EDMO Ireland presents a selection of hand-picked resources relating to misinformation, disinformation and media literacy.
The resource list includes Irish organisations and Irish-specific research, general research and reports around disinformation, resources for teaching media literacy to others, and resources designed to help develop your own media literacy skills. Click on each section below to view the resources.
Irish Organisations
- DCU Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society (FuJo) – The FuJo institute coordinates EDMO Ireland and investigates how to counter digital pathologies including disinformation and digital hate.
- The Journal FactCheck – The Journal FactCheck unit is located within the newsroom of The Journal and they are the only verified Irish signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).
- Media Literacy Ireland – An independent association of members committed to the promotion of media literacy across Ireland.
- Webwise – Promotes the autonomous, effective, and safer use of the internet by young people through a sustained information and awareness strategy targeting parents, teachers, and children themselves with consistent and relevant messages.
- The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) – The Irish Media Regulator whose statutory obligations include ‘to undertake, encourage and foster research and activities to promote media literacy’.
- Digital Action – An international NGO, based in Ireland, focused on strengthening democratic rights and countering digital threats to democracy.
- CyberSafe Kids – An Irish registered charity which works to empower children, parents and teachers to navigate the online world in a safe and responsible manner.
- Libraries Ireland – Provides a wide range of services including Europe Direct and a range of supports which reduce marginalisation of all types, including language learning supports; social and cultural activities; and support activities for digital technology learning, reading and literacy.
- The Institute of International and European Affairs – provides a forum for all those interested in EU and International affairs to engage in debate and discussion, and to evaluate and share policy options.
- UCD Centre for Digital Policy – builds digital policy capability amongst the public and private sector in Ireland and across the wider European Union.
Irish Research and Reports
- The STOPFARRIGHT report – Published by Maynooth University, this report contains the results of a survey and interviews among Civil Society Organisations about the best ways to stop the advance of the Far Right in Ireland, including a section discussing misinformation tactics.
- CovidCheck 21, CodeCheck 20, and Electcheck19 – These reports are outputs from an EGRA project in which the BAI commissioned FuJo to monitor the implementation of The EU Code of Practice on Disinformation in Ireland. The findings of CovidCheck were endorsed by ERGA and informed the ERGA report whose recommendations informed the Strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation.
- Digital News Report Ireland 2022 – This annual report from the BAI and FuJo reports on news trust, perceptions of disinformation, sources of news consumption and social media usage within Ireland.
- Ireland Media Literacy profile – EDMO is in the process of compiling media literacy profiles for each EU country. The Ireland media literacy profile provides details about media literacy in terms of policy, national school curriculum, education initiatives and stakeholders within Ireland.
- Layers of Lies: A First Look at Irish Far-Right Activity on Telegram – This study from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue looks at activity across 34 Telegram channels through a series of case studies where content posted on these channels resulted in real life consequences.
- Anti-Lockdown Activity: Ireland Country Profile – This profile from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue investigates the overlaps between anti-lockdown movements, conspiracy theorists and extremists, exploring the key individuals and groups involved, and illustrating the harmful activity that can be traced back to the proliferation of conspiracy theories in online spaces.
- In an Era of Fake News, Information Literacy Has a Role to Play in Journalism Education in Ireland – This academic article looks at the current level of awareness of information literacy among journalism educators and establishes if there is scope for collaboration and development of a bespoke information literacy module in journalism, media and broadcasting courses.
- The Media Pluralism Monitor Ireland 2022 – This report, for which FuJo is the Irish partner, assesses the health of media ecosystems and the potential weaknesses in national media systems which may threaten media pluralism and freedom.
- The Future of Media Commission Report – Established by Government, the Future of Media Commission was tasked with developing recommendations to transforming Ireland’s media sector. The report contains an overview of the current situation and future plans relating to disinformation and media literacy.
International Research and Reports
- Debunking Handbook 2020 – The Debunking Handbook 2020 summarises the current state of the science of misinformation and its debunking, and it represents the current consensus on the science of debunking for engaged citizens, policymakers, journalists, and other practitioners.
- Countering Misinformation – Co-authored by EDMO Ireland’s Eileen Culloty, this paper examines over 170 academic papers to review the evidence behind misinformation interventions and provide practical recommendations to policymakers & social media companies.
