FAKE NEWS ARE WORSE THAN BAD NEWS by Tolea Postovei

https://www.facebook.com/Exchange-Busteni-FAKENews-108617564893240/

Content -Description of project -Workshops -Landart -Intercultural evenings -City bound -About Erasmus+ -Media

FAKE NEWS ARE WORSE THAN BAD NEWS”" was a youth exchange in frame with Erasmus + programme with 7 countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, Czechia and Romania. The project took place in Busteni, Romania from 7 to 16 September 2021 and gathered together 42 participants (35 young people and 7 group leaders) The project took place in a context in which the media of all kinds is assaulted by fake news in order to produce panic, confusion, conflicts, attacks, discrimination etc The aim of the project is to increase the degree of responsibility of young people in managing fake news. Main objectives were: 1. strengthen the power of discernment of 42 participants from 7 countries in recognizing fake news and combating their propagation 2. increasing the responsibility of behaviour in society and social networks for eliminating hate speech and electronic violence generated by fake news 3. stimulating the creativity of 42 participants from 7 countries through media creation and forum theatre in generating tools and solutions to prevent attacks and the effects of fake news The methodology was based on non-formal education, practical and experiential learning and was created together with the young people adapting methods practiced in other projects to the specific conditions of the thematic, partnership, learning objectives and proposed activities ensuring equal access and active involvement of all participants. During the 10 days spent together all participants were devoted and showed interest in thematic and intercultural learning. The effects of the educational process were shown by evaluation and expressed a very good level of satisfaction. Fake news is a current topic that demands attention, responsibility and awareness. Together we demonstrate that there are solutions, and we are ready to apply them in our groups of friends, families, communities and in the next projects. On behalf of FPT Buzau i want to express my gratitude to all partners and participants. ToleaPostovei – project coordinator

Workshop 1- Real, Fake Imaginary For the first workshop of this project, we were supposed to choose three news articles and present them to the other groups. We were divided into small teams with six to seven people with everybody from a different country, to integrate and get to know each otherbetter. First, we had to find news based on real information, fake news that was spread around the world and invented our own fake news from our imagination. Every group randomly chose one topic for the news that they had to prepare to make it more similar to each other and make it harder to guess correctly which news was which, because that was the main thing in this workshop, to trick everyone else by preparing fake news that was equally reliable compared to the real one.

About the presentation, each group read their news with emotion, so it actually made it hard to judge well. The results of the voting were half correct and half incorrect. In conclusion, it was prepared very well.

The biggest thing that is worth noticing from this exercise is that anybody can spread fake information around and it's very easy to trick anyone with this information prepared in a short amount of time.

Workshop 2- Fake news in our countries For the poster workshop we were all split into mixed groups. We all used different and creative ways of expressing our thoughts about "Fake News." Some groups used words, some used images and others used both. We had debates about why and how fake news is created and spread. We tried to understand the causes and responsibilities and then the possible solutions. Each group used its own way of representing the posters. Since in each group there were people from different countries, the mixture of ideas was very interesting and we all learned a lot. The results were unexpected, because what we started out thinking was a positive effect of fake news, became a negative one. Therefore in the end, the groups developed critical thinking.

And so as we learn more about fake news, the less cloudy our minds are.

Workshop 3- Sketches in every country

- Romania The Romanian team had a sketch about elections. A Romanian citizen was watching the TV news and the 3 potential presidents were being interviewed. All of them made promises to the citizens so they could get votes. The first participant promised that he would give people brand new roads, flour, sugar, and plenty of other food ingredients, the second promised people that she would ban all the gypsies, Hungarians and gay people from the country and the last one, who had already served 3 presidential terms, said that he would ban Covid masks, restrictions and also the virus.

- Poland The Polish team presented a Bonnie and Clyde couple. Bonnie was a doctor and she was at work and Clyde was at home, watching TV. Clyde had cancer and suddenly he saw a guy that was selling a book about curing cancer with vitamin C and nothing else. Clyde believed it and told his wife about the news. She got angry and refused to believe it, but he still proceeded to buy the book claiming that he had already tried everything and had nothing to lose anymore. He proceeded in trying to cure the cancer with vitamin C and died.

