Combatting fake news in social media

Background According to Eurodesk (2018), young Europeans of 15-29 years spend an increasing amount of their time-consuming digital media from social media applications to have fun, learn, make friends, and be informed about the news. However, research shows that the most popular false information pieces on social media attract more attention than real ones, while false and inaccurate information spreads widely and quickly across the web, reaching out to a large population via social media (Kumar & Shah, 2018). According to a study by the Directorate General for Communications and Technology, the spread of news that intentionally misleads readers has become an increasing challenge for the functioning of our democracies, affecting people’s understanding of reality. For this reason, the Commission’s Work Programme 2018, an agenda for a more united, stronger and more democratic Europe, countering fake news is one of the proposals for Europe’s Digital Single Market. Importantly, COVID-19 is grinding much of society to a halt, young people have entered uncharted territory. Objectives The project’s objectives are to: 1. Educate and support youth workers and trainers’ acquisition of media literacy competencies by developing learning resources and innovative tools using non-formal education. 2. Empower young people's capacity to use media literacy strategies for spotting fake news, and make responsible choices about the world of news around them 3. Inspire youth workers and youth organizations to integrate the strategic use of ICT tools and open-source software in youth education, training and youth systems to combat disinformation and fake news 4. Enhance young people’s skills such as critical thinking, communication, and digital skills, with the use of innovative digital tools and resources 5. Increase the quality of youth work in Europe by modernizing the teaching practices of youth workers through the use of innovative approaches that are in line with young people's daily habits and needs. Implementation The following activities were implemented in the project: Coordination meetings for the project’s coordinators from each partner organisation to steer, monitor and evaluate the project activities. Developing intellectual outputs of the SPOTit Handbook, MOOC for Combatting fake news and Digital Escape Rooms to address the key competencies and skills of media literacy, fake news and vlogging. Also, develop a series of videos that will teach young generations how to debug fake news that they encounter online Multiplier events performed by the partner organizations in each of the project participating countries, for sharing of information about the SPOTit project. Achievements The project had 4 main outputs: 1. SPOTit - Training package - The SPOTit handbook 2. MOOC for Combatting fake news 3. 6 Digital Escape Rooms 4. 13 Videos about fake news, media literacy and vlogging.