- War in Ukraine briefings – EDMO publishes regular insights highlighting the main disinformation trends related to the war in Ukraine based on the fact-checking articles provided by members of the EDMO fact-checking network.
- Disinfodemic: Dissecting responses to Covid-19 disinformation – Co-authored by EDMO Ireland’s Kalina Bontcheva, this UNESCO policy brief identifies nine key themes and four main format types associated with disinformation about COVID-19 and its impacts.
- Balancing Act: Countering Digital Disinformation while respecting Freedom of Expression – Co-authored by EDMO Ireland’s Kalina Bontcheva, this UNESCO report presents a typology of 11 different categories of responses to disinformation – ranging from identification and investigatory responses, through to policy and legislative measures, technological steps, and educational approaches.
- Information disorder: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policy making – This Council of Europe report provides a new framework for policy-makers, legislators, researchers, technologists and practitioners working on the theoretical and practical challenges related to mis-, dis- and mal-information — the three elements of information disorder.
- Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online – This report outlines how Internet subcultures take advantage of the current media ecosystem to manipulate news frames, set agendas, and propagate ideas.
Teaching Media Literacy
- Webwise Teaching Resources – This excellent selection of teaching materials designed for Irish schools includes the HTML Heroes programme for primary schools and the Connected media literacy programme for teens.
- Think Smart – This 15 minute video from Barnardos Online Safety Programme is designed for 8-12 year olds to ‘think smart’ about the information they read and the people they meet on the internet. Includes a worksheet and powerpoint for teachers.
- The Glass Room: Misinformation Edition Exhibition – Produced by EDMO Ireland’s Ricardo Castellini da Silva, this 50 minute long video provides a walkthrough of an online exhibition about disinformation and it was designed to be used by secondary school teachers in the classroom.
- Disinformation in a time of conflict – This Council of Europe lesson plan aims to help students understand how disinformation is used in modern warfare through a comparison with the way truth gets manipulated in personal conflicts at school.
- Guidelines for teachers and educators on tackling disinformation and promoting digital literacy – Published by the European Commission, these guidelines provide hands-on guidance for teachers and educators, including practical tips and activity plans. They are designed for primary and secondary teachers with or without specialist knowledge of digital education.
- Media and information literate citizens: think critically, click wisely! – This pioneering UNESCO curriculum presents a comprehensive competency framework of media and information literacy and offers educators and learners structured pedagogical suggestions.
Learning Media Literacy
- Be Media Smart – Developed by Media Literacy Ireland, Be Media Smart offers useful tips and guidance on how to tell the difference between reliable and accurate information and or deliberately false or misleading information.
- The Journal Misinformation section – As well as fact-checking, The Journal has a range of articles and explainers relating to misinformation. Some highlights from the Good Information Project include a live-streamed event, podcast, and an OSINT practice quiz.
- Media literacy youtube series – The Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Library Service commissioned a media literacy project to accompany an online exhibition on disinformation. EDMO Ireland’s Media literacy educator Ricardo Castellini da Silva created a series of videos discussing the most important topics related to disinformation.
- About Vaccines – Funded by a Science Foundation project led by EDMO’s Eileen Culloty, this Irish website seeks to counteract vaccine disinformation by debunking misinformation and providing simple and accurate health campaigns and information for parents.
- Inoculation Science – This website from the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. provides games, videos and research explaining inoculation theory and how it help build resistance against manipulation.
- Bad News Game – This game is designed for those aged 14+ and aims to improve people’s ability to spot manipulation techniques in social media posts and reduce their willingness to share manipulative content with people in their network.
- Fact-checking youtube series – This series of videos from AFP teaches techniques, such as reverse image search or advanced twitter search, for citizens who want to develop their own fact-checking capabilities.
- Truth Matters Campaign – RTÉ’s campaign includes a four part podcast series about misinformation as well as a collection of articles which address disinformation and the importance of trustworthy journalism.
- EU vs Disinfo Learn Platform – With a strong focus on Russian disinformation, this resource provides a selection of articles, useful tools, games, podcasts and other resources to build or strengthen your resilience to disinformation.