The Diplomat
The U.S. Embassy in Madrid, together with the VIA-Jefferson Circle Association and the State Association of University Programmes for Older Adults (AEPUM) has organised a series of conferences to combat disinformation, aimed primarily at people over 55 years of age.
The “Seminars against disinformation” began last Thursday and will last until June 2022. The first of these seminars was held last Thursday, in a total of five sessions, which include practical courses to identify and combat fake news.
They are sponsored by the Department of State’s Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund-AEIF, with the collaboration of five senior universities, members of AEPUM. The aim of the initiative, according to the Embassy, is to provide seniors with tools to identify and combat fake news and misleading information disseminated through new technologies.
Each session will take place at a different university and will address disinformation in a different area of everyday life. They are all structured in two parts: a practical workshop on general aspects followed by a round table with experts in each specific field. Participation can be either face-to-face or online.
The first of these sessions, on the subject of “Disinformation and politics”, was held last Thursday at the headquarters of Universitas Senioribus CEU, and was attended by the Chargé d’Affaires of the United States in Spain, Conrad Tribble, the vice-president of VIA-Jefferson Circle, Miguel Oyarzábal, and the director of the university centre, María García-Carrillo.
The workshop “How to verify information” was given by Roger Duartielles, an expert from LearnToCheck (the first web platform focused on training against disinformation, media education and digital verification training).
The round table addressed electoral interference and was moderated by journalist David Alandete, ABC’s Washington correspondent. Participants included Paloma Baena, Director of Next Generation EU at Llorente y Cuenca Consultores; Carlos Hernández-Echevarría of maldita.es; Juan Luis Manfredi, Prince of Asturias Chair at Georgetown University; and Pedro Rodríguez, Professor of International Relations at Comillas Pontifical University.
In the words of the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Spain, Conrad Tribble, “a very special feature of these courses is that they are dedicated to us older people, given that our generations are not among the digital natives”.
Miguel Oyarzábal, Vice President of VIA, stressed that “disinformation affects all social groups equally” and added: “Thanks to the funding from the State Department’s alumni funds, we have been able to organise these workshops in which we will provide, from the hand of leading experts, the elements to identify and combat disinformation”.
The director of Universitas Senioribus CEU, María García-Carrillo said: “It is a pleasure to collaborate with the US Embassy in what we do best: training people and teaching seniors how to detect and combat fake news, which is such a threat to democracy”.
The next sessions will be held at the Senior University of the Universitat Politècnica de València (16 February); the Aula Abierta de Mayores of the Universidad Pablo de Olavide (24 March); the Deusto Bide, School of Citizenship of the University of Deusto (3 May); and the Universitat del’ Experiència of the Universitat de Barcelona (1 June).
