My emotions, subscribed to fake news? -Infor Jeunes
For a few years now, media literacy has become an essential part of our youth information practices. As soon as a call for projects is made in this area, we try to present new projects to develop that can be part of our work in contact with young people, especially during class activities.
That is precisely what we did last year in the context of a call from the CSEM in Belgium (Conseil Supérieur de l’Éducation aux Médias - Higher council for media education). The objective was to encourage projects linking emotions and their relations to information. It seemed a good idea to address the question of the role played by our cognitive biases in our relation with false information.
We’ve been working for one year on the development of a new leaflet called « Mes émotions, abonnées aux fake news ? Comment les biais cognitifs influencent nos réactions face à l’info » (My emotions, subscribed to fake news? How cognitive biases influence our reactions to the news). A young illustrator from Namur has concocted ten colourful, funny and original drawings that show everyday situations where our biases can mislead us when we interpret information.
Each drawing is accompanied by a brief definition of the cognitive bias in question and three other examples of situations where we may be under their effects. At the end of the booklet, readers are given a quiz to see if they understand the biases presented. This leaflet will, of course, be used by our youth information workers during their media literacy-related activities. Still, it can also be distributed and used by anyone who wants to know more about cognitive bias and how it can sometimes bend our perception of information from media, influencers, YouTubers, advertising, etc.
Want to know more about this project? Feel free to ask Pierre Targnion, Fédération Infor Jeunes’ communication office: pierre.targnion@fijwb.be | 081 980 816.
You can find a PDF version of the leaflet on our website: www.inforjeunes.be/nos-brochures/
Infor Jeunes’ network is also on Facebook (“Infor Jeunes – réseau”), Instagram, Twitter and Whatsapp and LinkedIn
