New online course Really, yeah?
Press Release - Prague - 7. 11. 2023
Helping Czech and Slovak seniors navigate the sea of news - a new project will strengthen the resilience of seniors to information manipulation. In a series of five online courses, Fact, yeah? they can test their resistance to misinformation.
Transitions and Elpida in the Czech Republic, together with partner organisation MEMO98 in Slovakia, are expanding their activities aimed at seniors with the support of Google. The successful multi-year project will significantly expand the range of educational activities on media education and resilience to information manipulation.
This is also the focus of a survey by IPSOS, in cooperation with the Central European Digital Media Observatory (CEDMO), which highlights the importance of media education for seniors. The results show that 34% of participants over 55 feel that they are often exposed to misinformation. Those aged between 45 and 65 consider media education to be the most effective tool against the spread of misinformation.
The programme from Transitions presents a new video spot that attracts online and offline courses to better navigate the current information overload. It seeks to strengthen not only resistance to manipulation but also well-being while exploring the Internet. It disrupts the stereotypical notion of "media and digitally illiterate" seniors who are not proficient with modern means of communication and shows them in an unexpected yet very real light.
The musical diversity of the video clip was stylistically enhanced by the Elpida choir. The spot is accompanied by five instructional videos and five online courses linked to them. For those who prefer offline learning, a series of meetings is prepared at the local level, in Prague at Elpida and at regional institutions in different parts of the country.
"Elpida and Transitions have long been committed to ensuring that seniors and senior citizens continue to be a confident and respected part of our society. However, they are often overlooked in public discourse or even labeled as the biggest purveyors of fake news. This label is not fair.
In our programs, we share skills with seniors so that the merchants of fear and misinformation are not able to exploit the insecurities and fears of a large segment of seniors. Our programmes therefore promote their confidence and well-being as opposed to fear, insecurity and stereotypes," says Jaroslav Valůch from Transitions.
Transitions, Elpida and Memo98 have organised over 300 events in the past 4 years, especially in cooperation with local partners such as libraries and universities of the third age. More than 3600 participants have attended courses and lectures. All these experiences from the "off-line" meetings are now being translated by the organisation into an on-line version, so you can try out media courses in the framework of active e-learning.
Really? Video clip Online course Link to videos Photo gallery Course programme in the Czech Republic
Media contact
Iveta Čížová ~ PR ~ iveta.cizova@elpida.cz ~ +420 773 480 505
Jiří Hrabě ~ Director of Elpida ~ jiri.hrabe@elpida.cz ~ +420 777 620 281
Jaroslav Valůch ~ Media Education Specialist, Transitions ~ jaroslav.valuch@tol.org ~ +420 702 170 427