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We are closing a record year in which we have consolidated ourselves as a benchmark in the fight against disinformation and the promotion of media literacy

At Learn to Check, we close an exciting year in 2024 in which our organization has established itself as a leader in the fight against disinformation and the promotion of media education. We have embarked on inspiring projects at both the national and international level to foster media and information literacy (MIL).

The Learn to Check team has grown with the addition of new academics and communication professionals, who have trained over
5,400 people in 2024 and, since our inception, more than 17,200 people—setting a new record! At the same time, we have strengthened our network of alliances, received funding from the prestigious EMIF fund to advance MIL at the European level, and joined the Iberifier Plus digital media observatory. A year full of inspiration! Here is a review of our most notable activities:

In January 2024, we continued working on a project initiated in 2023: we collaborated with the SX3 Academy, the first digital rights school for children in Catalonia, bringing our expertise in media education and strategies to combat disinformation. The aim of the project was to train and equip primary school teachers with the tools they needed to guide children in developing their media education and digital well-being. Our team provided pedagogical consulting, with tasks such as script writing, the creation of educational materials, the proposal of activities, and pedagogical supervision. The project was launched by 3Cat (Catalonia’s public media) in collaboration with the Mobile World Capital Foundation (MWC), the Catalan Data Protection Authority (APDCAT), and the Catalonia Cybersecurity Agency.

To defend the right to information and counter the impact and damage of disinformation, we worked on the project “¡Que no te la prenguin! Defensem la democràcia de la desinformació. Edició Eleccions europees 2024”. Launched by the Office of the European
Parliament in Barcelona and the Department of External Action and European Union of the Generalitat of Catalonia, this project consisted of workshops aimed at young people. The workshops were delivered to nearly 700 students from third year of ESO (Obligatory Secondary Education) and first year of Bachillerato (Upper Secondary Education), with the aim of improving their knowledge about European institutions and current affairs, as well as raising awareness about disinformation and digital verification within the context of the European Parliament elections held in June.

The workshop on disinformation and climate change, held with sold-out tickets at the Forum Groningen in the Netherlands, in collaboration with the University of Groningen, was one of the notable international trainings provided by Learn to Check in 2024. In January, we also trained teachers and other European professionals with the webinar “Best educational practices to tackle disinformation”, and in October, we trained journalists on how to promote MIL at the Deutsche Welle Akademie.

This 2024, we expanded our course offerings with two new programs. One of them is “Que no te la colin con la IA”, focused on what artificial intelligence is, how it works, and how to verify content generated by this new technology. The other is “Desinformación de género y otras violencias machistas digitales asociadas”, for which we have already conducted several sessions for both students and professionals. Additionally, in our effort to bring media and information literacy closer to teachers, we published new pedagogical materials: two learning scenarios designed for primary and ESO students, developed by our pedagogical advisor Montse Jiménez.

On Europe Day, celebrated on May 9, Learn to Check organized a fun educational scavenger hunt for young people, with the participation of 500 students. The activity aimed to raise awareness among the youth about disinformation and promote information verification skills. The scavenger hunt took place in the four Catalan capitals and was organized by the Representation of the European Commission in Barcelona, in collaboration with Europe Direct Girona, Europe Direct Lleida, and Europe Direct Tarragona.

The event “Dismantling Disinformation: Day of Debate and Proposals on Media Education” was held on June 6 in Madrid, organized by Learn to Check and the Fundación Telefónica, with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Madrid and the collaboration of other partners. The event brought together nearly 200 participants, including teachers, librarians, fact-checkers, and academics. It featured keynote speeches, panel discussions, and practical workshops focused on disinformation and its effects on democracy. Notable speakers included Lucas Graves, a professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who opened the event with a lecture on the global fact-checking movement, and Vitor Tomé, an expert from the Council of Europe and the European Commission, professor at the University of Lisbon, and director of the media education line at Iberifier Plus, who closed the day with a talk on the challenges of media literacy.

This year, we joined Iberifier Plus, a key project for monitoring disinformation in Spain and Portugal, launched by the European Commission. Our organization contributes its experience in media education to this initiative. Iberifier Plus is coordinated by the University of Navarra and includes 25 entities. A hundred individuals from various universities, verification organizations, news agencies, and multidisciplinary research centers make up this observatory

This year, 15 libraries from the Network of Municipal Libraries of the Diputació de Barcelona participated in the second edition of the project “Between the Lines: Reading Disinformation”, where their professionals received training in disinformation and digital verification. The project also involved the Learn to Check team advising them on creating and developing media education activities to promote critical thinking among the public. This project highlights the fundamental role of libraries as reliable sources of information and safe spaces for the community. Between the first and second edition, 40 librarians have been trained and, in turn, have led media literacy activities for more than 700 people.

During the 2023-24 academic year, the second edition of the project “¡Don’t touch them!”We defend digital rights from disinformation”, driven by Learn to Check and UNICEF Spain, with funding from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), was carried out. This edition involved around 500 students and 20 teachers from 10 educational centers in A Coruña, Bilbao, Girona, Guadalajara, Murcia, Paterna, Valladolid, Sevilla, Las Palmas, and Toledo.

With the aim of promoting media and information literacy, Learn to Check, the Iscte-Instituto Universitario de Lisboa, and Dublin City University (DCU) have joined forces to work on the MIL Community Connections (MIL CC) project, an ambitious training program for 150 library professionals in Spain, Portugal, and Ireland. This project, funded by the prestigious European Media and Information Fund (EMIF), aims to create a network of interconnected European libraries against disinformation.

As a culmination of a year full of inspiring projects, Learn to Check launched the intergenerational workshops “What I know about Europe. And you, what do you know?” to combat disinformation and promote media literacy. This initiative is driven by the Diputació de Barcelona —through the Directorate of International Relations and the Management of Library Services—, the Representation of the European Commission, and Learn to Check. These workshops are designed to bring together young people and older adults, fostering the exchange of knowledge and experiences about the European Union with the aim of strengthening digital verification skills and raising awareness about the importance of accurate information. An initiative that seeks to empower different generations to face together the challenges of disinformation.

This year, in addition to expanding our network of projects, collaborations, and training workshops, we have had a prominent presence in the media. Learn to Check has become a reference source in the field of disinformation and media and information literacy (MIL), and our experts have been consulted to explain phenomena such as the explosion of false information during the DANA crisis in Valencia, appearing in media outlets like Antena 3, À Punt, and IB3. Additionally, we have collaborated on reports about disinformation and health or disinformation and hate speech and we have been invited to programs to talk about the effects of misinformation on minors.

In 2025, we will continue working on our four lines of action: training for all audiences, socially impactful projects, research, and the creation of educational materials