BECID Team’s Achievements: January 2025 in Review

Here you will find a comprehensive review of the BECID team’s achievements in January 2025. This overview includes events organized and attended by the team. You will also find our team members’ latest publications and media coverage.

BECID organises 

We published a calendar in collaboration with master’s students of the University of Tartu. The calendar is designed for elderly people in Estonia, with each month focusing on a different aspect of information resilience. For example, February covers romance scams, while September highlights charity fraud. At the end of the calendar, there is a crossword where the owner can test their knowledge of information resilience. 

On January 18th, expert-led trainings were conducted at DELFI newsrooms across Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. The trainings covered essential skills such as critical thinking, fact-checking, mobile journalism, data visualization, and social media marketing. These training days across the Baltics were part of the preparation for the Mediathon which took place in Riga on February 1st.

Read more about the event at DELFI Estonia here.

The BECID youth training at Delfi LT’s office was also a success, with participants giving 9–10/10 ratings for relevance and quality. They valued fact-checking, media literacy, and social media insights, but requested more hands-on exercises and shorter, more interactive sessions. A key takeaway was the need for guidance on talking to those who believe misinformation, suggesting future collaboration with psychologists. Trainers praised the group’s enthusiasm and recommended covering journalism basics before diving into specialized topics. For the future, participants want more on AI in journalism, ethics, and advanced fact-checking.

Publications and media 

“Strengthening Responsible Journalism Through Self-Efficacious Learning-Oriented Media Literacy Interventions” by Auksė Balčytienė (VMU) was published in Media and Communication. You can read the paper here. 

A collective monography about media literacy compiled by Auksė Balčytienė (VMU) was published. The book analyses media literacy from the different perspectives: artificial intelligence, social networks, media, and others. The book is in Lithuanian and it can be read here. 

The VMU team organized translations of the DIGIRES Handbook into Estonian, Ukrainian, Georgian, and Azerbaijan. Currently, the translations are compiled into PDF layouts. Translations and layouts in English, Latvian and Russian languages already can be found on our website. 

The Ukrainian Journalism Teachers’ Academy published an interview with Maria Murumaa-Mengel (UTARTU) who talked about media literacy in Estonia. 

BECID is represented    

On January 14, Annaliisa Post (UTARTU) conducted trainings on digital safety to the winners of the comic competition “How to be good on the Internet?”. 

On January 15, Maria Murumaa-Mengel (UTARTU) gave a lecture “What and how do we teach?”. 

On January 16, Maia Klaassen and Maria Murumaa-Mengel (UTARTU) gave an overview of the master’s programme “Disinformation and Societal Resilience” during the Virtual Open Day of the University of Tartu. 

On January 22, Maria Murumaa-Mengel and Gretel Juhansoo (UTARTU) conducted a training “Is the media influencing us or are we influencing the media?” at Hugo Treffner Gymnasium. 

On January 24, Maria Murumaa-Mengel  (UTARTU) conducted a webinar for the Academy of Ukrainian Press on the topic “Advancing Media and Information Literacies in Estonia.”. 

On January 29, Gretel Juhansoo (UTARTU) conducted a training on media usage and information disorders at Võru Gymnasium. 

On January 29, Maria Murumaa-Mengel participated in the Eesti Raamat 500 event in Jõgeva and gave a lecture “Spicy #BookTok, inspirational bookstagram and comunal Facebook – social media and book lovers”. 

Varia

The International Literacy Association’s (ILA) 30 Under 30 list celebrates the rising innovators, disruptors, and visionaries in the literacy field. We are happy to announce that Gretel Juhansoo (UTARTU) is an honouree in this year’s list! 

BECID joined Bluesky. You can check out our account here.