Media Literacy & Combating Disinformation Online Training
The application is open!
Fact check now! ESC - Emotions, Source, Claim.
Take part in the free Media Literacy Project to learn how to read media messages. Protect yourself from fake news and make a change in your community.
Disinformation is the deliberate creation and dissemination of false and/or manipulated information that is intended to deceive and mislead audiences, either for the purposes of causing harm or for political, personal or financial gain. False information manipulates public perceptions. It creates scapegoats, normalizes prejudice, creates us vs. them mentalities, justifying violence. It reduces public trust in legitimate media institutions, negatively affects public opinion and electoral discourse, and enables inflammatory ideas to become part of the public conversation, becoming treated as fact, which can distort election campaigns, for example, and is dangerous for democracies and rule of law in Poland.
This project aims to reduce the impact of disinformation campaigns on Polish society and increase public confidence in identifying valid information, equipping people to make educated, rational decisions that strengthen public trust in media institutions and uphold democratic processes.
Goals of the project:
Improve media literacy among key leaders, future leaders, and the general public
Increase the number of leaders who believe they have a responsibility to combat dis/misinformation and deliver dis/misinformation workshops, webinars, and social media campaigns
Increase number of people receiving disinformation training (around 60 TOT-trained trainers reach thousands through webinars and estimated thousands through SM campaigns)
Weaken power of dis/misinformation in Poland; increase the power of legitimate media institutions and improve access to valid information
At the end of the TOT, trainees will be able to:
Define and speak authoritatively about Media Literacy and Dis/Misinformation with experts, peers, and participants of all ages (from youth to adults)
Deliver webinars, workshops social media campaigns on Media Literacy and Dis/Misinformation (including recruitment of participants, advertising, delivery of training content, feedback, evaluation)
Incorporate lessons learned into future sessions
Produce quality social media posts using web-based tools (e.g., Canva) for storytelling/persuasion
…you will also learn to:
Recognize various types of Dis/Misinformation and identify common techniques
Determine whether fact-checking is necessary based on ESC (emotion, source, and claim)
Apply fact-checking techniques used by professional fact-checkers to verify information online
Understand the role of personal responsibility, critical reading, and fact-checking before sharing information
Use knowledge and session handouts to educate others
An important aspect of the project is to spread the acquired knowledge among the community.
Participants will be required to do the follow-up action. During the training, there will be a module related to project management.
What does it mean?
The project is a “Training of trainers” model and its goal is to educate participants willing to spread their knowledge when the training is over. We want participants to gain a better understanding of Media Literacy and share it with others. The workshops will be held in English but all the trainees will be provided with English and Polish materials to use in the future. It’s up to individuals if they want to organize a big meeting or bring the topic to the local community.
When the workshops will be delivered?
You have 2 options - chose the one that works best for you!
Option I - April 12-30, 2021
Zoom sessions twice a week:
Monday, 12 of April
Wednesday, 14 of April
Monday, 19 of April
Wednesday, 21 of April
Monday, 26 of April
Wednesday, 28 of April
All the sessions will be held between 17:00 and 18:30.
Option II - May 10-28, 2021
Zoom sessions twice a week:
Monday, 10 of May
Wednesday, 12 of May
Monday, 17 of May
Wednesday, 19 of May
Monday, 24 of May
Wednesday, 26 of May
All the sessions will be held between 17:00 and 18:30.
How much time does it take?
a number of training hours: 12h (training hour is 45 min.)
estimated number of hours of individual work: 6h
Option III - October 25 - November 4, 2021
The workshops will be held in Polish. Zoom sessions twice a week:
Monday, 25 of October
Thursday, 28 of October
Tuesday, 2 of November
Thursday, 4 of November
All the sessions will take place in the afternoons.
How much time does it take?
the number of training hours: 8h (training hour is 45 min.)
estimated number of hours of individual work: 4h
The fall training sessions will be conducted by employees of the American Councils in Warsaw: Sylwia Zysek and Piotr Dobrosz.
Meet the trainers from the spring sessions!
Seth Compton - Director of Aardvark Arts, an actor, a teacher, and a cultural producer. He has worked in theater companies from New York to Los Angeles and London to Wroclaw. Seth moved to Poland to train and work with the critically acclaimed ensemble Teatr Pieśń Kozła. Now he is the director of an arts organization Aardvark Arts, is bootstrapping a children's museum, opened a family library of world books, directs a youth Shakespeare festival in the park, and runs a creative summer arts program. He also teaches drama, media, and film for grades 6-12. In 2018 Seth received a stipend from Poland’s Ministry of Culture (MKiDN) for cultural animation. He is also the recipient of NextGen grants in 2011 and 2012 from the Center for Cultural Innovation.
Elizabeth Peck - is a dedicated storyteller, educator, and entrepreneur with a wide range of experience in the fields of marketing, outreach, administration, and education in the public and private sectors. She is passionate about civic engagement and intercultural communication and focused on collaborative and innovative approaches to problem-solving. She spent several years studying music and Russian at a university in New Mexico. She lived in Russia for two years and studied language and ecology. She was also a teacher and editor-in-chief of “Scribendi”, a regional student publication on literature. With an interest in politics and rural development, Elizabeth worked in the Washington D.C. Department of Rural Policy where she developed an interest in history as a way of using strategic decision-making strategies for society.
When the training is completed, all the participants will receive a certificate.
Media Literacy & Combating Disinformation Online Training is funded by U.S. Embassy Warsaw and administered by American Councils for International Education.
Applications for the autumn edition of the workshops in Polish are now open!
To participate in the recruitment please fil out the application form.
Application will be available by October 17, 2021.
How to apply?
Got to the application form.
Fill out the application form which consists of personal data and answer open-ended questions, on this basis participants will be selected.
The application is sent only after you confirm its completion by clicking “submit” at the end of the form.
Information about the results will be sent to all applicants after October 17, when recruitment is over.
Participants
The project is aimed at all age and professional groups. We also invite high school or university students and adults who would like to expand their knowledge and professional qualifications in the project’s subject.
Selection process
We especially invite people socially involved, as well as employees and volunteers of NGOs who are interested in the topic of disinformation and Media Literacy who want to spread knowledge on this subject in Poland. Participants will be selected based on the responses provided in the application form, taking into account their motivation to participate in the workshops and ideas for using the acquired knowledge in educating Poles about Media Literacy in the future. In each training cycle, the group will consist of around 25 people.