Countering disinformation: German style

Make sure to read this mapping guide that compiles the most prominent organisations promoting media literacy and civic education in that country

As far as societies go, the European is a heterogenous, colourful and complex one, given the variety of languages, histories and political contexts. Inevitably, this is also reflected in the way the media landscapes have evolved and even in the way disinformation spreads or is countered locally.

With that in mind, here is a handy downloadable manual for decoding the German approach to boosting media literacy. It comes in the form of a mapping guide, compiled by the Alliance 4 Europe (A4E) association, as part of the Read Twice (R2) pan-European project.

R2 has the goal to boost the capacity of young Eastern European media practitioners to recognize and limit the spread of disinformation by learning know-how from authoritative German and Portuguese organisations.

The German approach is best described as comprehensive

This mapping guide comes as a companion piece to the manual published by Lusofona University, which details the anti-disinfo organizations working in Portugal.

What’s cool and grabs the attention of the A4E publication is that it clearly demonstrates how German society and institutions have organized around the issue of tackling disinformation. The 11 organizations and their initiatives presented range from government to trade unions, and from civic associations to the media sphere.

In short, the quest to ensure a better-informed society and citizens rests as the responsibility of all actors in all walks of life. It’s not just about simple fact-checking, but it is combined with a larger insistence on having a highly educated society that can meet the challenges of the future.

The Read Twice project is co-funded by the European Union under the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) program of the European Commission. It is coordinated by Euro Advance Association (Bulgaria) and on top of Lusofona University (Portugal), it involves Se Poate Association (Romania), Udruga Echo (Croatia) and Alliance4Europe (Germany) as partners.