: -to distinguish the right news from the wrong news from the exposure and influence: from social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. - to develop critical thinking and green digital skils.

Project partners (7)