Europe Day gymkhana against disinformation celebrates the third edition
The educational gymkhana organized on the occasion of Europe Day, held on Friday, May 9, has brought together and trained more than 400 secondary and primary school students in the four Catalan provinces. The activity, promoted by Learn to Check and with the collaboration of the European Commission and other European entities, aims to promote critical thinking and combat disinformation through gambling.
Students from different educational centers in Barcelona, Lleida, Tarragona and Girona have passed different tests that combined journalistic skills. In the first they have known the actors of disinformation and have carried out an activity of crosswords on terms that are used when we talk about disinformation. Two other tests have consisted in the verification of data and news, where they had to look for the sources and check the veracity of these, and in the detection of contents manipulated and generated by artificial intelligence of images. They also had to perform a geolocation test where they had to place different images of different European cities on the map. The activity has been supported by the European Commission Representation in Barcelona and the Europe Direct Center in Girona, Lleida and Tarragona.
The gymkhana was held in the Plaça Sant Miquel in Barcelona, taking advantage of the public space to be able to bring European institutions and verification tools closer to citizens in an accessible and participatory way. In Girona it has been developed at the Youth Station, while in Lleida it has been carried out in the Alfred Perenya Hall of the Department of Culture and in Tarragona in the Kesse Space.
In addition, in Barcelona, thanks to the location of the activity, which has been located near the central act that was held in the Plaza Sant Jaume, the citizens who roamed the area have been interested and have participated in the gymkhana. We have also had the presence of the representative of the European Commission, Manuel Szapiro, who has participated in our gymkhana to learn more concepts about disinformation.
With this initiative, the aim was to highlight the active role of citizens, and especially young people, in the construction of a more critical, informed and resilient Europe in the face of current information challenges.
