Mentor: Mr Adam REICHARDT

Focus of the Nest in 2023-2024: Role of media in today’s polarized political environment 

The Media and Disinformation Nest will explore with students the issues and topics related to our media consumption and how it can manipulate and influence public opinion. The Media and Disinformation Nest aims to achieve several key objectives through workshops, discussions with experts and debates. First, it seeks to foster media literacy among students, enabling them to distinguish between reliable information and deceptive content. By exploring topics like bias detection, fact-checking techniques and source evaluation, students will develop the necessary critical thinking skills essential in today's information-saturated world.

Second, the program aims to raise awareness about the prevalence and impact of disinformation. We all understand that disinformation exists in today’s information sphere, yet there still is a significant lack of knowledge in terms of how to combat and not become a tool for the spread of misinformation and disinformation. Students will be exposed to real-world case studies and engage in ethical discussions about media and its role in disinformation in today’s polarised world. We will meet with journalists to hear their experiences on how their jobs changed due to the alarming amount of disinformation and how they see their future. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will give additional context of how information can be weaponised to manipulate societies. Lastly, the rise of AI tools like deep fakes and ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionise how content is created. We need to discuss now the ramifications of such rapid developments.