Online fake news and disinformation: recognize and verify

Identify online manipulation and disinformation, debunk fake news and avoid to become their victim, both as journalists and simple internet users.

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CIVIS focus area
Society, culture, heritage
Open to
  • Bachelor's
  • Master's
  • PhD candidates/ students
Field of studies
  • Social Science and humanities
Type
  • Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP)
Course dates
9 October - 18 December 2025
Apply by
4 May 2025 Apply now

One in four European Union citizens trusts information obtained through social media and messaging apps, and one in two believes that it is the responsibility of journalists to fight the spread of fake news, and only one in three believes that it is also the responsibility of citizens (European Commission, 2018).

In the meantime, Facebook has officially reported that, between October 2017 and June 2024, it has deleted more than 30 billion fake accounts (Facebook, 2024), almost ten times the total number of active users of the platform (Kemp, 2024) and more than 3.8 times the global population (World Bank, 2022). Studies show that fake news is up to 70% more likely to be shared than real news, real news takes up to six times longer than fake news to reach the same audience (Vosoughi, Roy & Aral, 2018). Also, almost 49.6% of internet traffic in 2023 was made by bots (Distil Networks, 2024), so not by human beings, which increased compared to 2017 from 35.1%, and almost 32% of them were bad bots (which have malicious behaviour, often, of criminality) (Distil Networks, 2021). 

The online manipulation, disinformation and fake news has a greate impact on our societies. The Online fake news and disinformation: recognise and verify BIP aims to teach CIVIS students how to identify online manipulation and disinformation, to debunk fake news and how to avoid to become a victim, as a journalist, during day to day information verification process, but also as a simple internet user.

This program will also help students understand the psychological mechanisms that guide the behaviour of online and social media users, which are the basis of all persuasive technologies algorithms. This BIP aims to be an introduction behind the scenes of the digital world in which we all spend more and more time every day (last year, globally, we spent daily, an average, 6 hours and 40 minutes on the Internet) (Kemp, S., 2024). 

Main topics addressed

  • how to identify online manipulation and disinformation;
  • how to debunk fake news;
  • how to avoid to become a victim of manipulation and disinformation, as a journalist, during day to day information verification process, but also as a simple internet user;
  • the understanding of the psychological mechanisms that guide the behaviour of online and social media users, which are the basis of all persuasive technologies algorithms.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the students are expected to:

  •  have the skills and knowledge to critically analyse and evaluate media and social content, to debunk disinformation and to carry out pre- and post-publishing/ broadcast information verification activities, ex-ante / ex- post (fact-checking), for text, photo and video (analyse, evaluate, create, after Bloom’s taxonomy revised); 
  • understand the psychological mechanisms behind the consumption of media and digital media, and the biases that influence media consumption (analyse, evaluate, after Bloom’s taxonomy revised);
  • understand the legal implications and the ethical issues that misleading communication entails and to apply high standards of deontology as journalists, communication professionals and content creators by critical analysis and by evaluating professional situations from an ethical perspective (understand, analyse, evaluate, after Bloom’s taxonomy revised);
  •  effectively navigate and comprehend the concepts of persuasion, disinformation, and manipulation (remember, apply, after Bloom’s taxonomy revised).

 

Dates: 9 October - 12 December 2025 Total workload: 194 hours
Format: Blended ECTS: 7*
Location: Bucharest & Sinaia, Romania Language: English (C1)
Contact: bogdan.oprea@unibuc.ro  

*recognition of ECTS depends on your home university

Physical mobility

The physical mobility section of the BIP will take place between 8-12 December 2025, in Bucharest. It will cover: 

  • face-to-face lecture and class discussions about fake news hits (4 hours); 
  • face-to-face lecture and class discussions on digital footprint, personal data, data protection and cyber security for journalists and discussions about the Cambridge Analytica, Schrems vs Facebook and TikTok and the presidential elections in Romania case studies and about a documentary related to the topic The Social Dilemma (4 hours); 
  • face-to-face lecture and class discussions on the pre-publishing/ broadcasting (ex-ante) and post- publishing/ broadcasting (ex-post) information verification techniques for text, photo and video, The International Fact-Checking Network and The European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN) and international, European and national fact-checking platforms (2 hours);
  •  face-to-face lecture, class discussions and practical activities of fact-checking of text, photo and video using different theoretical models and online tools available (6 hours);
  •  face-to-face field visit to a fact-checking service newsroom (2 hours);
  •  face-to-face orientation meeting about presentations and final report assessment (2 hours);
  •  face-to-face visit to The "Peleș" Palace in Sinaia, Prahova County, (2 hours);
  •  face-to-face visit to The Romanian Palace of the Parliament (2 hours).

