Critical Thinkers

Critical Thinkers

The digital age has brought with it a wealth of new technologies, opening doors to a world in which information and knowledge can be shared in an instant and with no limit. These new information highways represent a great opportunity to gain access to knowledge, but we need to be able to guarantee that the information shared is reliable. Today, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the volume of information shared and lose track of the source. We all contribute to this constant flow of new data and add to the information overload, especially through social media. In this inundation of information, it is more and more difficult to discern the truth from the false; reliable, verified and up to date facts from fraudulent information, errors in reporting, rumors or even lies. We must be equipped with a critical eye.
The actual situation in which we are living – being in lockdown and living with a pandemic, had generated even more fake news and propaganda. Spreading disinformation and misinformation about COVID-19, though not always a criminal offence, has very serious repercussions, endangering public health and directly affecting people’s lives. So far, hundreds of cases of disinformation have been reported since the outbreak. False facts about the origin of the virus, about the inability of the European Union to fight it, about its impending collapse, about infighting between its institutions and member-states, about secret conspiracies of elites against citizens.  
The objectives of our project are:
O1: Develop the skills of 36 young people during 9 days of activities to better identify fake news and spread awareness among local communities about how to deal with social media and news platforms through non-formal education activities;
O2. develop the critical thinking and critical attitude of 36 young people by questioning information and the reliability of its sources and put it into practice in their relationship with different forms of media and information
O3. 36 young people from 6 European countries will learn how media works, what rules should be observed when writing a news story, how to distinguish false news, and how to avoid propaganda and manipulation in media through non-formal activities during 9 days of mobility and 3 months of dissemination.