Advanced Level WebQuest – Co Exist Newsroom

Co-Exist Newsroom

Advanced Level WebQuest:

Social Media Responsibility

THEME ALLOCATED:

Identifying and reporting fake information on social media.

TITLE OF THE WEBQUEST:

Social Media Responsibility

INTRODUCTION

Image source: Unsplash by Alex Shuper

In today’s world where everyone has access to social media, we have all been subjected to fake information, whether we acknowledged it at the time or not. The spread of misinformation is also causing social media users to develop a general distrust of the media. In some instances, social media users have stopped consuming or accepting information altogether, putting democracy at risk. Therefore, discussions around misinformation need to include information ethics, and address information control by social media platforms, as well as social media users’ responsibility.

TASK

You and your team are going to research how people in your school or youth group interact with fake news content, how it influences them and the impact that fake news has on their perceptions of other faith or religious groups. To capture the opinions of a large group of people at one time, you and your team are going to complete a vox pop project! The aim of this vox pop is to capture people’s general opinion about the ways that people spot fake news, the impact that fake news has on their outlooks and why it is important to stop the spread of fake news to promote cultural and religious tolerance online. Based on the responses your team will gather; you will create a short video to present your Vox Pop and write an article with the conclusions and possible suggestions for future improvements on how to stay vigilant about sensational and unverified claims on social media.

PROCESS

Step 1. Research

Before starting your vox pop, it’s important to research the issue at hand. This will help you to come up with the right questions for your peers, friends, family, or members of the public. In this era of instant information and social media dominance, it has become increasingly crucial to fact-check and verify the information we encounter before sharing it with others. The rapid spread of misinformation can have severe consequences, leading to misunderstandings, confusion, and even harm. To ensure that you maintain a responsible approach to online sharing, take your time to go through the links below which include some essential tips on fact-checking and verifying information.

Step2. What is Vox Pop?

So, what is a vox pop? The phrase itself comes from Latin and it translates to mean ‘voice of the people’. Today, a vox pop is a short video made up of clips taken from interviews with members of the public. These video interviews investigate public opinion towards widely known topics, brands, or products and are commonly used for market research. To understand the vox pop further, read the articles below:

Once you and your group have more knowledge on the vox pop that you will design and film, decide who to interview and determine the time and location for the filming. When deciding the target group of people for your vox pop, keeping the timeframe for this project in mind, make sure to diversify the pool of people you are going to interview. For example, you could interview people from different religious and/or cultural backgrounds. This will be helpful for you in the WebQuest when you analyse your data and draw conclusions from this project.

Step 3. Brainstorming for Vox Pop questions

Before you can start interviewing people for the vox pop, you will need to do some brainstorming, and come up with a few short answer questions. Base your questionnaire on the following subjects:

The importance of verifying and checking information online.
The impact of fake news content on influencing how we see other faith, religious and/or cultural groups.
The strategies on how to encourage friends, family, and peers to verify information online and the consequences of spreading fake information.

To make the most of your time and get a wide range of questions from each team member, have a read through the following description on how to use brainstorming best.

Brainstorming

Once all team members have an idea of how to brainstorm, read the information in the link below to get a better idea of what questions are great for creating a vox pop and which are less so.

Creating Vox Pop Questionnaire

Use the information provided in the links above and ask each team member to come up with possible questions related to the different subjects mentioned in the bullet points above. Set a time limit for this activity. Once the time is up, gather all the questions and decide on the questions that your team will use in the vox pop.

Step 4. Preparing for the Vox Pop

For further information about preparing vox pops, look back to the modules that you covered in the Citizen Journalism Curriculum and the following links:

To assist you and your team in assigning appropriate tasks, keep the following questions in mind:

Will the interviews be carried out face to face or will the participants send short, prerecorded video clips?
Do you have access to equipment to carry out either the voice recording of the interviews or filming the short videos?
Who is going to be interviewing the people?
Who is going to record the interviews?
Who will be responsible for the equipment – transport of the equipment, making sure all equipment is charged, are all relevant cords attached, etc.?
Who will organise the people that will be interviewed or if the public is interviewed, a decision needs to be made on the time and location.
Who will carry out the post-production tasks like editing the footage?
Are there any other tasks specific to your pop vox that are not listed above?

Step 5. Creating a consent form and dealing with conflict

You will need to include a consent form to grant the permissions from people featured in your vox pop, as well as, to protect yourself against any future complications.

Why and how to write a consent form?

When carrying out interviews with a large group of people to gather their opinions, it is likely that conflicts will arise. Hence, it is crucial to have a plan in place to handle any challenging situation that may occur during the filming process.

Healthy ways to handle conflict!

Discuss the best approach to managing conflicts with your team, after reading the above article.

Step 6. Carrying out the Vox Pop

Before you grab the camera and start the interview process click on the link below to gain some valuable advice on setting up the equipment on the day of filming.

Once the equipment is set up and ready to go, it would be a good idea to carry out a few practice-runs among your team members to ensure that all questions are relevant, the lighting is good, and the sound and video are working as they should. That way, you can apply changes before you start filming the actual footage used in your vox pop.

