About 30 students from ESCS took part in two workshops under the InfoClima project, an initiative by ZERO – Sustainable Terrestrial System Association in partnership with ESCS (and Universidade Lusófona in Porto), aimed at combating climate disinformation and promoting media literacy.

The workshop brought together students from the undergraduate programmes in Journalism, Public Relations and Corporate Communication, and Audiovisual and Multimedia. The sessions were led by Ricardo Filipe and Filipa Silva, from ZERO, who addressed the causes of climate change, its consequences, and the growing crisis of disinformation associated with the topic.

During the training, participants engaged in several activities and were challenged to develop critical thinking in relation to climate information. The trainers presented real examples of misleading content and discussed how distorted narratives are constructed and disseminated.

Students also learned to identify common disinformation strategies organised according to the FLICC taxonomy, which includes techniques such as the use of fake experts, logical fallacies, and conspiracy theories. According to the trainers, climate disinformation often relies on the strategic manipulation of narratives, the intentional distortion of reality, and the exploitation of emotions and cognitive biases, creating distractions that hinder public debate and the implementation of climate action policies.

A second workshop took place on 11 March, this time with a smaller group of around 10 students from Journalism, Public Relations and Corporate Communication, and Audiovisual and Multimedia, who will work together on the co-creation of a communication campaign on climate disinformation. The session also included journalist Matilde Inês, from RTP’s ENTR project, a news video platform designed by and for young people.

The project will continue to be developed at ESCS throughout the semester, integrated into course units such as Climate Journalism and Audiovisual and Multimedia Project and Portfolio. At the end of the process, students are expected to produce content to be included in the InfoClima campaign.

The InfoClima – Youth in Action Against Climate Disinformation project is funded by European funds, under the Catalyst of Change programme of the Netherlands Helsinki Committee.

Text and photography by Professor Vera Moutinho