Abstract:

Digital disinformation, facilitated by algorithms, represents a big challenge to our society, which should find a response in technological developments. The insidious vehicles for spreading false news are not only clickbait titles and news-mimicking articles but also images and memes. Thus, "the information disorder”, as defined in the 2017 Report of the Council of Europe, needs to be fought by increasing competencies in media literacy through digital means, namely through serious games, as confirmed by Roozenbeek și van der Linden (2019).

There is a worrisome permeability to conspiracy theories and misinformation in Romania. A national survey conducted during the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic finds that 40% of the respondents believe in at least one coronavirus-related conspiracy theory (Eurocomunicare, 2020). A more recent survey indicates that 66.9% of the Romanians are convinced of the artificial origin of the virus, which is one of the most pervasive conspiracy-driven claims to date (Strategic Thinking Group, 2021).

Interactive and engaging interfaces present in games facilitate the assimilation of new content. There are some examples on the market, such as the official campaigns, like Go Viral! - a game developed in partnership between the University of Cambridge and the UK Government or the private initiatives or like Factitious project – a production of the AU Game Lab and the JoLT program, both with content related to the pandemic context.

This paper aims to present a Romanian perspective of creating and designing a serious game focused on the conspiracy themes related to the COVID-19 pandemic circulating in the local media. We chose to focus primarily on memes, as visual content is reaching high levels of disinformation, surpassing the so-called ”mainstream fake news”. The audience lacks the proper digital literacy and this gap should be addressed through the whole-society approach, such as the game-based learning of the 21st Century's most needed digital and critical thinking competencies.

Keywords:

Disinformation, digital, serious games, media literacy, memes.