Introduction Copy
Welcome to the course. We at Transitions have been supporting good-quality journalism for more than 15 years. Through that experience, we learned that disinformation, propaganda and “fake news” have unfortunately been the daily routine for journalists and the public in regions such as Eastern Europe, the post-Soviet region or central Asia–way before “fake news” became a buzzword.
Recent headlines triggered a strong response from media experts. Thanks to numerous initiatives, we finally have high-quality manuals and other resources. In the Czech Republic, we ran a course for Czech journalism students that consisted of 3 workshops and 10 online sessions. We were lucky to have top experts join our training as lecturers.
We learned a lot and compiled all of it for you in one place, one course consisting of expert knowledge and practical workshops that you can take anytime you want. Just follow the sessions. By the end of the course, you will have a much better and deeper understanding of the phenomenon of disinformation and propaganda. But, most importantly, you will get the much needed in-depth perspective that goes beyond the buzzword.
Last but not least, we want to thank our colleagues at Firstdraft and European Journalism Center for their permission to use many of their excellent learning resources and the US Embassy in Prague for funding our efforts.
To fully comprehend the phenomenon of disinformation, we need to explore different relevant perspectives: the journalistic approach, security aspects, legal and ethical challenges and psychological factors.