Within the scope of the IBERIFIER Plus project, the Polytechnic of Viseu held, on 22 April, a workshop dedicated to media literacy and the fight against disinformation. The initiative was led by teaching staff and researchers from the institution and involved around 30 students from the Master’s in Primary Education.
During the session, participants were given access to practical tools to identify and debunk false content, namely fake news. The activity began with a group exercise that challenged students to create the front page of a newspaper, making editorial decisions based on their own beliefs, knowledge and individual contexts.
This exercise made it possible to explore the news values used by journalists in the process of selecting and prioritising information. In a second phase, students analysed a specific case of disinformation, following the entire fact-checking process. Among the aspects addressed were the thematic analysis of the news item, the appeal of headlines, the identification (or absence) of sources, and the importance of cross-checking data in validating information.