Few tips to keep in mind while carrying out the interview:

When approaching the people, you are invited to the vox pop – Smile😊.
Accept rejection, don’t be offended if someone turns you down.
Make sure to get everyone to sign the consent form before you start filming.
Make sure to stay objective throughout the whole project, so that the answers are not reflected by anyone’s bias in the group.
Make sure to gather responses from a diverse group of people to get a wide range of replies.

Step 7. Post-production of the Vox Pop

Your group has gathered the videos, and it is time to carry out the post-production of the material collected. You will need to decide on the design of the video, the text on the screen, the title of the vox pop, whether there is some music and facts included, etc.

Here is a great YouTube video and an article with some key tips on editing:

To find more information about editing vox pop, check back to the audio-visual modules that you completed during the Citizen Journalism Curriculum.

Step 8. Publish the Vox Pop & write the article!

The last step of this WebQuest is to reflect on the information gathered by publishing the vox pop online, and among your peers and having a discussion on the findings. To report the findings from the vox pop and from the research you conducted earlier, your final task is to write an article, to reflect the current situation with the prevalence of fake information and actions taken among your friends and family or members of the public. To find more information about writing an article look at the relevant module from the Citizen Journalism Curriculum, or check out these links:

EVALUATION

To evaluate your experience during this vox pop project you will need to keep a self-reflective journal throughout each step of the process. After completion of each step, describe the way you felt in every part of the exercise.

Did you feel motivated with the assigned tasks?
Would you have preferred to try out a different role?
Did the information covered seem relevant to you personally?
Was there any aspect of the project you would have liked to gain more knowledge in, and so on?

To learn more about the reflective journals, follow the link below:

Reflective journals

The information gathered in the self-reflective journal is for personal use and will not be shared with the group or youth worker.

Possible discussion points for the youth worker:

How often have you been subjected to fake news in the past week or month?
In your opinion, are there any specific topics that are frequently subjected to misinformation, and if so, why?
Do you think it is important to report fake information and if so, why?
Have you ever reported fake information on social media and if not, why not?
Will you be more careful about online information after watching the vox pop and reading the article?
Would you ever consider reporting fake information online after this project?

CONCLUSION

Well done, as part of this WebQuest you have worked together as a team and managed to cover the subject of fake information in social media, and to learn more about how this can impact our perceptions of other faith or cultural groups. Your team came up with your own approach on this subject and created a vox pop to gather various opinions from family and friends or member of the public. This gave you an opportunity to discover and strengthen your communication skills within the group and when carrying out the interviews with the public.

Based on the responses you have received from participants in your vox pop, did you notice any differences between how people from different cultures and/or faith groups treated the subject of fake news? Were some more vigilant than others about fact-checking? Had some groups more experience than others of being the target of misinformation? Can you empathise with their experience? Does this help you to understand why it’s important not to spread fake news online and to be a responsible social media user by reporting harmful content? We hope so.

Social media is meant to bring us all together; but sharing harmful content online can have very negative consequences for the target of online hatred and misinformation. Therefore, it is important that we all work together to make social media a safe space for everyone.

Addressing Privilege and Diversity in the Media

THEME ALLOCATED:

Addressing Privilege and Diversity in the Media (Challenging Media Bias, Representation of Other Religions, Cultures, Minorities, and Re-Imagining the Media).

TITLE OF THE WEBQUEST:

Re-imagining the Media.

INTRODUCTION

The media landscape is changing rapidly, with content being widely and quickly consumed. It is important that we are aware of the history of under-representation and misrepresentation of some religions, cultures, and minorities in the mass media. Western media has been used to reinforce systems of oppression and perpetuate harmful stereotypes (Harwood, 2022). This continues to happen both consciously and unconsciously. The media has its own set of codes and conventions, and often new content is modelled on old content, which can lead to problematic narratives, stereotypes and tropes being repeated (Media Smarts, 2023). News stories may be condensed to follow a ‘good vs evil’ framework that does not allow for nuances and the range of complexities within a story to be explored (Harth, 2009). Certain audiences’ stories are primarily centred, typically white peoples’, while others may not be shown at all or only in a limited way.

When there is a lack of interaction on a local level between people from different religious or cultural groups, we rely more on the media to form opinions about people outside our own group. This affects how we see ourselves and others. It can lead to distorted views and have a negative impact on peoples’ lives. Media Smarts (2023) describes the media as either being a mirror that reflects our own experiences or as a window that allows us to ‘learn about others’. It is important that the media aspires to provide both things to everyone!

TASKS

You have realised that you and your friends spend a lot of time on social media. Often you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through content without questioning it. Recently, you took part in a training session about intercultural and interfaith dialogue. Some of the concepts that you were introduced to really stuck with you. The past few days, you have started to notice that the content you and your friends see is always the same and could be more diverse. After reading a bit more about privilege and diversity in the media, you want to do something to change the way the media is presented to young people like you. You come across the ‘Re-Imagining Media Challenge’ and decide to take part with your friends! This challenge involves combating the negative and divisive aspects of the media. You will work with your friends as a team to discover how the media could be reshaped to be more inclusive.

