Enhancing critical thinking and media literacy by analysing and debunking Europhobic myths

A growing number of people use the internet to stay informed and share millions of posts, articles, and videos across platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The rapid adoption of social media has led to a rise of sharing information among users and made fake news as well as misinformation and disinformation a huge component of our digital daily routines.

Fake news, disinformation, and misinformation

Fake news is a factually incorrect, fabricated information created on purpose in order to manipulate public opinion. This kind of stories are made up to either influence people’s views, push a political agenda or cause confusion in the society. Disinformation is 'verifiably false or misleading information created, presented and disseminated for economic gain or to intentionally deceive the public'. Misinformation is verifiably false information spread without the specific intention to mislead, and usually shared because the user believes it to be true.

 

Although we insist to know quite a lot of tools for modelling the spread Fake News, the fact is that targeted disinformation campaigns spreading fabricated information are on the rise in Europe. The spread of both disinformation and misinformation as well as fake news and myths about EU can have a range of consequences, such as threatening European democracies, polarizing debates, and putting the health, security and environment of EU citizens at risk.

What is MEGA?

“MEGA – Make Europe great again” is a project aimed at enhancing critical thinking and media literacy of young people by analysing and debunking Europhobic myths.

To this end, the MEGA consortium has developed a Train-the-Trainer course to address Europhobia in an informal, playful way in youth clubs and other places where young people meet. The course addresses youth workers, trainers, facilitators and other relevant stakeholders that offer services and training for young people.

The 3-day course was piloted with 21 participants in the first two weeks of July.

MEGA Training Course

The MEGA training was organised in a blended learning format consisting of three components: Self-study phase inaugurated by a joint webinar, 3-day training course facilitated by Zoom and the follow-up phase.

 

Following the webinar, the participants were given access to the on-line MEGA platform, where several learning resources are available for consultation, to assure a common level of technical knowledge on the topic of myths and Europhobia as well as the used methodology & technology to unmask fake news. It also introduced the participants into using the gamified platform itself.

 

During the three days of the training (5th, 8th and 13th of July 2021), youth workers from six different countries got together online in order to discuss EU myths spread in their countries and the effective tools for overcoming already existed as well as potential issues caused by Fake News, Disinformation and Misinformation spreading in EU. Participants were introduced to the benefits of gamified learning and experimented both online and face-to-face gamified methods as tools to strengthen young people in spotting the fake news rejecting Europhobic myths and to build up their confidence as ambassadors of the European idea among their peers.

 

Youth workers were equipped with tools for combating Europhobia and got familiar with some aspects of the social, psychological, political and economic background of how Europhobia may be born. They also gained flexibility in terms of using various learning methods, so that they are able to adapt their knowledge and practice to different socioeconomic settings. They also challenged themselves in playing as well as creating different games such as online quizzes and stories (similar to “Dark Stories” and ”Escape room”) based on EU-myths and stereotypes and managed to adapt and combine those games with the content of the course.

 

Here is an example of one of the created dark stories based on the myth that driving licences need to be renewed every five years in the EU.

Next Steps

After the virtual training course, there will be a follow-up phase in which participants shall implement (elements of) MEGA training in their daily activities with young people in their own country. The participants will be offered the opportunity to continue to network, report on their activities and share experiences in the delivering of their activities in dedicated webinars or in the Forum of the online platform.

Partners

Would you like to know more about MEGA
or learn more about the ongoing activities?

About MEGA

 

MEGA - Make Europe Great Again is a two-year project funded by the Erasmus+ Programme

 

Project Number 2019-3-DE04-KA205-018681

 

Date of project: 01/02/2020 – 31/01/2022

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