On Friday, 15 May 2026, a whole day event called “Media Literacy Incubator: Countering the Effects of Disinformation in Croatia” was held at HUB385 in Zagreb. The Media Literacy Incubator was held as part of the project “ChangingTIDE – Changing Together to Inform, Debunk and Empower”, funded by the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV-2025), with the aim of strengthening participants’ capacity to identify and counter disinformation. The event, which consisted of a morning panel and an afternoon workshop, primarily brought together students from Croatia and other countries interested in media literacy issues.
As part of the morning panel, Professor Marijana Grbeša Zenzerović, PhD, from the Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, gave a presentation on the impact of disinformation on the democratic disengagement. She concluded that structural transformations of the information environment have led to a decrease in trust in almost all sources of information. The presentation by Hrvoje Butković, PhD, from IRMO provided an overview of European Union policies in the field of combating disinformation, while Paško Bilić, PhD, also from IRMO, presented the results of research on critical thinking and media literacy in Croatia. As part of the afternoon workshop, Faktograf from Zagreb held a workshop on the challenges that organizations and individuals face in verifying the accuracy of information, or fact-checking and its impacts on democratic disengagement.
Based on previously submitted CVs and motivation letters, as well as engagement during the event itself, four “Changemakers” were selected from among the participants who will participate in additional media literacy trainings this and next year. The trainings will be conducted by the ChangingTIDE project coordinator, Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) from Brussels.
More about the ChangingTIDE project: https://irmo.hr/projects/changing-together-to-inform-debunk-and-empower/
