Training and hackathon for journalists and students with major in journalism
Certificate for passed practical training for verifying facts
9 February 2019, The Red House Center for Culture and Debate
The Coalition for Media Literacy in Education invites journalists and students with Major in Journalism to engage in practical training on false information recognition. The training is aimed at acquiring skills, knowledge and tools to check the facts needed to work in contemporary and traditional media. The training is conducted by experts from the company for media analysis \“Perceptica\“. It is part of the Media Literacy Days 2019 campaign, with a special topic \“Fact checking\“.
Conditions for participation:
Journalists entering the profession, students in journalism and other media related disciplines can participate in the training. Candidates must register by 5 February. It is advisable to bring your own laptop to the training. The Training is free, but registration is mandatory given the limited number of places.
During the training there will be coffee breaks and lunch for the participants.
Sign up here
What to expect at the training:
The first part of the training is the introduction of tools and skills for detecting false information in various formats – text information, audio, video, photos, social networking profiles.
The second part of the training is practical and is consists of creation of a map of fake news around an important world event. The practical exercise will be in the form of a hackathon. Students will work in small groups with a mentor to identify false information related to the event. The result of their work \“Picture of the Lie\“ will be published on the Coalition for Media Literacy website.
The third part of the training is the preparation of the popularization of the results of the hackathon. They will be featured in a series of Facebook posts that will be part of the project\’s communication campaign. In this task, students will receive support from the experts from Perceptika and the Coalition for Media Literacy.
Certificate for passed training
All students participating in the three stages of the practical training will receive a certificate certifying that the participant:
- has knowledge and basic skills to check the veracity of content in text, audio, video and photo format; knows how to distinguish fake profiles in Twitter and Facebook.
- had participated in a journalistic investigation to expose fake information around a world event;
- had participated in the preparation of a campaign to expose fake information.
The certificate will be beneficial to job seekers in a journalistic or other type of sphere where handling of verified information is required. It can also serve as an application for a Master\’s degree in the country and abroad, related to critical information processing. To obtain a certificate, students must participate in the three stages of the training.
When and where:
The training is will take place on 9 February from 10 am to 5 pm on 9 at the Red House Center for Culture and Debate, 15, Lyuben Karavelov Str., Sofia.
About the project:
Media Literacy Days is a campaign that promotes the need of introduction to media literacy in education. Media Literacy Days are organized by the Media Literacy Coalition for the first time in 2018. In 2019, the main focus of the Days is the ability to recognize false news.
The Media Literacy Days 2019 Campaign received financial support from the US Embassy in Bulgaria. The project is implemented by the Red House Center for Culture and Debate in partnership with the company for media analysis Perceptica and uchishta.bg. However, in the Days of Media Literacy 2019 are also participating other Coalition members, such as The Center for Safe Internet, Ucha in Plovdiv, Teenstation and the informational support comes from the National Children\’s Network, Association of European Journalists – Bulgaria, Teach for Bulgaria, Center for Inclusive Education and others. The US Embassy is not responsible for the content of the campaign.