Enhancing Key Civic Competences for the Post-truth Era: News Literacy and Critical Thinking

The Belgrade City Library is the leading partner on the project Enhancing Key Civic Competences for the Post-truth Era: News Literacy and Critical Thinking – ESSENTIAL, which is implemented within the framework of the European Union Erasmus+ program (Key activity 2: Strategic partnerships in adult education). The BCL has been implemeting the project with three other foreign partners: the National Library of Latvia (Latvia), the University Hacettepe (Turkey) and the Adult Education Centre – UPI Žalec (Slovenia).

The project’s general goal is to develop a society of self-aware citizens who think critically and can correctly perceive media content, which is a prerequisite for quality participation in democratic processes in their community and at the global level.

Within the project, two publicly available online educational courses in the field of news literacy will be created. The first one will help citizens develop critical thinking and become capable of correctly understanding media news. The second is intended for experts who want to engage more seriously in educating citizens in this area. In addition, during the project, employees from partner institutions will undergo training, acquire the necessary knowledge and begin to educate citizens in this area.

The project will develop an awareness of the importance of critical thinking and understanding of media content, both for the citizen as an individual and for the development of a democratic society in general.

Project value: 13,870,560.00 dinars
Realization period: 2020-2022
Donor: European Union (Erasmus+ program)