Gong presented the project "Pro-fact: Research, education, fact-check and debunk COVID-19 related disinformation narratives in Croatia" at an event organized by the European Observatory for Digital Media, alongside all the projects implemented within "EU Small Scale Media" competition at the European level.
The "Pro-Fact" project deals with COVID-19 disinformation on multiple levels, with a multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach. As an effective response to democratic and societal challenges, the project uses a combination of different expertise and methods – exposing sources and actors, networks of disinformation narratives from different spheres, and combining techniques to combat COVID-19 disinformation. The project is coordinated by Gong, in cooperation with partners: Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb, University of Dubrovnik, and Faktograf.hr.
Through research, awareness-raising and capacity-building methods, the project comprehensively approaches the social, political and health problem of the spread of COVID-19 disinformation campaigns.
The results of the implemented activities will contribute to the goals:
1) Efficiently exposed COVID-19 related disinformation campaigns in Croatia through research,
debunking, and dissemination,
2)Strengthened capacities of the multidisciplinary team in Croatia for detecting and combating disinformation campaigns through the exchange of expertise and networking,
3) Increased media literacy competencies of journalists and the general public in Croatia, with the focus on fact-checking of COVID-19 related disinformation, through the educational resources and campaigns.
The project involves a symbiosis of scientific research, fact-checking, journalism, media literacy, training, advocacy and raising public awareness of the problematic impact of disinformation on democracy and society.
The European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) is based on the work of an independent multidisciplinary community of researchers, media literacy experts and journalists who, in cooperation with media organizations and online platforms, attempt to better understand the problem of disinformation, in order to preserve democracy.
EDMO is therefore designed as a platform that, through its five main activities, gathers relevant organizations and individuals to pool resources and existing knowledge, exchange experiences, tools and instruments in fact-checking and developing media literacy, and create a safe harbor for researchers to access data from online platforms for better understanding and analysis of activities, trends and techniques of spreading lies and manipulation online.
The activities of EDMO are as follows:
