Promoting Opportunities to Propel European Media Literacy Education Among Rural Communities and Older Adults

ongoing

POP sets out with the general objective to build the resilience of rural communities and older adults (50+) across Europe—especially in Croatia, Germany, Italy and Spain—to mis/disinformation by improving the accessibility and impact of quality and engaging Media & Information Literacy education tailored to their needs that promotes their critical thinking capacities to engage with digital media information, particularly relating to science, health and climate, conspiracy theories, scams, and AI. Towards this objective, the project brings together a cross-sectoral consortium of 65 European organizations—Maldita.es (MAL-Spain), Correctiv (COR-Germany), The Fact-Checking Factory(TFCF-Italy), Faktograf (FAKT-Croatia), HelpAge (HELP-Spain), and Prodigioso Volcan (PROD-Spain)—with wide-ranging expertise in media literacy education, older adults’ rights and education, rural community engagement and innovative communication, plus an extensive track record in EU projects. Building on and scaling up the results of MAL’s innovative BuloBus initiative targeting rural communities in Spain, POP will centre on the development and piloting of an innovative European media literacy “pop-up” approach designed for high-impact implementation in rural areas across Croatia, Italy, Germany and Spain. Founded in cross-border research and media literacy expertise, we will develop, pilot and promote a comprehensive pack of educational hybrid media literacy resources specially designed for delivery to rural communities and older learners through pop-up events in local towns and villages. POP will ultimately drive improved European engagement in and solutions to the lack of media literacy support for rural communities and that large older populations, equipping them with the knowledge and tools they need to be able to navigate a complex and fast-changing digital media environment.