DOMINOES project addresses the digital transformation the ecosystem of news media is undergoing. It supports increasing the digital capabilities of the higher education sector and contributes to innovation in higher education and vocational training.
The project’s overall objective is to reduce societal polarization by combating fake news and online disinformation in two target groups: university professors employed by the partner universities/civil society trainers and M.A. students in the three partner universities.
In this educational space, you have free access to more than 70 Open Educational Resources created within the Erasmus+ DOMINOES project (DOMINOES – 2021-1-RO01-KA220-HED-000031167) to improve students' and teachers' media and information literacy. to strengthen their resilience to the current disinformation ecosystem.
The OER was developed in collaboration between: “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy (MVNIA) – Romania, Ciberimaginario Research Group of the University Rey Juan Carlos– - Spain, L-Università ta’ Malta, and New Strategic Centre – Romania.
In this first section we examine current trends in the information environment, the development of mainstream media and social media and how they affect the way citizens access information and the types of information they are exposed to. It also examines how narratives can be used in disinformation and propaganda campaigns, paying particular attention to the increasing prevalence of conspiracy theories. Another important topic that will be explored is the novel approach of using intelligence in strategic communication to set the right framework for understanding current social developments.
In this second section, we will focus on aggravating factors for the spread of disinformation, such as individual and group factors, the role of influencers and pseudo-analysts, societal factors, and technological factors, to better understand how they interact to facilitate the spread of disinformation and provide the framework for analysing the best approaches to counter or limit its impact and effectiveness.
The third section looks at the best-known and most widely used methods of curbing the spread of disinformation. First, it examines the discursive, argumentative and narrative mechanisms that make disinformation attractive to audiences, and second, it explores the advantages and possible disadvantages of critical thinking, media literacy, debunking, fact-checking and prebunking as the most commonly used and recommended means of combating disinformation.
This section presents an overview of technological solutions, both existing and emerging, that could be employed to counter disinformation. The chapter introduces the technological solutions for spotting, flagging and removing disinformation as well as serious game solutions which are designed to prepare and train citizens to recognise it and thus limit its negative impact. The last section of the chapter explores the limitations that technology has with respect to identifying disinformation attempts.
This section employs active learning methods with the aim that students apply the competences acquired in previous sections. Participants will be exposed to several role-playing simulation exercises with different objectives, including the production of a debunking piece, producing digital content using generative AI, and will be facing different scenarios involving decision-making.
By reflecting on the specific individual and in-group experiences enabled by simulations/gaming, participants will critically reflect on concepts, practices, technologies and countermeasures to disinformation.