“Fake news is anything but self-explanatory. It extends far beyond news itself and exists in numerous formats such as rumors, lies, hoaxes, bunk, satire, parody, misleading content, impostor content, fabricated content, and manipulated content.”
– Nolan Higdon – The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education
This guidebook integrates the outlined methodological approach and the thematic focus on combating disinformation, promoting media literacy, and enhancing socio-political activism among young European citizens.
In an era defined by rapid technological advancement and the pervasive influence of digital media, the phenomenon of fake news has emerged as a formidable challenge to democratic integrity and public discourse. Misinformation and disinformation are not just buzzwords, they are active threats that distort truth, polarize societies, and impede informed decision-making. Media literacy is the ability to decode media messages, including the systems in which they exist, assess their influence on thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and create media thoughtfully and conscientiously, according to Media Literacy Now[1], an advocacy group that tracks and drives the subject’s implementation in schools across the United States.
The European Commission[2] defined the word “disinformation” as “false, inaccurate, or misleading information, presented and promoted to obtain revenue or intentionally cause public harm”, while other authors[3] point out that “fake news” has been chosen as word of the year in British dictionaries such as Collins and Oxford in 2017, which define it as false, often sensationalist, information disseminated under the guise of news.
Recognizing the critical need to address these issues, the EAF project was launched with the dual aim of bolstering media literacy and fostering active citizenship among young Europeans.
[1] https://medialiteracynow.org/challenge/what-is-media-literacy/
[2] European Commission. A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Desinformation. Report of the High Level Experts Group on Fake News and Online Desinformation. 2018. Available online: http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/document.cfm?doc_id=50271
[3] https://www.politico.eu/article/collins-dictionary-picks-fake-news-as-word-of-the-year/