For this challenge, you will need to work with 2-3 other people. Together you will work to research historical and current issues in the media and brainstorm solutions and ideas. Your team will come up with a media statement that summarises what your group thinks the media should look like – it should reflect inclusive principles and values. Finally, your group will create a podcast where you interview three people from different cultural and/or faith backgrounds. You will talk to them about their experiences of the media and how they believe it influences and impacts their lives. You will share your groups’ statement with them and ask for their feedback. Part of this task is to keep a short reflective journal (see the evaluation section) to help track your thoughts and feelings as you work through the different stages of the challenge. This journal is just for you, and you do not have to share it with anyone!

PROCESS

Step 1: Brainstorming

To get started, your group should have a brainstorm and create a mind-map. There are many ways to engage in brainstorming and resources are linked below if your group needs more help.

Get some pens and paper or a whiteboard and markers. At the centre of the page or the whiteboard, write down a phrase or word as a starting point, such as, ‘diversity in the media’ or ‘privilege and the media’. Talk about it together and encourage everyone to contribute. What would the media look like to your group in an ideal world? Think about what biases and issues are present in the media today? How do they impact people? This is an opportunity for everyone to consider their own privileges and how they might be both positively and negatively influenced by the media. Everyone should be respectful and open to exploring the topic together and listening to each other’s thoughts. Below are some resources that might be helpful for having this discussion. Write down the main words, thoughts, and ideas that come up on the mind-map.

Brainstorm and mind-map resources:

How to have conversations about diversity and privilege (resources):

Step 2: Research

Once your group has made a mind-map, you should delve further into the topics that came up by doing some research online. Everyone should pick 1-2 ideas or words from the mind-map to research individually. Spend 20-30 minutes on this. The group should then come back together, and everyone should share what they found. The resources below may be useful for carrying out research online and checking sources.

Research resources:

This is an article with guidance on how to check your sources to make sure they are reliable: https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/credible-sources/
Tips for searching for information online

Step 3: Problem Solving

Well done, your group has come up with some initial ideas about how the media could be re-imagined! You are beginning to understand the importance of challenging media bias and recognising privilege. The next step is to take these initial ideas and research and use the 6 thinking hats method to help come up with more developed solutions and brainstorm further. How can media bias and misrepresentation be tackled? How can the media be more representative and include more voices and perspectives? What should the media look like? The 6 thinking hats method involves looking at the topic/issue from six different perspectives. The perspectives include positivity, creativity, emotions, data, downside, and process. These are essentially prompts to help you look at the topic from several angles instead of getting stuck on one aspect. This will help your group discover new and alternative solutions! Below are links to better understand how to use the 6 thinking hats method to problem-solve.

6 Thinking Hats:

Step 4: Statement

Your team is doing a great job coming up with solutions! For this next step, your group will have to come up with a short statement that captures the best solution you thought of and reflects what the group believes the media should look like. Have a group discussion and consider everything you have learnt so far and the solutions you have proposed. Which ones are the best and can any be combined? Together, your group can write down the key values and principles that they believe the media should demonstrate going forward. You can individually write down a few draft statements based on this and then share them with the group. The length of the statement is up to your group. However, it should not be too long. You should be able to say it in under 4 minutes as you will use it later on, when carrying out the podcast interviews. You can work-shop these together and choose the one that works best! See the resources below for more guidance on writing a compelling manifesto.

Statement writing resources:

Step 5: Setting up

Amazing, your group has written a fantastic statement! The next step is to begin preparing for the podcast interviews. Your team should divide up the tasks and assign everyone to a role. Below is a list of the jobs that your team will need to complete:

Finding and inviting three people from different cultural or faith groups to interview.
Organising consent forms for the interviewees taking part.
Organising any equipment needed.
Scouting and organising the interview location.
Selecting and writing interview questions.
Deciding who will conduct the interviews (team members can take turns).
Deciding who will record the interviews (similarly, team members can decide to switch roles, and each have a turn recording an interview).

Refer to Module 5 of the Citizen Journalism Curriculum to better understand the practical steps of planning and creating a podcast. Talk to your youth worker or facilitator about the people you will be interviewing and the locations of the interviews. They will help with organising this and ensuring that the required safe-guarding measures are in place. They will also advise you on the required consent forms and getting consent from the interviewees. They should be present when you carry out the interviews.

Podcast & interview examples:

Audio interview resources:

Step 6: Podcast Interview

Now your team is ready for the most exciting step – recording the podcast interviews and creating the content! Everyone in the group should be organised and know their roles. Do not forget to ask the interviewee for consent before beginning the interview and recording them. There are some resources linked below of useful relaxation techniques and tips that the group can do ahead of the interviews – in case anyone is nervous. Best of luck!

Pre-Interview Tips:

1-minute mindfulness meditation
5 Techniques to calm your nerves before a presentation – these can also be used to relax ahead of the interview.

Step 7: Post-Production

Your team has almost completed the challenge! In this last step, you will edit the interview recordings and put together the final podcast. Refer to the post-production activities from Module 5 of the Citizen Journalism Curriculum for further instructions on using editing software such as Audacity. When your team is happy with the final podcast, send it to your youth worker or facilitator. The podcast will be reviewed and published onto the CO-EXIST Digital Newsroom!

Post-Production Resources:

Audacity video tutorials
Written Audacity guide
Article with podcasting editing tips: https://castos.com/podcast-editing-tips/

EVALUATION

As part of this challenge, you should complete a self-reflection journal. You should write 2-3 sentences in the journal after your group completes each step. You can write about your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs before and after completing the step. Below is a list of questions which you can also use as prompts if you find it difficult to think of what to write.

What have you learnt from completing this step?
Did you like/dislike this activity/step?
Did you find this activity/step challenging?
How are you finding working in a team? (Think about the positives and negatives of group work and what your role is in the team).
Has this activity/step changed the way you view the media? (If so, in what way?).
What have you learnt about media bias?
What have you learnt about privilege and diversity in the media?
Is there anything you want to learn more about?

This journal is just for you and will not be shared with anyone else. It is meant to encourage you to reflect on the task and the steps within it and promote deeper learning.

Learn more about reflective journals by reading this article.

Feedback session with the youth worker or facilitator:

To debrief the WebQuest, have a feedback session with the young people. During this they can complete a feedback survey and answer the following questions:

Did you enjoy learning and researching about the topic (addressing privilege and diversity in the media)?
Did you enjoy the interviews and creating a podcast?
Were you happy with the final podcast?
Do you think what you have learnt through this WebQuest will impact how you use social media and other media going forward?
If it will impact your use, how so?
What is your biggest take away from this WebQuest?

CONCLUSION

Mass media is developing and improving in terms of representation and diversity. Today, there is more pressure for content to be created that is inclusive and authentic. The world is more connected with the advancement of the internet and social media. It is easy and quick for people to express themselves and share their stories and experiences on social media platforms. However, biases and issues still exist within the media and these platforms – they can just be less apparent. Some of the owners of the most popular platforms are white men (Media Smarts, 2023). The technology industry is still not represented by a diverse workforce in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity (Bryan, 2023; Neely, Sheehan and Williams, 2019). The platforms also use algorithms which amplify some voices and suppress others and determine who is shown specific content (Media Smarts, 2023; Williams et al., 2019). This can reinforce divides between groups of people and prevent the ‘windows’ that give us a chance to see things from another person’s perspective. This WebQuest is intended to encourage young people to develop a deeper understanding of diversity and privilege and how the media plays a role in this.

Information Disorder

THEME ALLOCATED:

Motives behind and potential harm caused by information disorder.

TITLE OF THE WEBQUEST:

Information Disorder

INTRODUCTION

In today’s world, it is very easy to create, modify, fabricate, and widely share online content. The current information environment is polluted in many ways. Even if the information itself is genuine, it might be used out of context and turned into a propaganda weapon. While the subject is widely acknowledged and discussed, it is often thought to be the responsibility of big tech companies and platform owners to minimise and eradicate disinformation from social media. However, the task has been deemed way out of reach even with the help of impressive AI tools. The use of AI for fact-checking has become increasingly popular in recent years, but social media platforms continue to face criticism for their role in spreading fake news and other misleading content. Regardless of whether the daily used online apps and platforms can detect disinformation, the spread will be minimised once the social media user acknowledges and regains responsibility for their actions.

TASKS

Today, you and your peers are going to research the motivations behind creating and sharing fabricated content on social media! By doing so you will learn about ways to differentiate between genuine and manipulated content and hopefully gain more understanding of the importance of reliable online information. To support your findings from the online research and to capture the opinions of a large group of people about how they rate their own knowledge about information disorders encountered on social media, you and your team are going to develop a short online quiz for people to complete, and then you will carry out interviews with people from different faith or cultural groups in your school, youth centre or community. Based on the responses your team will gather; you will create a short video of the interviews with a summary clip at the end which includes the conclusions and further suggestions to create a more truthful and trustworthy landscape.

PROCESS

Step 1. Research

Before we can research the motivations behind the creation and sharing of disinformation, we must have some understanding of the term. Let’s first look at the three main terms related to information disorder and its mechanisms.

Disinformation – false information is knowingly shared by a communicator.
Misinformation – false information shared by a communicator thinking it is truthful.
Malinformation – factual information used in a way to cause harm or manipulate.

Read more about information disorder below:

Find some more useful information about the motivation behind the information disorder and the harm caused by it within the following links:

Here are a few links to educate you further on how to detect false information in photos, videos, and audio:

After reviewing the links above, have a discussion in your group about everyone’s confidence level in detecting disinformation on social media, and if it has changed during the research step of this WebQuest. Reflect on the types of disinformation you were exposed to and the possible reasons you didn’t recognise it at the time.

Step 2. Creating a pre-interview questionnaire

In order to begin interviewing people regarding their personal experience with manipulated online content and their confidence in being able to identify such information, you and your team will need to brainstorm for short answer questions for the pre-interview questionnaire.

To make the most of your time and get a wide range of questions from each team member, have a read through the following description on how to use brainstorming best.

Brainstorming

Once all team members have an idea of how to brainstorm, review the information in the link below to get a better idea of how to create a questionnaire.

