On 1 December 2015, we were invited to present Reveal and talk about the importance of verification of eyewitness media at the Media Literacy Expert Group Meeting of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, in Brussels.

 

According to its own definitions, “media literacy allows us to interact with the media and to be active citizens.” That is why the European Commission “supports the exchange of best practices on media literacy and fosters networking among stakeholders.”

Such exchanges of thoughts, ideas and initiatives take place, among others, at annual Expert Group meetings. According to the EC, these gatherings are intended to

• identify, document and extend good practices in the field of media literacy;
• facilitate networking between different stakeholders, with the aim of cross-fertilisation;
• explore synergies between different EU policies and support programmes and media literacy initiatives.

The most recent Media Literacy Expert Group meeting was hosted in Brussels on 1 December 2015. It was attended by about 80 experts from all over Europe.

The EC had invited us to present what we do in Reveal, and raise issues concerning the dealings with content residing in social networks. We gratefully took up the opportunity and presented some of our Reveal work and participated actively in the discussions. Obviously, the focus of our contributions dealt with handling eyewitness media and its verification.

Now instead of recapitulating what has been said and written elsewhere, we would like to refer the interested reader to two Storify summaries of the event which capture well the day’s proceedings and discussions.

Here you can find the day’s summary put together by the EC’s Media Literacy team.

Another illuminating recapitulation of this packed day is provided by the Ethical Journalism Network. It can be found here.

More information about the day, speakers and topics – including presentations – can be found on the event website.