On the 22 of November, students and teachers of SumDU were presented with an online game “Hype or Truth”. Its purpose is to teach participants media literacy, to show how manipulations and fakes are really formed. The #the_best_faculty_in_the_galaxy also joined the game.
"Hype or Truth" is an anti-fake news game developed by the NATO Information and Documentation Centre in cooperation with the StratCom Centre for Strategic Communications.
During the presentation, the representative of “Detector Media” Oleksandr PYROZHKOV, talked about the main types of disinformation and how to counter them. The speaker gave a list of useful resources and a training case to find disinformation and also discussed some practical situations with the participants.
The chief operations officer of StratCom, Anna BELOUSOVA, spoke about cooperation with NATO and the principles of the game:
“We’ve made a huge analytical report for the alliance and analysed NATO’s perception in society and media over the past year and a half. We saw real manipulations and fake news, and these cases formed the basis of the game. In it, each of you can become a fake media magnate who will manipulate his audience using various dirty tricks. Its goal is to make your critical thinking the one that detects fakes in the news, to show how they are made, particularly on the example of NATO, and, of course, to develop media literacy”.
The participants of the event shared their impressions:
“In general, I liked it. I have already “been around the block” at such events, so it is difficult to impress me. But if I can get something interesting from the event, for example, how to search for files right, then I consider the lecture successful”, said Artem BONDAREV, a graduate student majoring in Philosophy.
Anastasiia NEVESELA, a second-year student majoring in Management of Social and Cultural Activity, noted the interesting presentation of information that made her to decide to play this game at home.
"During the game, I got a lot of interesting and necessary information, without which critical thinking is impossible. Sometimes, it was difficult and confusing, but this is exactly what shows where I should improve my knowledge. In the end, we got useful tips that can help us perceive information. I want to say for myself that my views have changed a lot. In general, it's a fascinating project where you can get a prize for participation. This is an amazing opportunity for students", emphasized the student majoring in Journalism, Elyzaveta DAVYDOVSKA.
“This game is a really cool tool to interest youth in participation in the project, and, on the one hand, what is crucial, to develop media literacy competence, and on the other hand, to find out more about NATO”, noted the head of the Research Centre for Regional Security of SumDU Mykola NAZAROV.
In addition to important knowledge, the game offers a chance to win two tickets to the NATO headquarters in Brussels – an opportunity to get not just a tour, but useful lectures and meetings with alliance officials.
#the_best_faculty_in_the_galaxy recommends everyone to play the game “Hype or Truth” and increase the level of media literacy.
Yuliia Kolodych, student of group ZhT-31
