IM Cultural Institute

Author: network

  • News Literacy and Online News Between Egyptian and Spanish Youth: Fake News, Hate Speech and Trust in the Media

    News Literacy and Online News Between Egyptian and Spanish Youth: Fake News, Hate Speech and Trust in the Media

    An exploratory study reflects on whether citizens can be considered “responsible” in their online news behavior when exposed to harmful content, fake news, and hate speech.

    It aims to position news literacy as a mediating factor in fostering civic responsibility by investigating its role in improving young people’s online news experiences and preparing them to deal with harmful content.

    News literacy is conceptualized as a multi-structural construct composed of motivation, knowledge, and skills. Using a mixed-methods approach, focus group discussions and survey data were combined to examine youths’ online news experiences and assess their levels of news literacy. Youth samples from Egypt and Spain were the empirical basis of the research, allowing for a comparative analysis.

    Results reveal a positive correlation between news literacy and the ability to identify fake news and hate speech, higher engagement with news, greater concern for content accuracy before sharing, and stronger motivation to seek news.

    At the same time, respondents from both countries expressed negative perceptions of professional news media, citing concerns that news organizations are not adequately fulfilling their role as it should be.

    Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.3916/C74-2023-06

    Reference

    Samy-Tayie, S., Tejedor, S., & Pulido, C. (2023). News literacy and online news between Egyptian and Spanish youth: Fake news, hate speech and trust in the media. Comunicar, 30(74), 69–81

  • Combating, Countering Disinformation

    Combating, Countering Disinformation

    Proposal: Combating, countering disinformation and other forms of interference in the democracy

    Implementation: 2024 to 2026

    Call: CERV-2023-CITIZENS-CIV – Citizens’ engagement and participation – 2023

    Topic: CERV-2023-CITIZENS-CIV

    Type of Action: CERV-LS – CERV Lump Sum Grants

    Proposed Budget: 203 365,00€

    Keywords: Countering disinformation and other forms of interference in the democracy, Promoting democratic participation through debating the future of Europe, Other priority in line with the call objective to promote citizens engagement, Media literacy, Democracy, Inclusion, Europe in a changing world, Civil society, Vulnerable groups, Human rights, Cross-sector cooperation, Citizen engagement

    Objective: The EU recognizes the vital role of enhancing media literacy to combat disinformation, safeguard democratic values, and empower citizens to discern credible sources from false ones, with various policies and initiatives implemented in Member States in recent years. Nonetheless, the heart of media literacy approaches lies in devising inclusive communication strategies while concurrently safeguarding the tenets of freedom of speech. Seeking a delicate balance between fighting disinformation and preserving the fundamental rights of all citizens, including vulnerable groups, to express their views and opinions is our major challenge when it comes to counter disinformation and other malign influences. 

    This project intends to intervene in this sphere to empower European communities, promoting inclusive educational strategies that target and engage vulnerable and diverse age groups, reducing the risk of disinformation targeting marginalized populations. The activities are based on tailored approaches, digital educational tools, lifelong learning and cross-sectoral cooperation, and will focus on engaging citizens, especially the most vulnerable, in order to create a more informed and resilient society, safeguarding democratic values and ensuring that all citizens can actively participate in the digital era safeguarding their rights. 

    Partners:

    • Federazione Italiana Diritti Umani Comitato Italia
    • IM Cultural Institute
    • Fondatsia Za Predpriemachestvo, Kultura I Obrazovanie
    • Medardo Coboto Treciojo Amziaus Universitetas
    • Asociación De Emisoras Municipales Y Comunitaria
    • Idryma Ergodotisis Ekpedefsis Neoleas (IEEN)
    • Tasc Europe Studies
    • Lab Futura
  • Roma Women to Combat Antigypsyism

    Roma Women to Combat Antigypsyism

    Proposal: Intergenerational solidarity of Roma women to combat antigypsyism in Europe