- Italy The Italian team presented a family. The family had two daughters, a "good" one and a "bad" one. The good one had very good grades in school and always studied, meanwhile the "bad" one had a bad girl image and everyone thought it was true. In the end, the good girl got pregnant at a young age and the conclusion of the sketch was that sometimes looks are deceiving.

- the Czech Republic The Czech team presented a real story. It was based on the story of MiladaHoráková, a Czech politician that was executed by communists. She was accused of conspiracy and betrayal, accusations that were, obviously, fake.

- Spain The Spanish team was presenting a woman that re-rented a house to an immigrant. She spread the news that she was an okupa just because she didn't want to be caught. Actually, the immigrant had all her papers in order, so the old woman was spreading fake news.

- Greece The Greek team presented a lady that was very excited to get the Covid vaccine. After she got her dose, she had no symptoms, but she was at home watching the TV. The TV news showed a lady that died seconds after getting the vaccine. She had a panic attack and she started to worry so much that she ended up in a mental health hospital because she went crazy.

- Bulgaria The Bulgarian team presented fake news about how your pets can give you the Coronavirus. The family that heard this rumour had had a lovely cat for years, but as soon as they heard that your pets could give you the virus, they kicked the cat out so they could be safe.

Workshop 4- World café method

Causes of fake news: lack of education and ethics, ignorance, need of leverage, frustration, power, accessibility to info, too much free time, need of attention, illiteracy, hunger for fame, racism, homophobia, hate, envy, discrimination, and trolling.

Responsibilities: For some people, the Government has the responsibility to implant a new system in schools to show children how to differentiate fake news from true news. But for others, it's more important (and easier) to educate teachers so they can teach children. Everyone agreed with the “Influencers” and thought that journalists should be blamed if they publish fake news Factors: Manipulation,politics and rower, corruption, and political enemies. Misconception/Misinformation, which gives rise to prejudice and racism but also to unhappiness, which also gives rise to emotions, like anger, disappointment, envy, and jealousy. Fear=ignorance. Government= lack of democracy Superiority complex; Social media

Good and bad effects of Fake News From a positive point of view, the group thought that fake news could prevent real conflict, gain popularity, find a solution, raise awareness, create unity between the victims, educate people by compromising fake news, help make money for some people and organisations, and for self-development.

From a negative point of view, it creates conflicts, makes people confused so they can be easily manipulated, in fact that is what normally happens. Also, it affects people’s mental and physical health, damages reputations, makes people lose trust, spreads fear, and provokes racism, homophobia, or xenophobia.

Workshop 5- theater with bad effects of fake news The general idea: produce small theater plays with bad effects of fake news. The aim: Emphasize on the impact fake news has on our everyday lives.

In the beginning all the members had to be split into 7 teams and each of the team members had to prepare a scenario based on fake news that ended badly.

Team no1 had the idea to present 2 sisters watching president Trump on TV making an important announcement. He tells people to inject disinfectant in their body so they could get full protection from the Covid virus. One sister decided to call the doctor before trying out the new method, but the other one was too excited and injectedherself. The one that injected it died after a few minutes.

Team no2 had the idea to present an American journalist, Suzan Parker, who was spreading fake news about the Russian president Vladimir Putin and his alleged involvement in the attack of 9/11. Later, when Vladimir Putin heard about the rumours, he ordered two agents to kill the journalist. The point behind this humorous play was to show that sometimes fake news has fatal effects on its creators or distributors.

Team no3 replicated the vanity of social media and the need of some people to become more and more famous no matter what. The ending of the play showed Yannis, the lead actor, losing all of his friends and “fans” because he exploited them by promoting a fake image of himself to the public.

Team no4 took an example of current affairs and presented how anti vaxxers were dangerous when they have the power and the means. They replicated a story where a girl shopped for a new phone compatible with 5G and how she got lynched by a team of anti vaxxers who believed that 5G was the real “bad guy” of covid-19 disease.