Design a questionnaire

While coming up with questions for the questionnaire, depending on your target group, make sure that the questions are relevant and that you will find out their current habits and beliefs around their confidence to detect the manipulated content and what are their actions when they encounter it.

Keep the following in mind for your questionnaire:

Do people know about the spread of disinformation online? If so, what are the most common ways it’s spread (in their opinion)?
How do they determine if the information is incorrect?
Have they ever shared information they knew to be incorrect? If so, why?
Did anyone call them out after sharing disinformation?
Have they ever seen their friends or family share disinformation and if they have, did they let the person know, if not, why not?
In their opinion what are the main reasons people share disinformation?

Once your group has come up with the questionnaire, carry out a practice run to test out the questionnaire to make sure you have included all relevant questions to cover the information you need for the aim of the project.

Step 3. Creating a Quiz on Google Forms

At this stage, your team has created a questionnaire to determine interviewees’ personal experience with manipulated online content and their confidence in identifying such information. It is now time to test out if their self-perception and reality match, to determine this, you and your team will create a quiz on Google Forms. Follow the instructions on the below links to learn how to use the platform for your quiz:

For your quiz, please use a combination of real and fake images, videos, headlines, etc. from either the links below or search some of your own online.

When designing the quiz, it is important to include a final score to let them know how well they did in detecting different types of disinformation online. This way, they can identify areas where they need to improve or where they excel.

Step 4. Creating the Questions for the Interview

Your next step is to draft some interview questions for your participants to answer. Here are some questions that might be useful to get the brainstorming started and help you come up with more relevant questions:

Are you surprised with the results of the Quiz?
Which type of disinformation did you find hardest to detect?
Would you think it is an important skill to have to be able to discern between genuine and manipulated data and if so, then why, if not why?
Would you think your family and friends would be better or worse than you at being able to spot disinformation online and why?
Do you think it is necessary to promote the importance of reliable and accurate sources of information, so your family and friends would be aware of this disinformation as well?

You might find the following links useful for guiding you towards relevant questions in your interview:

Step 5. Preparation for the interview

It is now time to prepare for the interviews, but before your team can start the recording process, there are a few more decisions to be made. Your team needs to determine how to record data, allocate tasks, and decide what equipment to use. For further information about preparing interviews, look back to the modules that you covered in the Citizen Journalism Curriculum.

Step 6. Carrying out the interviews

You and your teammates have been working hard and no doubt everyone is eager to get to the recording stage, however, it will be a good idea to do a few practice-runs and adjust the process where necessary, to avoid disruption during the recording of the actual footage.

When your team is ready and the equipment is set, keep the following tips in mind:

When approaching the people, you are inviting to your interview – Smile😊.
Accept rejection, don’t be offended if someone turns you down.
Make sure to get everyone to sign the consent form before you start filming.
Make sure to stay objective throughout the project, so that the answers are not reflected by anyone’s bias in the group.
Make sure to gather responses from a diverse group of people to get a wide range of replies.

The following links might help you to ease into the interviewer role better:

You are now all set to go meet some lovely people and gather your information!

Step 7. Post-production of the interviews

Your group has gathered the videos, and it is time to carry out the post-production of the material collected. Here is a great YouTube video and an article with some key tips on editing an interview:

To find more information about editing interviews, check back to the audio-visual modules that you completed during the Citizen Journalism Curriculum.

Step 8. Publish the video with interviews and the conclusion.

The last step of this WebQuest is to reflect on the information gathered by publishing your team’s video containing the interviews online, and among your peers and discussing the results. Depending on the findings from your project you could come up with a list of supportive tools for your friends and family that will help them when fact-checking online content, by doing this you would promote the importance of reliable and accurate sources of information, as well as advocate for a more truthful and trustworthy digital landscape.

EVALUATION

To evaluate your experience during this project you will need to keep a self-reflective journal throughout each step of the process. After completion of each step, describe the way you felt in every part of the exercise.

Did you feel motivated with the assigned tasks?
Would you have preferred to try out a different role?
Did the information covered seem relevant to you personally?
Was there any aspect of the project you would have liked to gain more knowledge in?

To learn more about the reflective journaling, follow the link below:

How to Write a Reflective Journal with Tips and Examples?

The information gathered in the self-reflective journal is for personal use and will not be shared with the group or youth worker.

Possible discussion points for the youth worker:

How often have you been subjected to manipulated online content in the past week?
In your opinion, are there any specific topics that are frequently subjected to disinformation, and if so, why?
Have you ever called someone out on spreading disinformation and if not, why not?
Have the results of the project made you realise the importance of checking the reliability of the online content you encounter daily?

CONCLUSION

Well done, as part of this WebQuest you have worked together as a team and managed to cover the subject of information disorder and the motivations behind creating and sharing such content. You have also highlighted the importance of differentiating between genuine and manipulated images and videos online. Your team came up with your own approach on this subject and created some great tools to gather information about people’s skills and their opinions on the matter. This allowed you to discover and strengthen your teamwork and communication skills within the group and when carrying out the interviews with the public.

