TRUTH4YOUTH: Media Literacy and Critical Thinking to Counter (Climate) Disinformation

About the project

TRUTH4YOUTH is a CERV project on countering disinformation, information manipulation and interference in the democratic debate. It is coordinated by WIPSEE (France) with partners from Italy, Austria, Latvia, Serbia, Greece, Poland and Bulgaria, and aims to strengthen the media literacy and critical thinking of young people, especially around climate.

Young people are fluent online, but on the platforms they use most the line between entertainment, news, opinion and propaganda has become blurred. Over 80% of young Europeans see disinformation as a threat to democracy, yet only a minority feel confident in spotting it. Youth workers reach young people where they are, online and in community spaces, but many lack the resources and confidence to tackle deepfakes, hate speech, algorithmic bias or climate disinformation.

At the core of the project is the Digital Disciplined Citizenship manual and toolkit with five pillars: detecting disinformation and prebunking, counter-narrative storytelling, safe use of AI tools, digital ethics and inclusive dialogue. It is shaped by a mapping of existing resources, a survey of young people across the partner countries and an online co-creation lab, and piloted in a five-day training of trainers.

The approach rests on three pillars: critical media literacy built into real-world problem-solving, gamification and experiential learning that keep young people motivated, and non-formal, peer-to-peer learning with youth-led facilitation and reflection. Priority goes to young people with fewer opportunities, such as NEETs, young migrants and rural youth.

EMOTiC leads the work package From Theory to Practice. Each partner runs a national training course for youth worker multipliers, who then facilitate local Youth Labs with groups of 10 to 15 young people. Their feedback goes into a supplement pack for the manual with quick-start activities for informal and outreach settings.

Youth workers strengthen key competences of the European Training Strategy, from digital transformation to facilitating learning and intercultural communication, while young people build digital, civic and communication competences.

Climate disinformation gets special attention, from greenwashing to climate denial. A research brief maps the narratives that target young people, the Disinfo Detective Toolkit offers fact-checking and prebunking modules, and the Green Disinfo Detective Quiz Challenge covers 30 climate myths with real and fake visuals. Trained Climate Truth Trainers run quiz events in schools, youth centres and online.

The project also links young people with decision-makers through stakeholder roundtables, memoranda of understanding, a policy brief on youth work against disinformation and a Youth Manifesto. Tools are tested in Erasmus+ youth exchanges and training courses, shared in webinars and campaigns, and presented at a closing conference in Brussels, with more than 1,500 direct beneficiaries and an estimated outreach of over 10,000 people.