The purpose of the event, which took place on February 28th in Warsaw, was primarily to discuss the steps related to counteracting disinformation, media education, citizens’ resistance and strategic communication.
Media literacy and critical thinking are invariably cited as the most urgent needs to effectively combat the impact of manipulated information on citizens. Raising awareness from an early age has a positive impact on the strengthening of society’s resilience, despite the fact that there is no distinguished group that is the most susceptible to manipulation. It is important to build the competences of fact-checking. Particular attention was paid to the fact that media education should be comprehensively covered by journalists, including journalism students.
Therefore, the conclusion is that we need systemic solutions. Although grassroots initiatives have a considerable impact on raising awareness of threats connected to the fake-news, the effectiveness of organized activities contributes to the increase in trust in public institutions. This is the reason why the coordinated cooperation of central administration and local governments with other institutions dealing with the subject of counteracting disinformation is so important.
Read the full summary [download]
Find out more about the project.