Social media is meant to be a fun and informative space that brings communities together, but manipulated and false online content can often cause the exact opposite by polarising the society. Therefore, it is more important than ever before that we all do our best and work together for a more truthful and trustworthy digital landscape.

Contemporary Propaganda

THEME ALLOCATED:

Contemporary Propaganda (Propagation of Memes, Sponsored Content, Deep Fakes, Fake News Related to Other Faiths).

TITLE OF THE WEBQUEST:

Propaganda Games

INTRODUCTION

Propaganda involves circulating information with the intention of promoting a particular idea and influencing the public’s beliefs, attitudes, and actions. Propaganda may be biased, manipulative, or misleading (Smith, 2024). Propaganda messaging is often subtle and unnoticeable but can have a major social and political impact. The existence of digital technologies and social media has changed the format of propaganda and how the public interacts with it. Audiences can respond to and share propaganda (participatory propaganda). This can give these messages greater power, as people are ‘more likely to believe those familiar to them’ (Wanless, 2017). People are also becoming more reliant on social media as their primary news source but are not always equipped with the skills to question content and check the sources (Murrell et al., 2023; Shearer et al., 2015). All forms of media (videos, photos, memes, etc.) can be altered and used to spread propaganda, fake news, and conspiracy theories. This type of content can be used to create divides between groups of people, e.g., between people from different religious or cultural backgrounds, by pushing false narratives and stereotypes. There are several propaganda tactics, such as, making positive or negative associations, repeating messages, using emotional language, or getting people to agree because lots of other people are, e.g., jumping on the bandwagon (Twinkl, 2022). It is crucial to learn the skills to identify and challenge propaganda to reduce the negative consequences on society.

TASK

You enjoy using social media and sharing videos and pictures with your friends and family. Recently, you came across a very realistic, deep fake video. You were about to share this video on your Instagram story when you read a comment that made you stop and think twice. You investigated the account that posted the video. This led you to realise that the video was fake and was created using facial recognition technology and machine learning (https://www.webwise.ie/news/explained-what-are-deepfakes/). You were shocked and concerned by how convincing the video was! You have started looking into other ways propaganda, fake news and conspiracy theories are created and shared through social media. You decide you want to raise awareness in your local community around the impact of propaganda on society by taking part in an exciting competition called ‘Propaganda Games’!

To take part in this competition, you will have to form a team with 3-5 other people. Your team will test out current games that are designed to help players understand how propaganda and different types of disinformation and misinformation spread on social media. You will then work together to brainstorm game ideas for teaching members of your community about an element of social media that can be used to circulate propaganda, e.g., through memes, deep fakes, sponsored content, etc. A games event and competition will take place as part of the Citizen Media Summit (March – May 2025). Members of the community including youth workers, parents, and caregivers will be invited to the event to try out the games! All the participating teams will give a brief presentation about the game they designed and demonstrate how it works. During this event, your team should interview one person who played your game and ask them for feedback. Following the event, your team should write a short news report about the experience and include the interview as part of it. There will be an anonymous vote at the end of the event and the participating team with the most votes for the best and most original game will be selected as the winner! Good luck!

PROCESS

Step 1: Game Testing

To get started, your team should spend time (30 minutes – 1 hour) testing out current games that have been created to teach members of the public digital and media literacy skills. There is a table of suggested games that your team can review below. These games are intended to increase players’ knowledge and understanding of how propaganda, fake news, and conspiracy theories can rapidly spread online and create divides between people and result in real-world consequences.

All the games are open-access and can either be played online (in the browser) or by printing out a PDF that can be used as a board game. Each member of the team can try out a different game or everyone can test the same game(s). Alternatively, your team can play ‘Lizards and Lies’, a multiplayer board game, together. For every game tested, the team should answer the questions assigned below. The youth worker or facilitator will advise your team which approach is best and what games to test – in relation to the time you have for this step. You can always refer to these games and try them out in your own time! Your team should have a group discussion and share thoughts and opinions about the game’s design and content.

Existing games:

