RSU researchers will help detect misinformation and improve public media literacy

Researchers at the Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) Social Sciences Research Centre are working in an international team to improve the ability of artificial intelligence to detect misinformation and related narratives in the digital environment. As a result, major language models will be improved and a monitoring system for misinformation narratives will be recommended. 

When studying narratives, researchers focus on contemporary information channels - social networks and Wikipedia - where narratives are analysed on such topics as the war in Ukraine, the LGBTQI+ community and the 2024 European Parliament elections. Particular attention will be paid to the spread of misinformation narratives in the Baltic States, France, Italy and Romania. 

Photo: Depositphotos

The aims of the project are to identify narratives, analyse their emergence and spread, improve the technical capacity to detect such narratives, as well as to provide journalists, civil society and researchers with the information, methodology, skills and tools to identify and combat misinformation.

The obtained data will help strengthen public media literacy, thus improving resistance to misinformation and contributing to overall public safety and the quality of democratic processes. In addition, the project will strengthen the role of the Latvian language in major language models.

The project is led by Opsci (France), and is carried out in cooperation with the University of Urbino Carlo Bo and the think-tank Orizzonti Politici APS in Italy, the Social Sciences Centre in Hungary, the Baltic Center for Investigative Journalism Re:Baltica, Wikimédia France, and the legal fact-checking media Les Surligneurs in France, the Erich Brost European Journalism Observatory in Germany, and Asociația Digital Bridge in Romania. It is co-funded by the Directorate-General for the Communications Networks, Content and Technology of the European Commission (LC-02629302-PROMPT – CNECT/2023/7387407).

Read more about the project (in English)

This project is co-funded by the European Union (EU). The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the EU or the Directorate General for the Communications Networks, Content and Technology of the European Commission. The EU and the funding authority are not responsible for these views.