Our project is concerned with online vigilance and online monitoring of content for truthtfulness. It is addressed to three primary groups: teenagers, seniors and students studying pedagogy and education. The internet and social media usage is increasingly common, however the EU Kids Online study from 2018 has concluded that the youth is not properly trained at school on how to safely use the medium. Most of the respondents assessed their competences in researching and verifying information as low. The second group, seniors, continue to increase their participation in the online life, but according to the research we have commissioned, they lack knowledge necessary to identify true information and recognize the “fake news” phenomenon. The third group, students of pedagogy and education, has been chosen due to the future role it will play in educating others.

We will conduct 30 workshops in high schools and primary schools, 10 workshops for students interested in media education and 10 meetings for seniors. Our participants will come from all over Poland and will be selected through a recruitment process. Our project meetings will be concerned with increasing competences in verifying online content and recognizing trustworthy sources of information. Additionally, we will organize five webinars for teachers, librarians, and educators on how to teach the youth to check and select information online. We will also conduct a six-months educational campaign to combat fake news and promote searching for trustworthy sources of information. Videos, infographics and a mini-textbook will be created as part of the campaign effort. We will also train 20 volunteers on fact-checking and fake news, and we will publish a series of podcasts discussing these issues. Trainees will prepare 300 analyses of speeches by public figures which will be published on demagog.org.pl.