Information Literacy vs. Fake News: The Case of Ukraine

Abstract

We profile the successful Learn to Discern information literacy program, developed in Ukraine in 2015 and now being adapted to the needs of other countries. Drawing on published documents, interviews, and the personal knowledge of one the initiative’s designers we situate this work as a response to the particular challenges of the Ukrainian information environment following Russia’s hybrid offensive which begun in 2014 with its aggressive deployment of propaganda and so-called “fake news.” We argue that the Learn to Discern program was a coming together of three formerly separate strands: a focus on the development of modern library infrastructure, a distinctive Ukrainian model of information and media literacy, and the hands-on debunking of misinformation performed by the StopFake group.

Keywords

• fake news
• disinformation
• misinformation
• ukraine
• information literacy
• media literacy