Games: Media Literacy & Propaganda
Name:	Description:	Details:	Link:
Cat Park	This game highlights 5 manipulation techniques: trolling, emotional manipulation, amplification, polarization, and conspiracy. The player uses these tactics to turn the public against a new cat park.	15-20 minutes of game play. Available in: English, French, Dutch, Russian, Serbian, and Czech.	https://catpark.game/
Bad News	Simple game that is similar to Cat Park. Highlights how social media platforms like Twitter are used to push fake news. Focuses on 6 tactics: impersonation, emotion, polarization, conspiracy, discredit, and trolling.	10-15 minutes of game play. Available in a range of languages including English, German, Dutch, Portuguese, and Esperanto (not available in Spanish).	https://www.getbadnews.com
Harmony Square	This game also highlights manipulation techniques such as trolling, use of emotional language, artificially boosting messages, spreading conspiracy theories, and creating division.	10 minutes of play time. Available in several languages including English, French, Dutch, and Spanish.	https://harmonysquare.game/
Lizards and Lies	This is a multiplayer board game. It is not digital; players must print out the PDF and set it up. In this game, you are either working to moderate content and teach communities how to spot fake news and misinformation, or you are spreading the lies and creating chaos in communities!	1-1.5 hours of play time. Available in: English, French, and Lithuanian.	https://www.lizardsandlies.ca/
Choose your own fake news	This is a simple and quick game! There are 3 different characters who each have a different scenario that the player responds to. They are presented with news and information about job opportunities, vaccines, and upcoming elections. The player learns how misinformation and disinformation may be presented to them online and gets to practice dealing with it.	Play time is 5-20 minutes depending on how many scenarios you work through. This game is only available in English.	https://chooseyourownfakenews.com/
Newsfeed Defenders	In this game, the player acts as a moderator who maintains a social media site called Newsably. The player has to approve news stories and identify and report fake posts.	Play time is 20 minutes plus. Only available in English.	https://www.icivics.org/games/newsfeed-defenders
Adventures of Literatus	The player explores and searches through 10 worlds (or 10 levels) where they come across false and misleading information. The player has to check this information to reveal the truth and move onto the next world/level.	Available in: English, French, Polish, and more (not available in Spanish).	https://media.am/literatus/
BBC iReporter	This game is not about propaganda but gives players an insight into how news is reported, and the media is created and shared. The player is a news reporter and must make decisions about what stories to report on and which headlines to use. The game is very interactive and contains a lot of videos and multimedia. This might be useful for teams to explore to see a different game format!	Play time is 10-20 minutes. Only available in English.	https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-8760dd58-84f9-4c98-ade2-590562670096

Consider the following questions after testing out a game:

What did you think about the game? Was it engaging?
Was the game accessible and easy to use?
Were the instructions clear and easy to follow?
Did you like the game design, layout, and graphics?
Did the game have characters? If so, did you like the characters? Are they relatable?
Were the scenarios/activities in the game good? Were they realistic/fantastical?
What did you learn?
Did you learn something from the game that you did not know before?
Do you think the game delivered on its learning objective(s)? Why/why not?
How could the game be improved?
What elements of this game would you include in your own game?

Step 2: Game Ideas & Brainstorming

Your team has done an excellent job trying out existing games! At this point, your team should have an understanding of how propaganda is spread on social media using different tactics and in different forms (memes, deep fakes, advertising, fake news, etc.). Your team also knows how games can be used to teach people about this topic and equip them with the skills to handle challenging situations online. Your team should have a discussion and brainstorm game ideas. All you will need is some pens and paper or a whiteboard and markers. Everyone should contribute and share possible ideas, which should be written down on the paper/whiteboard. There are no bad ideas, just say whatever comes to mind! The ideas will be narrowed down in the next stages. There are lots of different ways to brainstorm and come up with game ideas. If needed, use some of the resources below.

Brainstorm and mind-map resources:

Resource for Youth Worker/Facilitator:

Design pack for games and learning

Step 3: Research

Fantastic, your team has come up with some great ideas! Now it is time to do some further research to prepare your team for designing the game. Have a discussion and decide what other information your team needs to move forward with a game concept. Come up with 3-6 topics to research based on the brainstorm, e.g., ‘memes and propaganda’, ‘creating educational games’, or ‘social media and deep fakes’. Divide these topics out among the team members and carry out research individually. Spend 10-15 minutes on this. The group should then come back together and share what they have found. Below is a list of research resources which may be useful.

Research resources:

This is an article with guidance on how to check your sources to make sure they are reliable: https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/credible-sources/
Tips for searching for information onlinehttps://www.mindtools.com/abtmh5z/seven-ways-to-find-what-you-want-on-the-internet
Webwise is a website with useful articles and resources related to internet safety: https://www.webwise.ie/

Step 4: Game Concept

Well done, your team has gathered lots of relevant information! In this next stage, your team should choose 1-2 game ideas to further develop, based on the game testing, brainstorming and research carried out. For each idea, create a mind-map and consider the following details: the goal of the game, the environment/setting, the game components, the mechanics, and the rules (intogames, 2020). It would also be helpful to write a general overview of the game and further details about how the gameplay will work.

The game can be in any format (digital, traditional, single player, or multiplayer). The game should have a minimum play time of 5 minutes and a maximum play time of 20 minutes. Take a look at the resources below. These may be helpful for guiding your team on how to turn your game ideas into workable concepts. Your team may split into two groups for this, e.g., two groups of 2-3 people. Each group could develop one idea into a concept. Allow 15-30 minutes to do this. Afterward, present and review the concepts together and make a group decision as to which concept to move forward with. If needed, have an anonymous vote, you can use Mentimeter for this (https://www.mentimeter.com/). You can also combine ideas, make suggestions, and come up with practical adjustments to the concepts. Consider realistic aspects like the skills of your team and the time frame to produce the game. Remember, sometimes simple concepts work the best and the main goal is for the game to have an impact on the community while being engaging and fun!