Virtual part

The virtual component of the course will be held between 9 October - 18 December 2025 and will include:

  • online lecture and class discussions about online disinformation and important related concepts and, also, about the gatekeeping and gatewatching paradigms from the perspective of selecting and publishing journalistic information and the impact of disinformation and fake news in recent scientific research; AI tools to fight disinformation (2 hours); 
  • online lecture and class discussions about the European approaches to the challenges, attemps and limits to curb online disinformation (2 hours);
  •  online lecture and class discussions about the influence of cognitive biases on the credibility of disinformation and fake news (2 hours);
  •  online lecture and class discussions about manipulation techniques in the digital environment (The "Lund" Model) (2 hours);
  •  online lecture and class discussions about worldwide approaches to disinformation, Argentina and Japan (4 hours);
  •  online lecture and class discussions about disinformation and hate speech in international organisations, models of regulation among "Digital Empires", European Union regulation: transnational and national policies and key actors and networks (2 hours);
  • online lecture, class discussions and practical activities of debunking and fact-checking using the Three Step Fact-Checking Method for text, photo and video (4 hours). 

*full programme attached

Assessment

  • final report based on case studies and scientific literature presented in class (60% of the final grade)
  • practical activities assessments (40% of the final grade). 

In relation to the expected learning outcomes, students need:

  • to demonstrate that they developed the skills and knowledge to critically analyse and evaluate media and social content, to debunk disinformation and to carry out pre- and post-publishing/broadcast information verification activities, ex-ante / ex- post (fact-checking), for text, photo and video (analyse, evaluate, create);
  • to demonstrate that they understand the psychological mechanisms behind the consumption of media and digital media, and the biases that influence media consumption (analyse, evaluate);
  • to demonstrate that they understand the legal implications and the ethical issues that misleading communication entails and to apply high standards of deontology as journalists, communication professionals and content creators by critical analysis and by evaluating professional situations from an ethical perspective (understand, analyse, evaluate);
  • to demonstrate the ability to effectively navigate and correctly use the concepts of persuasion, disinformation, and manipulation (remember, apply).

This course is open to Bachelor's, Master's and PhD's students at CIVIS member universities, interested in Communication sciences. A good knowledge of the English language (C1) and digital skills are also required.

The pedagogical objectives of the programme are:

  •  to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to critically analyse and evaluate media content (news stories, broadcasts, social media posts, other communication content, etc.) in order to identify disinformation elements and to detect techniques of manipulation (analyse, evaluate, create);
  • to demonstrate the ability to identify and debunk, using theoretical and practical argumentation, disinformation in the media and social media and to carry out post-publishing/broadcast information verification activities, ex-post (fact-checking), for text, photo and video (analyse, evaluate, create);
  • to prove the concern, through critical analysis, for the rigorous verification of information, and for the accuracy of the media content they produce as journalists, communication professionals, and content creators (evaluate);
  • to effectively navigate and comprehend the concepts of persuasion, disinformation, and manipulation (remember, 12 / 40 apply);
  • to understand the ethical issues that misleading communication entails and to apply high standards of deontology as journalists, communication professionals and content creators by critical analysis and by evaluating professional situations (understand, analyse, evaluate);
  • to understand and critically analyse the psychological mechanisms behind the consumption of media, and the biases that influence media consumption (analyse, evaluate);
  • to understand the legal implications of disinformation and manipulation (analyse, evaluate);
  • to demonstrate a good understanding of the need for continuous professional training for journalists in order to adapt to the constantly evolving technological work environment (understand, evaluate).
This CIVIS course is a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) - a new format of Erasmus+ mobility which combines online teaching with a short trip to another campus to learn alongside students and professors across Europe.

NB: Visiting Students - Erasmus Funding Eligibility

To be eligible for your selected CIVIS programme, you must be a fully enrolled student at your CIVIS home university at the time you will be undertaking the programme. Applications for this course are only available for the 11 CIVIS member universities in Europe.

Partner Universities:

  • Sapienza Università di Roma (Italia)
  • Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)
  • University of Bucharest (Romania)

Professors:

  • Bogdan Oprea, Associate Professor, University of Bucharest
  • Christian Ruggiero, Associate Professor, University of Rome
  • Laurence Dierickx, Researcher, Free University of Brussels
  • Akira Igata, Project Lecturer, University of Tokyo
  • Jérémie Nicey, Associate Professor, University of Tours
  • Maria Romana Allegri, Associate Professor, "Sapienza" University of Rome
  • Soledad Arréguez Manozzo, Lecturer, Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina
  • Sorin Costreie, Associate Professor, University of Bucharest
  • Teodor Răileannu-Olariu, PhD student, „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi

Fill in the online application form by 4 May 2025, including also a motivation letter. 

Apply now

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