WAR IN YOUR FEED
Information and footage from conflicts and warzones all over the world is only one search away. This is because almost everyone has access to technology and the internet. As of 2025, approximately 73% of the world's population has access to the internet. With such easy access to information comes also the threat of mis- and disinformation which is increasingly used as a strategic tool to control and manipulate populations in many conflicts and elections.
With the rise of AI, the threat has only grown, because it has become so much easier to produce false content, and the development has happened so fast that many people have yet to learn how to tell the difference between real and fake content.
According to the UN Global risk report from 2026, mis- and disinformation is seen as the 2nd biggest threat worldwide on a short-term scale (2 years), and the 4th largest threat on a long-term scale (10 years), and it’s a threat only expected to get worse. Mis- and disinformation is no longer just a communication problem, it’s a geopolitical weapon driving democratic decline, economic disruption and increasing polarization.
What today looks like obvious propaganda from old wars and conflicts was very effective at its time, because it was in the format that people were used to getting their information from like posters and newspapers. At the same time the flow of information to the population was also more controlled and only came from very few sources, so it was also easier navigating who to trust and what to believe.
Today the image is more muddy, and it can be almost impossible to navigate the endless stream of information on the internet. The only thing that has not changed is the constant fight for the truth.
Looking for the truth in a warzone
I use photojournalism to investigate the mechanisms of human survival - Mikkel Hørlyck
He approaches projects with open minded curiosity where he commits himself to being engaged in the situations and experiences of those he photographs. His aim is to give a genuine and personal insight into the core of a human crisis.
As a photojournalist in conflict zones Mikkel’s job is to truthfully convey what is going on. Photography used to be something you could trust, because it was more complicated to manipulate, today it has been made very easy with the use of technology and AI. That’s why it’s now more important than ever, to be unbiased and truthful when portraying these sorts of conflicts and the people affected by them.
Photographers are the eyes of the public in a warzone, communicating what happens and how it feels to a broader audience. Photography is very much about emotions. So is mis- and disinformation. People are very inclined to believe what they feel, and most people are to some degree controlled by their emotions. Getting it right is therefore really important to stay trustworthy as a photographer in a conflict zone.
In Mikkel’s work he searches for the universal, hidden and authentic emotions, which are at stake for the people who he is photographing. Photographs can reveal fundamental truths, which he feels a call to communicate - to create healing, understanding and memorable photographs.
Mikkel is currently working in Ukraine.
This photo is from a missile attack in Kharkiv, where a Russian missile was launched from the border city of Belgorod. Regarding information about the attack and where it was launched from, I work with a translator who reads the public statements from the authorities in both Kyiv and Kharkiv. In terms of gathering information, we check with our colleagues to see whether they have read and heard the same things. We also speak with residents in Kharkiv.
My experience in Ukraine is that people live and breathe to be fair.
Colleagues within the security field include people from organizations working in rescue operations—State Emergency Service, NGOs present at the site of the incident, other photographers/journalists, firefighters, etc. Doctors Without Borders work along the front line with elderly care. They provide medication to reduce stress among the elderly. Often, elderly people die in these towns that are being retaken again. These elderly residents have previously experienced Russian occupation at the beginning of the war.
At the time of both photographs—January 2024—the area in the photo of the elderly man had been pushed back and was under Ukrainian control. Yampil, in the Donetsk region. But if you look at the map, Yampil has been taken again in February 2026.
These events alone are extremely sensitive. Therefore, for me it is about being emotionally precise in my photography, and providing contextual knowledge about who, what, when, why, and how. The elderly man’s name is Volodymyr, and he seems incredibly strong. My focus is on consequences.
The third photo is from the very same missile attack, where several impact sites were recorded. Kharkiv, Ukraine. As I sit here writing this email, there has just been a missile headed directly toward Lviv, but it was shot down along the way, and debris landed outside the central part of the city. This is according to the mayor of Lviv. You could hear an explosion. He reports no injuries or
The photo is from today (11/02/26). In mid-January, this area was hit by a drone, right next to a playground and the Stepan Bandera monument. - Mikkel Hørlyck
Misinformation Vs Disinformation
Experiment "Between facts and propaganda"
people who responded
We also asked, “What most influences your trust in information and news?” People trust sources, figures, and official statements the most. They trust personal advice the least.
When asked which armed conflicts people see most often in their news feeds, the most common answer is Ukraine, followed by Israel, and Palestine conflict. Other countries and conflicts were mentioned much less frequently, including Iran, the US, Sudan, and Venezuela.
