This extended abstract introduces the work of the Netherlands AI Media and Democracy lab, especially focusing on the research performed from an AI/computer science perspective at CWI, the Netherlands National Research Center for Mathematics and Computer Science in Amsterdam. We first provide an overview of the general aims and set-up of the lab, and then focuses in on the research areas of the 3 research groups at CWI, outlining there are of research and expected research contributions in the areas between AI and media & democracy
Between 1 March 2021 and 30 April 2023, a consortium (consisting of in the Netherlands: the National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek -KB), The Hague University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum; in Belgium: Media & Learning Association in Leuven and Public Libraries 2030 in Brussels; and in Spain: Fundación Platoniq in Barcelona) carried out an Erasmus+-funded research project on news media literacy among young people. It involved Dutch, Belgian and Spanish young people aged 12-15. The acronym SMILES, which stands for 'innovative methodS for Media & Information Literacy Education involving schools and librarieS', was chosen for the project title. The main goals of the SMILES project are: • Forming pairs between librarians and secondary school teachers in the three European countries, who were empowered through train-the-trainer workshops to teach secondary school students about news media literacy in relation to disinformation; • Helping students use digital technologies more safely and responsibly with a focus on recognising reliable and authentic information versus becoming more resilient to disinformation; • Developing five building blocks serving as teaching materials for Dutch, Belgian and Spanish pupils aged 12-15 with the aim of making them recognise disinformation and making them more resilient against it; • A scientific evaluation of the effectiveness of the implemented lessons through impact measurement using 'pre-knowledge tests' and 'post-knowledge tests'; • A strengthening of existing collaborations and creation of new collaborations between schools and libraries in the three partner countries. The SMILES project was implemented through three work packages. In the first work package, five so-called 'Baseline studies', or literature reviews, were conducted. The focus was on what the different educational approaches in Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands are with regard to disinformation and how these approaches can be linked. Based on these studies, the five building blocks were developed in the second work package. In addition, the teaching pairs were offered the training programme developed by SMILES through a 'train-the-trainer methodology' to safely and responsibly deploy the use of digital media tools during lessons with students. Also, based on the disinformation literature, the knowledge tests were designed to conduct an impact measurement of the train-the-trainer workshops and lessons among the trainers (teaching pairs) and students, respectively. These knowledge tests contained statements on disinformation that were answered correctly or incorrectly by respondents. The number of correctly answered statements prior to the lessons was compared with the number of correctly answered statements after the lessons. In this way, an attempt was made to prove a positive learning effect of the deployed lessons. In the third work package, the results from the pre-knowledge tests and the post-knowledge tests were analysed. In addition to these quantitative analyses, qualitative results were also used to analyse and look at the extent to which the training provided to trainers (teaching pairs) and the lessons with the five building blocks for students proved effective in teaching, recognising and becoming more resilient to disinformation, respectively. In doing so, we also reflect on whether the methodology tested has been effective in the three countries: what are the best practices and where do we see areas for improvement?
Media literacy is an important element in countering the harmful effects of dis- and misinformation. To date, the main perspective on media literacy can be described as a ‘liberalist’ view of media literacy, focused on the nature and source of individual messages (Phillips and Milner, 2021). In this approach, media literacy initiatives mainly focus on equipping ‘citizens with the necessary skills to make sense of the message they read, see and hear’ (Phillips and Milner, 2021: 151). In this paper, we report and reflect on the insights from the project “Putting Disinformation on the Map” in which we use creative, participative, visual and digital methods to understand how we can expand our understanding of media literacy. A central question to our inquiry is how to situate yourself in a media landscape which is inherently interconnected, networked and interdependent, also understanding yourself as a contributing actor.
