A UNESCO handbook providing educators and journalism trainers with a structured approach to understanding and teaching fake news, misinformation, disinformation, information disorder, verification and fact-checking. It contains teaching modules covering topics such as digital/ social-media literacy and verification practices.
Why it matters for ENACT-AI
Published before generative AI became widespread, its concepts are highly relevant to AI literacy: distinguishing misinformation from disinformation, understanding how information is produced and circulated, verifying sources and content, and critically evaluating online information. It can be readily updated with AI-generated text, images, deepfakes and synthetic media.
Learning outcomes
Learners can distinguish misinformation, disinformation and other forms of information disorder; critically evaluate information sources; identify unreliable or manipulated content; apply verification and fact-checking techniques; understand how social media contributes to information disorder; and make more informed decisions about sharing information.
Suggested activity
“Verify Before You Amplify: Human or AI?” Give students a set of news posts, images and short texts containing a mixture of reliable information, misinformation, disinformation and AI-generated/synthetic content. Students investigate the source, author, date, evidence and other available information, then explain which verification techniques they used. Finish with a discussion: Does knowing that AI generated something change how we should evaluate it?