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IREX, a global development and education organization, has launched a new open-access online media literacy course designed to help the citizens of the Baltic countries become more critical media users, develop resilience to disinformation and recognize manipulation. The first one to try the Very Verified platform on September 20 were the students of Vytautas Magnus University.
The Very Verified remote platform educates on how to analyze media reports and identify disinformation, while also developing critical thinking skills. The course is prepared in five languages: Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian and English and is adapted to the context of the Baltic States. The focus is on learning how to consume news without being told what to consume.
“We are working more and more in a digital ecosystem and we have to figure out how to navigate it. This is new in human history. …our brains, our society—neither we, nor our friends, colleagues, or community were equipped to handle the constant flow of information. In the process, we all interact with so much information and so often it is manipulated, including social media. We also face misinformation and disinformation in our private communication, on television, on the radio, so having these skills that can be transferred becomes really very important,” emphasized IREX CEO and President Kristin Lord, who recently visited the Baltic States.
The new course is based on IREX’s Learn to Discern method, focused on practice-based resilience education, which IREX developed and launched in Ukraine in 2015. It has since been adapted in more than 20 other countries around the world, including Georgia, Indonesia, the Balkans and the United States. The Very Verified platform is filled with lessons about how we perceive information (including emotional regulation, cognitive biases, and digital well-being), as well as how information is selected and presented to us as consumers (for example, newsroom staff functions, fact-checking, social network algorithms and more). The course also covers broader topics such as media owners and freedom of the press, providing practical tools and advice on how to spot manipulative headlines, verify photos and videos, and how to deal with bots and trolls.
The Very Verified platform is designed to be accessible, interactive and engaging for participants throughout the course through videos, interviews, animations, quizzes and short articles. The course can be taken independently or using a blended learning method.
The content of the IREX course was developed in close cooperation with Baltic experts Solvita Denisa – Liepniece, Lukrecijus Tūbys, Monika Hanley, Signe Ivask and others. The presenters of the English version of the course are Estonian journalists Heleri All and Sandra Saar, Lithuanian journalists Lukrecijus Tūbys and Monika Kasnikovskytė. Interviewees were well-known Baltic journalists Inga Sprinė, Filips Lastovskis, Berta Tilmantaitė, Holger Roonemaa and Evgenija Volohonskaja, advertising experts – Kārlis Gedrovics, Tomas Nemura and Vadimas Barisonas, social media content creators – Agnė Kulitaitė, Robertas Kalinkinas and others.
The main audience of Very Verified is high school and university students, but the course is an open and useful resource for anyone interested. After completing all tasks and passing the final test, participants can receive a certificate of course completion. All five language versions of the course are available online at veryverified.eu, along with other blended learning resources for teachers and youth trainers.
The course was prepared by IREX, which manages the “Media Literacy in the Baltic States” program of the US State Department.
About IREX and the “Media Literacy in the Baltic States” program:
“Media Literacy in the Baltic States” is a US State Department program managed by IREX. More: www.facebook.com/IREXintheBaltics
IREX is a global development and education organization working towards a more just, prosperous and inclusive world. More: www.irex.org
