Media Education and News Literacy to yoUth against FAke news recepTion and implicatiOnS

<< Background >>FATOS2U aims at enabling young people with critical thinking enhancement and media literacy among them to strengthen democracy and fight manipulation, propaganda and fake news, as well as civic and responsible participation through fake news combat on issues of major social interest (e.g. such as COVID-19) Fake News and disinformation have been spotted as a recent societal challenge- as declared in Wikipedia, it is a term just mentioned in 2017- putting at risk the personal perceptions and social reflections of the society members concerning also a high number of issues, such as democracy and human rights, attitudes and reactions towards migration and diversity, EU active citizenship, etc. As a phenomenon, it is having a bigger impact than ever before as it is easier for anyone to post and share any news or information online, since social media and online platforms play an important role in speeding up the spread of such news by enabling a global reach without much effort from the author (Buckingham 2014, Potter 2013).In this context, the exposure of young citizens to large scale disinformation, including misleading or outright false information, is a major challenge for Europe. On the one, we have the undoubted need for looking into the challenges the online platforms create for our societies with the spreading of fake information and initiate a reflection on what would be needed at EU level to protect our citizens; on the other, fake news as a serious problem, can be confronted via media literacy and awareness for key principles as vital tools to address the spread of fake news online. Specifically, nowadays, with the major challenges and adversities our societies are confronted with (corona virus, social cohesion issues, etc), such initiatives are more necessary than before. FATOS2U is built and contextualized on the following premises: -Media & news literacy, as the youth’s capacity to access, to have a critical understanding of, and to interact with the media, has never been as important as in today's society-Media & news literacy is the channel or even the presupposition for right decisions and perceptions in regards with major and serious societal challenges, social situations, mass problems in the local or worldwide community, such as the recent COVID 19 pandemic, international tensions, etc -Media & news literacy is a tool and at the same time a pre-requisite for a vibrant, modern democracy perpetrated by human rights values -A high level of media literacy is a key factor to enable young citizens to make informed decisions in the digital age and the subsequent measurement for the development of relative skills contributes in the youth empowerment against Fake news reception and implications FATOS2U addresses in a meaningful approach the enablement of young people against fake news reception & implications through media education & news literacy, and subsequently their needs:a)the young persons- youth aged 18-25- who are brought up and belong to this generation and era of digital and technological boom- who will be educated on the proper use of media, and thus, social media, too and the anti-Fake news approaches FATOS2U corresponding to the needs for more media literacy & news literacy due also to the contemporary speed of news and information with cases of dis-information and fake news, provides them with effective, youth-centered training and materials b) accordingly, the youth leaders/workers who will undertake the role/ responsibilities of trainings: FATOS2U meets their needs for enhanced youth work, youth guidance and training activities offer; they are called to contribute through their work, teaching practices, and guidance to their youth-audience empowerment for the risks and implications the digital media/news media may have<< Objectives >>FATOS2U promotes critical thinking enhancement and media & news literacy among young people to strengthen democracy and fight manipulation, propaganda and fake news. The recent social challenges and the urgent health and economical situations – with the covid 19 pandemic- creating multiple public and individual behaviors, continuous information and progressive changes, have set this concrete need for further media and news literacy among young citizens, who may be more affected (as frequent also users of the media) than the rest of the citizens regarding reactions and right behaviors towards the huge amounts of news/informationIn this context, the FATOS2U objectives to be met are:a) To enable youth to properly and ‘ethically’ navigate the modern news environment and take informed decisionsb) To empower young people and to raise their awareness on countering the effects of disinformation campaigns and fake news spreading through digital media on issues of major and dominant interest of our society c) To foster youth’s critical appreciation and understanding of the mass media inside a changing and increasingly complex media & news landscape d) To define a clear and comprehensive training approach for tackling the spread and impact of online fake news in Europe, protecting European values and democratic systems and the right of youth to diverse and reliable information in regards with current situations e) To set users-youth responsibilities according to a number of principles & in response with the specific roles of different actors (social platforms, news media and users, language used, etc) Furthermore, FATOS2U is implemented to practically contribute to the ERASMUS+ 2021 priorities: a)Common values, civic engagement and participationIn general, FATOS2U through the targeted training (and dissemination) activities will provide young citizens for strengthening their sense against Fake News and will support them with the media skills building, enhancing in this way participation of young people in civic life, right news reflections and reactions. The project due to this priority supports active citizenship, critical thinking, media literacy, manipulation, propaganda & fake news fight knowledge as well as understanding of the complex media landscape; it attempts also to enable EU young citizens to make informed decisions and understand what is real and what notb) Increasing quality, innovation