Training: Understanding & handling disinformation – Focus on Africa

In recent years it has become increasingly evident that disinformation crosses borders with varying risks for different media landscapes, highlighting the importance of better understanding the similarities and differences of disinformation techniques, patterns and flows and their impact on local information environments. At the same time cooperation among fact-checkers has proven essential to detecting and reacting to disinformation in different regions of the World. In this context, and given its unique role as a platform aiming to gather stakeholders working to tackle disinformation, the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) will coordinate a number of regional training programmes in collaboration with local fact-checking organisations, aiming to strengthen resilience to online disinformation in different information environments, while drawing from the expertise of the European EDMO network.

The training module for practitioners focusing on Africa is composed of three sessions. The first session will focus on actors and techniques of disinformation, including agents, incentives and techniques of disinformation and social media analysis and disinformation in Africa. The second session provides a deep dive into fact-checking and verification tools, including also fact-checking standards and ethics. The final session looks into the safety and protection of journalists, with a special focus on tools to support safe journalistic work in the context of the peculiarities of different media landscapes in Africa.

Scientific Coordinators:

Lisa Ginsborg | European University Institute and EDMO

Paula Gori | European University Institute and EDMO

Carina van Wyk | Africa Check

Rabiu Alhassan | Fact Space West Africa

Target audience:

This training is specifically aimed at practitioners focusing on Africa with an interest in learning more about disinformation challenges, fact-checking tools, how safe journalistic work can be supported, and the peculiarities of the African media landscape.

Applications:

This edition of the EDMO online training on Understanding and handling disinformation for practitioners focusing on Africa is limited to 30 participants. Further editions of this module will be considered in case of high interest.

Applications are now open. Please apply here by 22 August at 12.00 CEST (noon). The organizers will be responsible for selecting the participants for the training. Participants will be selected with an effort made to ensure a balanced representation across gender, nationality, and institutional lines.

Further information including a detailed agenda and the speakers of the training sessions will be available shortly on this webpage.

This training is part of a series of residential and online training modules organized by EDMO. For more information, visit edmo.eu/trainings.