A youth take-over! A girl power episode! What more to ask for? Three young communication professionals from Greece take central stage in this week’s episode, discussing anything and everything that can assist in making younger generations more aware of the disinformation traps around them. From media literacy and media education to pop culture, memes, more authentic social media content, gamification and peer-to-peer interaction, we look into ways of adding “more cheese to the broccoli” and making tackling misinformation part of the cool culture.
Participants:
Katerina Beli, Political communication strategist
Marianna Tanagia, Communications Director at DCN Global
Jelina Makrantonaki, Journalist
Betty Tsakarestou, Associate Professor and Head of ADandPRLAB at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
Nikos Panagiotou, Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Media Communications of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece & President of DCN Global
Moderator: Aurra Kawanzaruwa, Manager of DCN AFRICA
Outstanding quotes:
“It could be effective if we add media literacy and media education curricula into primary schools. The sooner the better!” – Marianna Tanagia
“We need to take into account that children today are digital natives. We don't need to help them on how to use social media or the internet, but to teach them how to filter what they are learning through these channels and how to use social media in an efficient and impactful way.” – Katerina Beli
“Young people tend to love content that is user generated, a more authentic content. So, micro-influencers and peer to peer interactions can be more effective in promoting a culture of understanding how misinformation and disinformation works.” – Katerina Beli
“We need to be creative and make the fact checking experience something cool if we want the young communicators to take part on this journey. We need to add more cheese (fun stuff like pop culture, memes, social media) to the broccoli that is stuff that appear too stiff or boring. Maybe we need a re-branding of the word misinformation!” – Marianna Tanagia
“We need to give back the credibility that the institutions have in order to validate the information. They are supposed to do the cross-checking examination and, most importantly, we need to teach people to be more patient, teach them to slow down and think twice before sharing and reposting information on their profiles.” - Jelina Makrantonaki
DisinfoHacks Project is an innovative training program that brings together partners expertise, engaging an ecosystem of communication and media stakeholders, startup innovators and influencers in identifying, assessing, and combating disinformation." Organized by DCN Global, #ADandPRLAB, YET, funded by U.S. Department of State and U.S. Mission in Greece, supported by Found.ation and SocialInnov.