In April–May 2025, several demonstration game sessions were held at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at Sofia University as part of the activities of the international Media Masters project, funded by the European Union.

The aim of the workshops was to test and analyze the demo version of a board game designed to improve media literacy and critical thinking among young people. The sessions combined a board game with a mobile app that adds personalized content through real-life scenarios related to fake news, social media, and misinformation. Participants had to make decisions based on information analysis and joint discussion. The workshops were moderated by Prof. Veselina Vulkanova, Assoc. Prof. Mila Serafimova, and Senior Assistant Prof. Yordan Karapenchev, who not only presented the project and the game model, but also observed the sessions, took notes, and facilitated the subsequent discussions. The participants showed high engagement and actively contributed with ideas for improvements in gameplay and game logic. The feedback collected will be used to improve the game and the mobile application, as well as for research work within the project. The demonstration sessions confirmed the game's potential as an innovative pedagogical tool in the field of media literacy, both in educational and informal settings. A second series of demonstration games will be organized at the FJMC in the fall. By then, significant improvements will have been made to the game, based on the feedback collected from participants during the previous sessions. The Bulgarian project team is also collecting data for a scientific article that will assess the potential of using board games as a pedagogical tool. In this task, the FJMC team is partnering with researchers from the University of Maribor (Slovenia), who are working in parallel, collecting and analyzing the results of similar demonstration games.  The Media Masters project is implemented with the support of the European Union under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) Program. The project has the contract number 101148165 and brings together partners from nine European countries working together to increase media literacy, resilience to disinformation, and promote active civic participation among young people.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.