Team no5 and team no6 both had an idea driven by the most trending social media, Instagram, and they wanted to show how this platform shapes our lives and how much fake news is being promoted through this application. Team no5 prepared an act about two ex-lovers and how one of them, Alexandra wanted and achieved to spoil the reputation of her exboyfriend, easily, via the app. And team no6 showed an influencer who repeatedly advertised a water which, in the end, was found harmful to its users. Both of those cases highlighted how easy it is to spread fake information on social media. And last but not least, team no7, took a different road and presented an act where some students spread rumours about one of their classmates resulting in him not being able to pursue a career in a wellreputed company later in his life. With this story the team wanted to depict how fake news might have a long-term impact on our lives. These theatrical plays helped its participants to work as a team, discover and learn more about fake news and manage to communicate and transmit their message to the audience. 16

Workshop 6- CRAAP method and test, getbadnews game What is craap?

The last workshop of the Busteni youth exchange was about knowing more about the Craap method. First of all, all the participants got familiar with the craap test. What is it? Find out below! Craap is an acronym of 5 words, each representing one important point of view in reading news critically. The words representing craap are currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose.

Currency When was the information created? How old is too old? Does the currency of the information matter? Has the material been updated or revised? Consider the importance of currency for the following sources: An article on cancer treatments written in 1970 A historical analysis of the Revolutionary War written in 1982 A book on computer programming written in 1995 Relevance Is the information related to your research? Does the information support your assignment? Did you look at only one source? Who is this written for? How relevant would the following sources be for your paper? a popular magazine article the first 5 results in Google the first 5 results in Discovery or one of the library's other databases

Authority Who or what created the information? Who or what is publishing the information? What credentials, education, affiliations, or experience does the information creator have to write on this topic? Can you find information about the author easily? What can we tell from the domain of the website where the information has been published?

Remember: website domains can help you understand the source of the information you're looking for. For example, in order to have a .edu or .gov in your domain you have to be a college/university or governmental entity respectively. Other website domains like .com, .org, and .net can all be purchased. Don't assume that a .org is more trustworthy than a .com!!! Are the following authoritative?

sources

a tweet about a salmonella outbreak by the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) a peer-reviewed article on medical marijuana written by a team of scientists The National Association of Social Workers' website and blog 18

Accuracy Is this information factual? Has it been peer-reviewed? Is the information supported by evidence? Does the author credit their sources? Are there grammatical or spelling errors? Consider what these points might mean for a resource's accuracy: numerous citations found throughout misuse of "they're" emotional language and tone inability to verify the information anywhere else Purpose Why was this information created? Was the information created to inform, teach, sell, entertain, or persuade you? Is the purpose made clear? Remember: information can have political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal bias. Is it fact, opinion, or propaganda? What do you think the purpose of the following could be? an article written by Apple about the picture quality of the newest iPhone an article published by the NRA on gun control a study funded by Coca-Cola on the connection between sugar and depression.

And where should be the better place to create a new friendship than in mother nature?

Land Art

The first group created a sketch of a dead body to represent that some people spread rumours about celebrities and their death. (Concettina, Konrad, Eirini, Josef, Mari)

The second group “Life is full of fake news… so before you decide to judge make sure you check both parts of the coin. Don’t trust what you see without checking twice, without thinking twice, without reflecting twice. Remember even salt looks like sugar. So, we needed to create a bridge from one side to the other and keep a balance without exaggerating and being extremist. Find the truth.” (Aina, Antonio, Lucie, Mateusz) 21

Andrei,

Eleni,

The third group “We created a news show that focused only on fake news that parodies the way the media spreads misinformation without regard to data or sources. We took some stories and exaggerated them, for example that Covid is fake, that climate change is not real, 5G is dangerous and that the earth is flat, and we put it into a play, pretending to be the journalist delivering these news with humour.” (Alexei, Ani, Monika, Rocío, Lucy, Christos)