    Implementation: 2024 to 2026

    Call: CERV-2024-CITIZENS-REM – European Remembrance – 2024

    Topic: CERV-2024-CITIZENS-REM-HOLOCAUST

    Type of Action: CERV-LS – CERV Lump Sum Grants

    Proposed Budget: 163 280,00€

    Keywords: Roma, Roma women, intergenerational solidarity, remembrance

    Objective: The project aims to revive the memories of Roma women, amplifying their voices and experiences for younger generations, particularly Roma girls. The main objective is to foster intergenerational solidarity and democracy in the EU. The project outlines three specific objectives, Recover and illustrate the significance of Roma women’s narratives in promoting intergenerational solidarity through Dialogic Literary and Artistic Gatherings; Establish a Solidarity Network of Intergenerational Roma Women to remembrance the Holocaust, genocide, and war crimes through; Develop training materials that can be scaled-up, thus enhancing transnational impact.

    Partners:

    • Asociación Gitana De Mujeres Drom Kotar Mestipen De Barcelona
    • IM Cultural Institute
    • Tsentar Za Mezhduetnicheski Dialog I Tolerantnost Amalipe
    • Universitat De Barcelona
  • Media Literacy in Social Media

    Media Literacy in Social Media

    Proposal: The project aims at introducing young people and youth workers to the media’s operation.

    Implementation: 2024 to 2026

    Call: Erasmus+ Programme

    Topic: Call 2023

    Type of Action: Small-scale partnerships in youth (KA210-YOU)

    Proposed Budget: 60 000,00€

    Keywords: Media literacy and tackling disinformation, Digital safety and data protection, Inclusion, promoting equality and non-discrimination

    Objective: The project aims at introducing young people and youth workers to the media’s operation in general and, in particular, the transfer of media strategies into the social media universe. In the context of digital expression, where freedom of posting, sharing facts and opinions that become reliable sources of information, is ubiquitous, developing media literacy has become an imperative to navigating social media. 

    Propaganda, disinformation, and misinformation are forms of distributing and manipulating information, hard to recognize in a lack of education. Moreover, understanding media construction, from the writer’s intention to the reader’s own investment in the message, is essential in everyday media consumption. By training young people to access, analyse, evaluate, create, and act within media and social media, the project links with the Addressing digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity priority.

    96% of young people aged 16-29 years in the EU use the internet every day, compared with 84% of the adult population. (Eurostat, 2023)

    When 60% of worldwide young users aged 18-24 years use social media as a source of news and finding information is the primary reason why they use the internet (58.6% for 16 to 24 years old), the focus is to work with youth. (Kemp, 2023) 

    On the other hand, with two-thirds of children and young people aged 25 years or less not having internet access at home, the attention is drawn to vulnerable groups. (UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union, 2020).

    In this way, the Inclusion and diversity in all fields of education, training, youth and sports priority is addressed. 

    Obj1: To build the media literacy of young people and youth workers, and improve competences like critical thinking, problem-solving, the capacity to find, select, access, decode, and interpret information and knowledge on the internet, the readiness to respond pragmatically and intuitively to challenges and opportunities in a manner that exploits the internet’s potential.

    Obj2: To ENGAGE, CONNECT and EMPOWER young people to take charge of their lives and face challenges such as fake news and propaganda. With one face-to-face training event, an online crash course, and workshops, the project offers learning opportunities, motivates the participants to take action and helps them to prepare for active participation in the online scenario.

    Obj3: To network, share good practices, and build capacity within and beyond the local level of each partner organization, enabling transformation and change, leading to improvements, in proportion to the context of each organization. By cooperating transnationally the partner organizations will increase their capacity to operate at the international level, enrich educational resources and non-formal methods to better target vulnerable groups who face social, economic, or geographic obstacles, and prioritize digital inclusion in local activities.

    Partners:

    • IM Cultural Institute
    • Federazione Italiana Diritti Umani-Comitato Italiano Helsinki Ente Del Terzo Settore
    • Autonómia Alapítvány
  • Can We Counteract Hate? Effects of Online Hate Speech and Counter Speech on the Perception of Social Groups

    Can We Counteract Hate? Effects of Online Hate Speech and Counter Speech on the Perception of Social Groups

    Considering the fact that hate speech can increase stereotyped thinking and social distancing in a society, while – according to the authors of this study – there is still a lack of variety in the social groups under study and research into possible solutions to the problem, the study of the effects of hate speech is proposed, specifically against Chinese people and transgender people, while investigating if counter speech can offset the detrimental effects of hate speech.

    For this purpose, a pre-registered online experiment was carried out, with a 2 × 3 between-subject design, varying the attacked group (Chinese people/transgender people) and the type of comments (neutral/hate speech/hate speech and counter speech) for an Austrian sample (n = 1285).

    Findings in this case actually seemed to reveal no effect of hate speech on the dependent variables, indicating that citizens might not be as vulnerable to hate speech, but further study is necessary.

    However, counter speech has a polarizing effect: attitudinal gaps and differences for social distancing increase between left-wing and right-wing participants if hate speech is countered.

    Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502231201091

    Reference

    Schäfer, S., Rebasso, I., Boyer, M. M., & Planitzer, A. M. (2024). Can We Counteract Hate? Effects of Online Hate Speech and Counter Speech on the Perception of Social Groups. Communication Research, 51(5), 553–579

  • Understanding and Appraising ‘Hate Speech’

    Understanding and Appraising ‘Hate Speech’

    According to the author of this study, although hate speech has become a matter of international concern, permeating institutional and lay discussions alike, what it means to refer to a linguistic act as ‘hate speech’ remains unclear.

    In light of such evidence, focusing on lay understandings of hate speech, the study explores the relationship between hate speech and hate, the distinction between hate speech and offensive speech, considering also how hate speech is defined in the UK Public Order Act 1986.

    Using a corpus-based discourse analysis, 255 hate speech–related news articles were analyzed, alongside data from the General English Web 2020 corpus.

    Hate speech is found to be a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, because hate is a central component, but it is not sufficient on its own to classify an act as hate speech, and elements such as threats, denigration of the targets based on a protected characteristic (age, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability), the potential to cause harm and the intent to stir up hatred, are also essential in distinguishing hate speech and offense.

    Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00082.vil

    Reference

    Vilar-Lluch, S. (2023). Understanding and appraising ‘hate speech.’ Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 11(2), 279–306

  • Policy vs Reality: Comparing the Policies of Social Media Sites and Users’ Experiences, in the Context of Exposure to Extremist Content

    Policy vs Reality: Comparing the Policies of Social Media Sites and Users’ Experiences, in the Context of Exposure to Extremist Content

    While social media enables communication and the sharing of opinions among like-minded users, it also presents risks related to its use for harmful and potentially illegal means.

    The study aims to explore the community guidelines and policies of major social media platforms concerning extremist material and to compare these policies with users’ reported experiences.

    To assess user exposure, the study pilots a new measurement tool, the Online Extremism Exposure Scale (OECE), which captures both exposure to extremist communication and hate speech online.

    Findings show that users report varying levels of exposure, with respondents indicating that extremist material appears during nearly half of their daily time spent on social media. The results also suggest potential shortcomings in social media platforms’ efforts to limit exposure to extremist content.

    Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.1080/19434472.2023.2195466

    Reference

    Williams, T. J. V., Tzani, C., Gavin, H., & Ioannou, M. (2025). Policy vs reality: Comparing the policies of social media sites and users’ experiences, in the context of exposure to extremist content. Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, 17(1), 110–127

  • Media and Information Literacy and Critical Thinking: A Systematic Review

    Media and Information Literacy and Critical Thinking: A Systematic Review

    In a context marked by the spread of misinformation and the growing influence of media—particularly social media—on certain social groups, the authors highlight the need to analyze how media and information literacy in the formation of citizens contributes to the development of critical thinking.

    This effort is based on a systematic review of scientific literature addressing the intersection of critical thinking and media and information literacy. Using the Core Collection of the Web of Science and Scopus databases, the authors analyzed a sample of 65 articles selected through predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria.

    It was concluded that integrating media and information literacy into educational contexts contributes to strengthening individuals’ critical abilities, supporting the development of more informed and critically engaged citizens.

    Learn more about this review here: https://www.doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2023-1939

    Reference

    López-González, H., Sosa, L., Sánchez, L. y Faure-Carvallo, A. (2023). Media and Information
    Literacy and Critical Thinking: A Systematic Review. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 81,
    399-423