Informed participation is essential to democracy, and youth engagement is key to both democratic resilience and innovation.

To navigate today’s information challenges, it is essential to understand how content circulates, who shapes it, and how it may be distorted.

The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy is pleased to announce a new project starting next January. The project is supported by Fondation Leenaards as part of its Media and Democracy Programme and its dedicated pillar supporting media literacy projects.

Building on the wide range of activities developed by the Centre since its creation and its extensive expertise in youth engagement, the Centre has designed this new project at the intersection of youth participation, democratic innovation, and media literacy.

Titled “Decode, Co-create, Debate,” the project will create a space for young people to collectively examine how information is crafted and how to unpack it, while connecting their own experiences to broader global transformations shaping information and disinformation. 

Geneva’s international environment offers an ideal setting for this endeavour, enabling participants to explore the implications of technological change and geopolitics on public debate at different levels and across different contexts.

The initiative will bring together French-speaking and English-speaking youth through interactive workshops addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing contemporary democracies: disinformation in the age of deepfakes and artificial intelligence.

The project will culminate in the creation of a multimedia guide for schools, based on insights from the workshops, serving as a resource for discussing democratic issues at both local and global levels. It will also foster synergies with Swiss and international projects and media-led initiatives.

A dedicated website will be launched soon.