Information Literacy Award

Together with the Information Competence Foundation, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences annually awards the ‘Information Competence Prize’ for the best final thesis by H-BRS students that is thematically related to the field of disinformation. The prize is endowed with 1,000 euros.

The aim of the Information Literacy Award is to highlight outstanding research findings that deal with the social impact of deliberately disseminated misinformation in democratic societies and highlight possible solutions in the fight against fake news.

‘Digital disinformation poses an increasing threat to our democracy,’ says Dr Tanja Köhler, Professor of Digital Journalism and initiator of the award. ‘Science plays a central role in the fight against disinformation and fake news. With our new award, we want to strengthen young academics who deal with this important topic and make a contribution to democracy education.’

Dr Susanne Cremer-Bermbach and Till Bermbach from the Information Literacy Foundation and initiators of the award emphasise: ‘If we want to continue to live in a democratic society, we must all take decisive action against disinformation. That's why we want to support young people who also want to make a scientific contribution to curbing the associated problems and dangers in the media sector.’

The prize is awarded to final theses by students from all disciplines at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences that deal with the topic of disinformation. The aim is to promote discussion of the topic and raise public awareness of the issue.