The Atlantic Club of Bulgaria in partnership with ATA Macedonia and the support of the U.S. Department of State is organizing а 3-day training course for students and young professionals focused on media literacy and countering disinformation under the project “Generation Z: Building up disinformation resilience in the leaders of tomorrow”.
The project will include a research via manual and automotive AI software study of memes (an idea, behavior, photo that spreads by means of imitation/irony on which often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme) that are shared on social media in Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia on political, health (COVID-19) and economic topics. Given that such images are commonly used for propagandistic purposes including used as a tool in Russia’s disinformation activity, the research will evaluate the techniques that are employed to influence online users in this context. Following the publication and presentation of the study’s findings in a report, the acquired data will be incorporated into a media literacy course for students that will allow them to detect and to build resilience to misleading sources of information on the Internet.