and recognition of youth workFATOS2U also targets youth workers, youth educators, who are called to contribute through their work, teaching practices, and guidance to their youth-audience empowerment for the risks and implications the digital media/news media may have<< Implementation >>FATOS2U includes all the essential activities for the targeted implementation reaching the objectives OF YOUTH EDUCATION as set, implemented at both local/national and transnational level and fulfilling the transnational character of an EU project. The project applies at all means in its context the activities of enabling young people against fake news reception & implications through media education and news literacy The activities which are going to be implemented are:a)production of research and training materials targeting youth/young citizens (curriculum & material resources)b)production of handbook with training guidelines for youth workers and youth educators c)creation and development of digital resources, elearning platform, gamesd)workshops and seminars, where the FATOS2U outputs and materials are practically presented e)communication and dissemination actions targeting participants at individual and organizational level (young citizens, youth workers, youth educators, youth centers leaders, youth education providers, experts, media educators, media literacy experts, public/private authorities etc) raising awareness actionsf)a final European conferenceg)learning/teaching/training activities for staff capacity building in the youth education sector The project activities follow the framework of: -the new ERASMUS 2021 Annual Work Program -the EU Youth Strategy, the Erasmus+ actions supported in 2021 under the Youth Strand for the implementation of the Council Resolution on the Framework for establishing a European Youth Work Agenda-the European Education Area (https://ec.europa.eu/education/education-in-the-eu/european-education-area_en) and the EU YOUTH STRATEGY 2019-2027, where ‘in today’s world, young people need a broad set of skills and competences to become independent, engaged citizens’ with digital skills and critical thinking to be among the competences European citizens (and young) should be provided with-the MANDATE OF THE EXPERT GROUP ON DIGITILIZATION & YOUTH, on the risks, opportunities, & implications of digitalization for youth, youth work, and youth policy in which the term ‘digital native’ falsely suggests that young people intuitively know how to use digital media while on the other, youth workers and youth educators should be empowered in a meaningful way how to support digital & media literacy for young people enabling them to deal with some of the associated risks<< Results >>Through the implementation the following results are expected: 1.short-term results: young people will be enabled to properly and ‘ethically’ navigate the news environment and will be empowered on countering and recognizing the disinformation elements, towards the right estimation of the social situations, public cases, civic (or health) risks, proper reflections and reactions 2.long-term results: European values and democratic systems as well as the right of youth to diverse and reliable information will have been protected and the youth will have been strengthened with a clear and comprehensive approach for ‘tackling’ the content and impact of fake news at local, national, European and round the world level Additionally, FATOS2U partnership will have developed the following results in a coordinated framework of implementation/scientific/dissemination levels delivering them during and at its completion:a) The FATOS2U Curriculum and Learning Materials Toolkit, a specific curriculum and Toolkit with distinguishing methodology, pedagogical youth approaches and specialized modules for the effective realization of the objectives b) The Multifunctional Digital Resources and the subsequent digital learning environment including the online platform, e-learning courses and the mobile application, all of them of innovative character, multimedia content, interactive structure. c) The Training Guidelines Handbook targettingr the youth workers, youth educators d) Development of the logo: the dissemination leader will develop the project logo, which will be the FATOS2U’s trade mark and visual identity.e) Distribution of at least 1000 project leaflets: a project leaflet which will include the project overview, objectives, partners and funding agency, as well as project upcoming activities and importance for target groups and stakeholders. f) The FATOS2U to be communicated to at least 30,000 organizations and experts (mailing lists of the consortium): The consortium of partners have an extended network of youth organizations, public and private bodies and experts related to the themes of the project g) Partners will secure and support the integration of FATOS2U components in YOUTH training centres which will offer it to their respective countries.WHAT we need to highlight here is the complementary also character of FATOS2U project to any other projects/ initiatives/actions related to youth empowerment, digital skills for youth, social media and proper exploitation, etc; FATOS2U, its digital environment and content, can be also used in any youth training centre which is specialized on the fields above, something which provides our effort with an added value as well h) 500 users to access the FATOS2U Online Platform by the end of the project: The FATOS2U online digital components will be extensively disseminated by all partners and are expected to attract more visitors by the completion of the project.i) 21 press releases (at least) by all partners: Each partner will disseminate to its network at least 3 press releases on important milestones of the project (i.e. beginning of the project, launching of the project website, completion of the project outputs). j) 84 news items to be published: Each partner will contribute at least 12 news items to be uploaded to the FATOS2U website related to the project and themes linked to the project. k) Social Media pages of FATOS2ULast, the FATOS2U at the management/administration level will provide the following results:• Project Management Toolkit •Quality Assurance & Evaluation Plan •Evaluation Reports •Dissemination and Sustainability Plan