Media Detective: Cross-border Strategies Against Fake News and Misinformation

In today's world, unchecked posts and calls to action on social media have become a pressing issue affecting both younger and older generations alike. Among these demographics, young people in particular are highly active on these platforms. Thus, our primary objective is to provide support and efficient tools, especially to the youth, for identifying fake news and phishing attempts, a problem prevalent beyond borders. The core mission of our project is to strengthen critical thinking skills among young people, developing their ability to critically assess digital media content. The rapid expansion of the online world, which transcends geographical boundaries, is happening at such an accelerated pace that the formal education system often struggles to respond and adapt promptly. Collaborating across borders allows us to pool our expertise and resources to address this issue more comprehensively, as we aim to provide support that is adaptable and accessible to educational institutions on both sides of the border, through a digital exhibition easy to implement. Teachers, young learners, and schools will directly benefit from these resources. By empowering educators and students, we aim to create a ripple effect of informed and digitally literate citizens in our program area. Our aim is to provide educational institutions with innovative tools they can incorporate in their activities, engaging teachers, students and schools in the development process, to ensure that the program is not only innovative but also useful for them. Specifically, we plan to develop an interactive exhibition, harnessing the modern digital advancements of the 21st century, which will provide a comprehensive perspective on the challenges posed by fake news, the history of misinformation, its dangers, and contemporary issues. We intend to focus mainly on young people and employ digital tools closely related to the subject matter. Through this project, we aim to reach and engage 3,000 young high school and university students in each country, bringing about the following key transformations that will benefit them: - enhancement of media literacy and critical thinking skills; - the ability to distinguish real news from fake news, to identify and prevent phishing scams and media manipulation. - mitigation of digitalisation-related risks and an improved internet security awareness; - improved employability through the development of key competencies and basic skills, particularly critical thinking and media literacy, decreasing the risk of marginalization; - a reduction in the acceptance of pseudoscientific information. The project builds on the experience we share with our partner, HAHA, collaborating on both sides of the border on the topic of fake news. We have found that young and older populations on both sides of the border share similar levels of digital literacy, making them equally susceptible to dangerous digital content. Proximity to the border pose unique challenges, including tensions between Hungarians and Romanians, inter-Romanians and inter-Hungarian tensions, often exacerbated by fake news and misinformation regularly circulating on social media. Our project seeks to improve relations between communities residing in these border regions, reduce prejudice among the younger generation, and strengthen cooperation between the two regions. The project's innovation comprises two key components. First, we intend to shed light on the issue in a context close to young individuals and provide immediate solutions to address the problem. Secondly, we will develop a digital toolset for educating young people, making the subject matter more accessible and comprehensible. Moreover, the project will contribute to the broader recognition and validation of informal and non-formal learning, as the educational process on media literacy extends beyond the boundaries of traditional classroom education. At its core, our proposal is built on the belief that it is necessary to rethink traditional approaches to educating young people. In practical terms, the integration of media literacy education and the development of critical thinking within the curriculum heavily relies on the willingness of educators and educational institutions. Unfortunately, teachers are often not equipped with the necessary training and resources for this and the inclusion of this vital subject is not compulsory in teacher training programs at universities in Hungary and Romania. We break from the formal educational setting, recognizing the fact that educating young people about the manipulation and misinformation prevalent in their virtual world, especially on social media, need not to occur within the confines of a formal classroom setting. Acquiring and enhancing certain fundamental skills is not always most effectively achieved within the traditional school system (Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socioeconomic outcomes, European Commission, 2012)

During the first three months of the project, the focus was primarily on background processes. These included preliminary meetings related to the project, coordination regarding the tools and content elements, the creation of visual plans, and promotion of the program, mainly through the Opening Conference and through direct, in-person outreach efforts. On January 20–21, 2025, the Kick-off Meeting was held at the PIHE office in Oradea, where we presented the project's objectives, main areas of activity, and long-term goals. We clarified the framework for cooperation, established communication channels, set deadlines for specific tasks, and defined performance expectations. The event was particularly useful for new team members, who had the opportunity to meet the project partners in person, fostering open and trust-based communication from the very beginning. The two-day event was attended by five members of the Association for Students and Civilians in Hajdúság, including the project expert Dr. Attila Kenyeres, as well as five representatives from PIHE. On February 27, 2025, the project's Opening Conference was held in the ceremonial hall of Partium Christian University in Oradea, with a total of 64 participants including teachers, institutional representatives, and organizers. Both organizations introduced themselves, and we presented the structure, composition, objectives, and relevance of the current project, along with the foundational research and information behind it, as well as the results of the previous Media Detective project. The event was supported by both pre- and post-event media coverage, and a flyer was also created to visually illustrate the project's components and intended implementation. By the time of the first partner report, the visual designs for the roll-up exhibition had been completed and have since been printed in both Romanian and Hungarian. On March 27–28, a technical coordination meeting was held in Debrecen with our project partner. During this meeting, we thoroughly reviewed the current status of the project. The occasion proved especially valuable, as we were able to present tangible results, like finalized roll-up designs, and provided mutual support through shared insights and practical advice. Throughout the project, team members participated in online training sessions organized by the Interreg Romania–Hungary Programme, enhancing their skills and competencies to support the successful implementation of the initiative. The procurement of the elements of the previously theoretically planned traveling exhibition is currently in progress. The visual design presents the series of programs to be implemented during school visits, and in connection with this, the procurement plan for the necessary equipment was in the finalization phase (and since then, the procurement and implementation process has been ongoing). Additionally, we expanded the program offerings with an escape room game, designed for teams of five students. In this game, participants must work together to solve tasks using fake news detection techniques they learned during the presentation. Through these cooperative activities, the acquired knowledge becomes more memorable, while students simultaneously develop their communication, technical, and logical thinking skills, as well as their ability to work in teams, all in a playful and engaging manner.