Game concept resources:

Making a group decision:

Tips for effective group decision-making

Step 5: Designing the Game

In this step, your team will fully develop the game concept and work on the game design. You should roughly know how the game is going to work and what it will look like. If there are any aspects of the game, your team still has to figure out, this is the time to do it. It can be helpful to sketch out an example of the game and think about the game logistics and what is missing. If the game is going to be digital, decide what platform your team will use, e.g., Genially, Kahoot, etc. If the game is going to be played on a physical board or with cards, decide if these will be hand-made or if your team will use a digital template and print it out. It is a good idea to make a simple paper game prototype and test it. As a team, work together to come up with ideas and solutions where needed. During this step your team can also experiment with different applications and platforms for making simple games that do not require coding, e.g., Kahoot, Genially, Canva, etc. Finally, consider each team members’ skills and divide out the tasks that will be completed to create the final game! For example, some of the tasks may include working on the following:

Game type (quiz, actions)
Game layout and set-up (cards, board, parts)
Mechanics of the game (steps, processes, levels)
Game story (developing characters, setting)
Artwork and design (graphics, traditional)

Game design resources:

Digital games (software/platforms/websites that could be used):

Websites for creating online games
Canva game templates
Genially game templates
Twine is an open-source software that you may opt to use if you have previous experience using it. It can be used to create story-based games: https://twinery.org/
If member(s) of your team have coding experience, they can make use of this skill and create the game using, software they are familiar with, e.g., Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/). Be mindful of the extra time this might take and consider if other team members will be able to contribute.

Step 6: Creating the Game

Your team has made it to the most exciting step – creating the game! For this step, everyone should know their role and what part of the game they are working on. This step may take some time depending on the complexity of the game. Your youth worker or facilitator will advise your team on how much time there is to create the game. You might have to do some of the work from home. It is important that the team communicates and collaborates well together during this step. While working on elements of the game, the team should agree to meet to discuss progress, test out elements of the game, and share any issues that arise. Don’t worry if the game does not turn out perfectly, you can still showcase the idea at the games event and explain the concept.

Step 7: Preparation for the Event

Congratulations, your team has created a really great and unique game! Now it is time to prepare for the big event. Your team should plan and practice how you will present the game at the event and demonstrate the gameplay. Someone will have to setup a table at the event where people can come and try out the game. Your team members will have to take turns supervising this area and showing community members how to play the game. Your team will also have to interview someone at the event who plays the game and ask them for feedback. You should prepare a few questions to ask them about the game and the topic. Make sure that everyone plays a role at the event! If there are any issues with the game, e.g., it is not completely finished, discuss this with your youth worker or facilitator to come up with a way that the game can be presented so that there is some element of it that people can interact with. Your youth worker or facilitator will also help with organising the interview and ensuring that the required safe-guarding measures are in place. They will also advise you on getting consent from the interviewee and the required consent forms. They should be present when you carry out the interview. Below are some resources to help your team with the set-up, presentation, and interview.

Event Set-up:

This article includes helpful tips for setting up a table and presenting your game at an event: https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/what-best-ways-showcase-your-game-judges-audiences
This is another article about organising your table for play tests: https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/41933/properly-organizing-tabletop-playtest

Presentation resources:

Interview resources:

Refer to modules 3 and 4 of the Citizen Journalism Curriculum, that you completed training in, to better understand the steps of interviewing people and writing.
Game feedback questions
How to write an interview article (tips)

Step 8: News Report

Congratulations, your team has taken part in the event, and it was a big success! In this last step, your team will write a news report about the event, your game, and the feedback received. You should include the interview in this. Each member can write a short section of the report, and another member can compile and edit the final version. The report can include a little bit about the development of the game, the final game that was created, how the event went, and the interview and feedback received. Optionally, it can include a little bit about the team members and what they learnt through the experience. You can refer back to modules 3 and 4 of the Citizen Journalism Curriculum, that you completed training in, to better understand how to write the news report and include the interview in it. The news report will be reviewed and then published onto the CO-EXIST Digital Newsroom. Below are some resources for writing a news report.

News report and writing resources:

EVALUATION

To debrief the WebQuest, have a feedback session with the young people. During this they can complete a feedback survey and answer the following questions:

Did you enjoy the overall experience?
Did you enjoy the WebQuest scenario?
What did you enjoy the most about the WebQuest?
What was the most challenging part?
Did you enjoy working as part of a team?
Do you think your team worked well together?
Did you enjoy learning about the topic and testing out the existing games?
Did you enjoy creating the game?
Were you happy with the final game?
What is your biggest take away from this WebQuest?
Do you feel you gained any new skills (if so, what are they?).
Is there anything you want to learn more about?

CONCLUSION

Malicious tactics are often used to spread disinformation and misinformation online. Propaganda, fake news, and conspiracy theories may be hidden within the media we consume. For example, memes are typically used to comment on situations, events, and people in a humorous way. They may appear to be harmless sources of entertainment, but they can also be a way to unite people by creating a collective sense of identity or a way to divide people by using humour or sarcasm to delegitimise arguments or deliver divisive messages (Brown, 2022). Other types of media we see every day, can be manipulated in the same way to suggest positive and negative ideas to us. This can shape peoples’ social and political views and impact the way they vote and interact with others. The aim of this WebQuest is to help young people develop a deeper understanding of this and the negative implications it can have on society. Through this WebQuest young people will come up with solutions and ways to protect their communities by creating educational games.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them. Project Number: 2022-2-IE01-KA220-YOU-000099163

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