Read Twicе: Romanian partner concludes university seminars on media literacy

Se Poate Association led the training sessions in several cities and engaged over 150 young people

The university stage of the Read Twice project has successfully wrapped up. This became a fact after Se Poate Association (Romania) became the third partner to conclude all of its university trainings, using the peer-to-peer educational approach.

Se Poate's events targeted youth groups just like Euro Advance (Bulgaria) and Echo Udruga (Croatia) associations, which held their local activities earlier this year.

The peer-to-peer approach involved university workshops led by young people who had participated in capacity-building events on fake news detection and resistance to the negative effects of disinformation. The capacity workshops took place in March and April, in Berlin in Porto, respectively.

Armed with knowledge, skills and many new connections, the young participants returned to their home countries to spread the newly acquired mastery.

Se Poate organised several local events across different locations: on 17 May in Sinaia, on 5 July in Rosieri de Vede, and on 4 and 21 August in Bucharest.  These sessions had the goals of making participants more aware of the ways disinformation impacts democracy and equipping them with the skills to analyze online content critically to combat fake news.

The trainings comprised five informative and interactive sessions, including discussions, group activities, and insight from young media professionals.

Assessing media literacy education needs in Romania

Furthermore, the non-profit organisation conducted a comprehensive assessment of the need to have media literacy education in Romania, with regards to the current situation in the country. Se Poate produced a report that primarily focuses on the requirements of different target groups regarding media literacy education and their readiness to address the threat of disinformation.

This assessment involved an online survey among the target groups, stakeholder interviews and extensive research on the current best practices.

The needs assessments highlighted important findings about young people in Romania and fake news. For example:

• Many are concerned about fake news but lack the skills to spot or combat it;
• Few people have formal media literacy training;
• Social media is their main news source, making them vulnerable to fake news;
• They want more reliable information sources and media transparency;
• Solutions include better media literacy education and media regulation;
• Recommendations: Add media literacy to school curricula, train educators, and support media professionals;
• Promote critical thinking and fact-checking through public campaigns to help combat fake news.

READ TWICE is a project that aims to counter disinformation and limit the spread of fake news by enhancing citizens` skills to critically assess information, identify vicious and harmful media content and distinguish between facts and opinions, thus improving their media literacy competencies. The project has received funding under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) of the European Union, Grant Agreement 101081326.