• Priority Area Boosting Fact-checking Activities in Europe
• Funding Round / Action Types 4th Funding Round – Urgent Actions
• Year 2023, 2024
• Country Italy
• Project Status Ongoing

With this project, Biblioteche Senza Frontiere (BSF) and Data Ninja will settle five fact-checking newsrooms as an integral part of BSF “emergency multicultural and multicultural libraries” in Italian suburban schools for 6 months. The contemporary challenges linked to information disorder, emphasized during emergencies, and the exponential evolution of technology generating and manipulating visual and text information, determine an urgent need for the definition of educational strategies – above all for those who are overwhelmed by emotional burden due to war conflicts and forced migration. Through a cross-sectoral approach – based on a consortium which combines expertises in journalism, software development, pedagogical engineering and cultural mediation – these newsrooms will allow 3000 Ukrainian and Italian children (aged 10-18), 3000 parents and 125 teachers, to better understand the infosphere and the informational process as a main base for democracy, inclusion and participation. The methodology includes: i) lectures by subject matter experts; ii) interactive fact checking labs through an innovative training and debunking software; iii) a fake-news investigation within the current emergency of the Ukrainian crisis. The main goal is to develop knowledge, competences and skills raising young citizens’ awareness on the importance of the process leading “from information to knowledge”. Other goals are: foster critical thinking against stereotyping, cultural and social bias, political distortion, emotional manipulation; reduce the digital divide through increasing awareness of “web traps” and training the ability to recognize reliable sources through digital tools; develop intercultural education and social bonds.