The fourth group This group created a land art for the God of the Mushrooms - Riga Crypto. Archaeologists found a bone which was a part of his shoulder. They put it in the land art, surrounded by mushrooms in order to please the God. There were also stones in a circle creating a barrier for the archaeologists. “The forest's story I will tell Apart from sun, where shadow rooms About the laponeEnigel And Kripto,the great king of mushrooms Enigel,Enigel....very much the sun I fear Come on,join me Enigel In fresh sleep,sweet dreams are near.. Riga Kripto,...I'd be merry The sweet dreams I really crave But the shadow's really scary Come to me ,the sunshine's great... 22

Emerged from towards his love Riga Kripto best...

shadows

wished

the

But the sun was bright above Died at once ,in sunshine's nest.. The forest's story I have told Apart from sun,where shadow rooms Where Enigel's afraid of cold And where once lived the king of mushrooms ..” (Ida, Alba, Kamil, Gaetano, Teresa, Angela)

The fifth group This group represented the rebirth of a tree into something new. The tree was destroyed but afterwards it evolved into something better. It was reborn from its own ashes just like the Fenix. The name of the new creation is Cohonix. (Karo, Carmela, Nectarius, Tiberiu, Nordin, Kate)

The sixth group This group prepared two wooden sculptures to commemorate a father and a son who went into the woods but never returned. The fake news was that they were killed by a bear and the whole village that they were from believed that. The mother of the child who was also the wife of the man was very sad and each summer she came to the woods and made those wooden sculptures to commemorate them. But the truth was that they didn’t like the mother so they moved to Croatia. The whole village didn’t want to believe it so they preferred believing in the fake information. (Alex, Spiros, Neda, Ola)

The seventh group Fungus blancos The fake mushroom tree represents how the beauty of deception works. The mushrooms look like blooming flowers and that shows how judging something by its looks can be deceiving. When people see something presented spectacularly, they lose their critical eye. (Yannis, Elly, Teresa, Zuzana, Chris) 24

Maria,

Laura,

As you can’t stop the water from falling down the waterfall, so you can’t stop strengthening new friendships blooming in Erasmus project.

Intercultural Evenings. For the Intercultural evenings we were asked to represent our country by showing different types of food and culture. We were divided into groups and the first evening was dedicated to Greece, Poland and the Czech Republic. Another evening was entirely dedicated to Romania and finally the last evening to Bulgaria, Italy and Spain.

GREECE: Greece was the first to start and they initially presented their main products such as: leukami, various types of olives, beklava e kataifi, various types of chewing-gum, beer etc. They then gave the different groups a questionnaire on Greece to answer and the winner was given a package of typical Greek biscuits. Finally,they showed us several Greek dances.

POLAND: Poland presented different types of food and drink, such as: ptasiemleczku(bird milk), horseradish sauce, polish sausage, honey alcohol etc.

THE CZECH REPUBLIC: They presented different types of food and drink, such as: various types of candies, beer, chips and also pernik, buchtys makem and esieka.

ROMANIA: The second evening was entirely dedicated to Romania. We went down to the courtyard where everything was set for dinner and we initially met a gentleman who showed us how to drink their typical “Tzuika”. Afterwards we started dinner with a platter of typical cold cuts and cheese. We also ate sarmale and mamaliga, mici, sausages and donuts for dessert.

BULGARIA: Bulgaria started the last intercultural evening. They presented different types of food for example: various types of cured meat, jams, liutenitsaairyan. Finally, they showed us Bulgarian dances.

ITALY: Italy presented its many food products such as: bruschette, nutella, taralli, olive schiacciate, savuzizza and suprissata, parmigiano, and various types of beer. Afterwards showed us gestures and meaning.

they hand their

In the end they danced Italian folk dances.

SPAIN Finally, Spain also presented their food such as: pan tumaca, tortilla de patatas, lomo and espetec. They demonstrated what they do on New Year's Eve, by eating twelve gropes for every chime of the clock after midnight. In the end they showed us typical Spanish dances.

And finally, after all… Let us know something about Romania!

City boundtestimonies and photos.

We went around the town in international groups with some tasks we had to complete. Some of them went to a shop to buy some fruit or vegetables and take a photo of that, for example, take photos about local, European or non-European things.

