On May 28, Scandinavia House Online was proud to present a virtual panel exploring Finland’s groundbreaking strides in battling misinformation and disinformation in media, with speakers Mikko Salo, Aki Saariaho, Kari Kivinen, Minna Aslama Horowitz and moderator Marc Monseau.

Finland is ranked first worldwide in media literacy, outpacing other nations in spotting and identifying disinformation and misinformation. This stems from the Finland’s focus on encouraging responsible media consumption through education efforts from primary school through adult education, including through partnerships with government agencies and nonprofit organizations including Faktabaari (FactBar), a fact-checking and digital information literacy service, to ensure that Finns have the critical understanding to separate fact from fiction.

In this discussion, Mikko Salo (Founder, Faktabaari), Aki Saariaho (educator and Faktabaari board member), Kari Kivinen (education expert, Finland), and Minna Aslama Horowitz (instructor/researcher, University of Helsinki and Faktabaari board member) were joined by moderator and journalist Marc Monseau, who recently explored the subject in Scandinavian Review’s “Setting the Record Straight.” The program included presentations on responsible media consumption developed by Fatkabaari by Salo and Kivinen, followed by discussion on how Finland encourages critical thinking skills to encourage appropriate use of media — including new communication technologies (like AI) — through a holistic educational approach that provides resiliency in the face of the onslaught of misinformation & disinformation. They also discussed democratic debates in the age of Big Tech and share ways that audiences can be more responsible consumers of media, in both their professional and personal lives, as well as ways that audiences can support domestic efforts to drive more responsible media consumption. Lastly, they responded to questions from the audience.

See the full discussion below, and scroll down for more recommended reading materials for combatting misinformation and encouraging responsible media consumption.