We asked an open-ended question: “For what reasons do you most often distrust information? Briefly describe your experience,” and identified four main reasons for distrusting information. These are the unreliability and reputation of the source, secondly when the presentation is emotional, sensational or biased, thirdly when there is a lack of facts, evidence and logical gaps, and finally concerns about AI.
Knowing what is real
So how do you find out what is real and what is not in a world drowning in information?
Eva Wackenreuther works with verification at ORF, the Austrian national public service broadcaster
What should you do if you see something on the internet, and you are unsure if it is real or not?
What makes conflicts and warzones especially prone to mis- and disinformation?
Kobuk: An Austrian case study
Nestled between shops and restaurants at Vienna's famous shopping street, Mariahilfer Straße is Helge Fahrnbergers Office. He works for an IT company, but he is also the founder of Kobuk, an independent media watchdog blog. Watchdog journalists are usually independent and non-governmental. Their goal is to hold people in power accountable for their actions. Kobuk’s main focus is the mainstream media in Austria.
Helge has been doing this for a long time. The project began in 2010 as a course at the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna. Helge Fahrnberger was a lecturer there and now maintains Kobuk voluntarily alongside his other commitments. Ad-free and supported mostly by donations, Kobuk operates without commercial pressures.
We spoke with Helge because his perspective on journalism and mis- and disinformation stands apart because he doesn’t work for the mainstream media. He points out that misinformation often occurs not due to malicious intent, but because journalists make honest mistakes. Accepting this, he believes, is important, as long as there is transparency and honesty in addressing errors. Some journalists have told Helge their goal is “to never appear on Kobuk.” This culture of accountability is something he hopes to see throughout mainstream media, and he takes an active part in that.
As a small and independent organisation you cannot focus on everything, so at Kobuk they have chosen to focus on what they believe is the most important.
With information spreading faster than ever and with more and more mis- and disformation floating around, it also has become much harder to tell right from wrong and to know when information has been manipulated.
The mechanics of disinformation are the same but there have been an increase of nefarious players
But Kobuk is only a small player in a big and digital media landscape, and they only operate in Austria. A lot of the responsibility is still with the big media houses and Helge Farhnberger thinks that the most urgent thing to do is to work on their error culture.
Trying to make a change
She mainly works with children, showing them how to verify information and whom to trust online. Vivien knows that most youths nowadays get their information from social media. That’s why her workshops focus on that area. Some kids are scared by false information online, and their parents often lack great media literacy themselves.
Vivien is part of the solution many people want to see. However, she also recognises that her workshops are insufficient to combat false news or the lack of media literacy in our society.
Fact checking as a job
Media Literacy as a solution
“The key to success is actually media literacy”
Florian Schmidt.
This means educating the population on how to recognise false information and do the fact checking by themselves. The more people who understand the mechanics of mis- and disinformation the harder it becomes to successfully manipulate the truth. As of now this stands as the most effective and urgent solution to a problem that is slowly undermining democracy.
A very relevant example is the war in Ukraine where Russia has done countless efforts to disinform the Ukrainian population.
To counter these efforts Ukraine has launched large scale media literacy campaigns including a Center for Countering Disinformation and a Center for Strategic Communication. The Ukrainian strategy also includes civil efforts with anti disinformation media like Detector and StopFake. Furthermore more than 15.000 people have been thoroughly trained in media literacy with the aim to then teach others.
This is according to a report made by the American independent thinktank RAND “Ukranian Resistance to Russian Disinformation".
A peek into the future
After almost a week of learning about fact-checking, one thing has become crystal clear: media literacy is one of the most essential skills we need today. It needs to be taught from the very beginning, the moment people first encounter information.
This means society must take action. “Media literacy should be taught like any other subject at school, like biology or maths”, says Sofiia from our team. Alina adds, “We're not being responsible with our lives if we don't check information. We could consume lies and harmful content that affect our mental state and our entire perception of the world.”
Throughout this project, we didn't just talk to journalistic experts, we also met people outside the industry who are doing their part to fight misinformation. Everyone should keep their eyes peeled for false information and report it when necessary. People should act in solidarity. Like Helge who started Kobuk. Misinformation and disinformation will be constant companions in our lives, both as journalists and as individuals. The world isn't quite ready for the coming storm of misinformation in the next few years, also with the rise of AI. Maybe soon we won’t know what is real and what not. We're not politicians, so we can't change laws. But as aspiring journalists, we play a crucial role in this fight. Our responsibility is to teach our readers about media literacy and that's exactly what we'll do now.
A Project made by : Yaryna Danyliak, Gustav S. Frisch, Sofiia Koshova, Valentina Perner, Alina Smyk.
Special thanks to our mentor, Jens Lang.