EDMO NORDIS and digital information literacy

What is it all about?

Critical information literacy and the fight against disinformation are central to the functioning and renewal of democracy, in Finland and in all the world’s democracies.

It is therefore important for Finland and influential parties within the country to be part of the most important European and Nordic co-operative projects in the field.

The EDMO (European Digital Media Observatory), which includes the Nordic NORDIS consortium, is a key programme that carries out research into and promotes the fight against disinformation in a rapidly changing media environment across the EU.

Finnish partners in the NORDIS consortium include the association-based fact-checking organisation Faktabaari and the University of Helsinki.

Sitra’s involvement in the project is as a partner of Faktabaari (Avoin yhteiskunta ry), thus enabling the development of fact-checking skills in Finland, as well as the sharing of these skills and knowledge in an international network.

The aim is for the solutions for identifying disinformation and improving information literacy developed in the projects to be adopted at national and international levels.

What will we do?

Faktabaari participated in all aspects of the NORDIS project, but its main responsibility was to develop material for the network for information literacy and to implement checking activities supported by the material, as well as provide communications using EDMO NORDIS research.

From Sitra’s point of view, the co-operative project is a continuation of its previous work on democracy, which has included support for constructive societal debate by introducing the Timeout method and developing concepts to help turn libraries into “forums of democracy”, while examining the present situation and future prospects concerning media-driven influence.

Who are involved?

Faktabaari’s closest academic development partner in the project’s digital information literacy work was the University of Helsinki. The Nordic NORDIS consortium included a fact-checking organisation and a university from each of the four Nordic countries involved: Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

The NORDIS project was primarily funded by the EU. Funding came from an open application for funding under the EU’s CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) instrument, in which Faktabaari participated as part of a consortium led by Aarhus University (Denmark), consisting of four universities (Aarhus, Upsala, Bergen, Helsinki) and four fact-checkers (Faktisk, TjekDet, Källkritikbyrån and Faktabaari).

Where are we now?

The NORDIS project began on 1 September 2021 and concluded in August 2023. The progress of the work can be followed on the Faktabaari website and on this project page. For the project, Sitra and Faktabaari held a stakeholders’ event in the autumn of 2022 presenting the results of the work up until then.

In the second year of the project, NORDIS compiled a toolkit on digital fact-checking and information literacy.

people

Jukka Vahti

Project Director, Digital power and democracy