Here we have some testimonies of this activity: We had a great team in the activity. We went to many places in Busteni, and we took a photo by the statue and with a local person, then we went to the supermarket to buy a tomato and finally we had a coffee near the Silva hotel before going to the waterfall. The waterfall was very beautiful and I really liked it.

First, we took pictures of 3 things we didn’t like and 3 things we liked. We felt really good doing this because in this way other people understood what they like to do after that we met in a hotel and we visited the waterfalls that are here in Busteni. We really enjoyed this excursion because we walked a lot and we felt very good. I had companions who were a lot of fun and we made friends with people inside the structure we haven’t talked about where we will sleep yet

About Erasmus+ project Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. It has an estimated budget of €26.2 billion. This is nearly double the funding compared to its predecessor programme (2014-2020). The 2021-2027 programme places a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life. The participants discovered the 8 key competences: 1) Multilingual competence; 2) Personal, social and learning to learn competence; 3) Citizenship competence; 4) Entrepreneurship competence; 5) Cultural awareness and expression competence; 6) Digital competence; 7) Mathematical competence and competence in science, technology and engineering; 8) Literacy competence. The participants were also learning that Youthpass is a European recognition tool for non-formal and informal learning in youth work.

MEDIA Posters

Videos https://youtu.be/j3DbuSf1Xps “Agentia”

A video depicting the happenings of the 11th of September 2021, based on the true story of the 'fictitious' AgențiaNațională. Some say that it is just fake news, that it is a conspiracy theory, that the ones that believe that it is a money laundering entity with billions of Euros are just crazy. On the other side, it's 'tin foil flat earth' followers say otherwise. They claim that it's just a cover for Gaetano, it's unofficial leader, that has, until now, managed to escape all accusations in court. The suspicious deaths of accusers, witnesses is fueling the doubts of the conspiracy theorists, but nothing stands proven thus far.

https://youtu.be/Sd2x-2W52W4 “Jack Forest - Untamed”

Our video project, "Jack Forest - Untamed" is an intentional rip-off of Bear Gryll's "man vs wild". The point was to spread as much fake news and stereotypes about multiple nationalities within the context of a serious reality TV show. Also, the irony is that the original show had its controversies regarding their survival scenarios which were supposedly staged, and received as fake news. 36

https://youtu.be/QkN04dMVy-M - “Looking for Concettina”

This video has the educational purpose to showcase how easy it is for information to be distorted in the public consciousness. In the beggining, a girl walking through the forest loses her phone and her friends find it. They start looking for her and start discussing what could have happened. Starting from reasonable hypothesis, the longer she is missing the more crazy ideas the other people come up with, exaggerating and jumping to conclusions, not always to the benefit of the "victim". In the end, mass hysteria overcomes the group and their worse fears take over. Suddenly, their friend runs into them in the forest. It turns out she was fine in the end, she just went for a long walk, and people made a big deal out of nothing, or, as the saying goes, made a mountain out of a molehill.

Forum Theater

“Our theatre game was about fake news and problems, which it can make in society. The main character is Mary, a student of art history. She is 22 years old and lives with her father and younger sister. Her mother leave the family 17 years ago. She is invited to a party which is organized by Chad, a rich boy from a posh family. He is a woman chaser and he wants to have sex with Mary. So, he raped her. A few days afterparty, start at university some gossips about Chad. Somebody said, that he raped one girl. But Chad wants to have a good reputation, so he starts to spread fake news. There are many articles and posts on Instagram and Facebook about Mary, who rape Chad. When Mary finds out this information, she collapses. She leaves school and her life is ruined. When we play this game the second time, there were many changes by the audience, but we didn’t find any solution to this situation.” (Zuzana – CZ)

“We made modern version of Cinderella. First version had a bad ending where Cinderella do sucide. Our project group tried found other ending. In second play together with the audience we change script in ending where Cinderella get a relationship. That was great fun and lesson, I saw how people enjoy in second play and really try make it better and change attitudes of negative characters and improve active participation of neutral ones. That was my first forum theater form and I think this is one of most engaging form of show problems.” (Konrad – PL)

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‘This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.’