DW Akademie initiated a human-centered design (HCD) process as a starting point for a media development project in Ethiopia.

The aim was to develop a better understanding and assess the current situation regarding misinformation and dis-information.

The process with journalists and media experts from Ethiopia was conducted between October 2019 and February 2020 in Addis Ababa in order to find an accepted and feasible way to support fact-checking in Ethiopia.

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Ongoing reforms in Ethiopia have led to an opening up of the media landscape.

But challenges remain: Increased access to all manner of information and the spread of mis- and disinformation, coupled with low media literacy, is contributing to the escalation of conflicts throughout the country.

This case study shows the process of gaining insights into the “context of use” for fact-checkers and the main results of the ideation on fact-checking initiatives within the very diverse Ethiopian context.

The goal of the HCD approach: To find an accepted and feasible way to launch a fact-checking initiative in Ethiopia.

In an effort to determine the impact of the disinformation campaign on voters, the RAND Corporation, in partnership with IREX, conducted the first study to use a randomized control trial to understand the effect media literacy messaging could have on social media users. With short, social media–sized media literacy content, RAND tested how using various interventions and revealing the source of the content changed audience reactions.

The report, Russian Propaganda Hits Its Mark: Experimentally Testing the Impact of Russian Propaganda and Counterinterventions, utilized media literacy messages developed as part of IREX’s Learn to Discern (L2D) approach and revealed the following three important findings about the way propaganda influences audiences and the role of media literacy in countering disinformation in the United States.

It is encouraging that IREX’s approach to media literacy may offer users potential emotional awareness and emotional regulation tools to resist the urge to react to—and spread—Kremlin-sponsored disinformation. Further research is needed to understand more about specific types of media literacy messages, the audiences they best influence, and the effects of different levels of exposure.