Detecting, deconstructing and combating FAKE NEWS

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Our partners:

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Project coordinator:

Kallion lukio

Helsinki

Finland

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Gymnasium in den Filder benden

Moers

Germany

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Hungarian Project Leader:

Katalin Lőrincz

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Development of the professional part of the project:

Ádám Lajtai, Sándor Török

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The summary of the project:

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The line between information and disinformation is thinner than ever. Marking the difference between real news and fake news requires new skills that are not necessarily taught in schools as a part of their regular program. Social media is an important source of information particularly for the younger generation. In social media, not only texts and images but also videos are spread. Some of them are like a petri dish for fake news or even hate speech. To combat fake news or disinformation one has to be critical, check all the facts and think before sharing. This is easy to say but proves to be harder to comply with.

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Disinformation is spread by individuals, groups or even governments. Their aims vary a lot. Some individuals do it as a dangerous pastime activity, sometimes a group tries to have more supporters for their ideology by spreading fake news or disinformation and sometimes we can see foreign governments behind it. Sometimes disinformation is spread in the hope of financial gain. In most severe cases the idea of disinformants is to meddle in public discussion or even elections as we have seen in the past. Some governments have build actual troll factories, which produce large amounts of fake accounts and fake news.

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This project aims to teach students aged 16 to 19 from three different European schools (Kallion lukio, Helsinki, Finland, Gymnasium in den Filder benden, Moers, Germany and Budapest II. Kerületi Szabó Lörinc Kéttannyelvü Általános Iskola és Gimnázium, Budapest, Hungary) how to detect and combat fake news. It combines academic program with international workshops both online and in real life. Our aim is to use expert lectures as background information, but most of the work will be conducted by the students themselves collaborating in international teams over internet connections and in real life. They will learn about EU core values and realize how fake news often violate human rights. The project will promote EU-awareness, active citizenship and democracy. Students will strengthen their media literacy skills and ICT skills.

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We shall use examples of fake news from various topics and various countries and educate students to be myth busters and fact-checkers, who can then educate their peers. The same disinformation spreading from country to country, as spring 2020 there was disinformation about 5G network's connection with the corona-virus, although this is scientifically impossible. As a result, some people damaged 5G masts in different European countries. We will most likely see more and more similar outcomes of misinformation, disinformation and fake news in the future.

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During the project, we seek to have a discussion with researchers of the topic and policymakers. In the final meeting, we shall visit Brussels and set a meeting with younger MEPs from several countries and our students will have the opportunity to open discussion with them.

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The results of the project will be disseminated via a blog written mainly by the students themselves. They will be encouraged to study news, do fact-checking and to bust myths. Students themselves will be the ones selecting the news and disinformation as project examples. Their language skills will be enhanced as they work in international teams online and three times per year face-to-face. They will learn from other countries and hopefully will recognize that all countries struggle more or less with the same problems. As a result, we will have a program on how to detect and combat fake news that can be used also in other schools.

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Teachers will produce an easy hands-on teaching kit for their colleagues which will also be disseminated via the blog and various national channels (in-service training seminars, teachers' magazines, teacher websites, and teacher discussion groups) including lesson plans and ideas for activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A projektet az Európai Bizottság támogatta. A kiadványban (közleményben) megjelentek nem szükségszerűen tükrözik az Európai Bizottság nézeteit.

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