ChangingTIDE’s Media Literacy Incubator “Disinformation and Extremist Ecosystems” took place on Thursday, 25 June 2026, in Vienna, Austria, and was organised by OIIP and ÖGfE.
Disinformation and the rise of extremism affect all of us: in politics, public debates, democratic participation, and everyday life online. The Media Literacy Incubator brought together young people who feel passionate media literacy, democracy, and extremism prevention, and aimed to strengthen participants’ ability to recognise and counter disinformation, encouraging active democratic engagement. Through a programme combining expert-led input sessions and interactive workshop with practitioners, participants explored the impact of disinformation on democracy and its interplay with far-right extremist ecosystems based on the Austrian context, and developed skills and strategies for analysing media content and debunking misleading and manipulative information. For a detailed agenda, click here.
After the event, participants had a chance to enter the Changemakers Programme, a central innovation of the ChangingTIDE project. Based on engagement and contributions throughout the workshop, four participants of the event have been selected as Changemakers, and joined a transnational group working on disinformation and media literacy, getting the chance to:
- participate in a tailored mentorship programme to create public awareness campaigns addressing disinformation;
- partake in further project activities, including 3 in-person events in Brussels and a second event in Austria;
- have a chance to present their campaigns to relevant EU interlocutors at a final concluding conference in Brussels.
