Events

Workshop 6: Communicating science in challenging times

Date: 21 December 2022, 16:00-17:00 EET (online)
Guest speakers:
Dr Thanasis Hadzilacos is an adjunct Professor at the Cyprus Institute where he works for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Climate Change Initiative. Before that he taught Computer Science and Educational Technology at Patras University, the University of Thessaly, the Hellenic Open University and the Open University of Cyprus. He worked on Misinformation in the project “Antibodies to Misinformation” and  CyberSafety iii.
Dr Dimitra Milioni, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies, and the Dean of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies at the Cyprus University of Technology.
Dr Paschalia (Lia) Spyridou is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Communication at the Cyprus University of Technology.
Trainer: Christiana Varda, Research Associate and PhD Student at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies, Cyprus University of Technology

The recent COP27 summit highlighted the urgency of taking immediate action to address the climate crisis. World leaders have pledged to reduce carbon emissions, but doing so in a way that makes a meaningful change towards safeguarding a sustainable future, requires a new economic order, which will ultimately have a societal impact. Such challenging times are defined by uncertainty, and create an environment that is ripe for misinformation that people may fall prey to as they seek to understand how such policymaking decisions impact them. Engaging people in the public understanding of science, especially in crucial issues such as the climate crisis, emerges as a pressing need, and journalists have a key role to play in this.

This workshop will focus on two challenges facing journalists and the public today: communicating science effectively and combating misinformation. Dr Hadzilacos will discuss how journalists can raise awareness, increase the interest and engage the public in issues concerning the climate by communicating science effectively. Dr Spyridou and Dr Milioni will present the Greek edition of the UNESCO handbook on journalism, fake news and disinformation. We will conclude with a presentation by Eleni Kyza and Christiana Varda, on what laypeople perceive as persuasive communication on social media, based on a study that has been conducted with 242 participants from Cyprus.

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Workshop 5: Fact-checking as a means of addressing misinformation and its role in contemporary journalism

Date: 5 May 2022, 16:00-18:00 (online)
Guest speakers: Andronikos Koutroumbelis & Stamos Archontis, Fact Checkers at Ellinika Ηoaxes
Trainer: Christiana Varda, Research Associate and PhD Student at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies, Cyprus University of Technology

In this workshop we will explain what the term fact-checking entails at a practical level, and how a modern fact-checking team operates. We will also present the tools used for verifying information and the dangers that emerge from misinformative contexts such as the pandemic. We will also elaborate on how Facebook’s third party fact-checking program (3PFC) operates, and the misconceptions that exist around the role that different groups on social media play (e.g. fact-checkers, journalists, news organizations). Finally, there will be a discussion with the public to clarify concepts related to the fact-checking process and to resolve any questions that may arise during the presentation.

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Workshop 4: Engaging readers through live blogging

Date: 7 April 2022, 16:00-18:00 (online)
Guest speaker: Dr Konstantinos Makris, Associate Professor of Environmental Health, Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health, Cyprus University of Technology
Trainer: Christiana Varda, Research Associate and PhD Student at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies, Cyprus University of Technology

Ready access to immediate information online, has increased audiences’ voracity for news as it happens. However, in an ongoing flow of online information which values speed over reflection, there can be a blurring of the line between evidence-based reporting and speculation. Reporting on science can be challenging, especially for issues which seem to be far removed from citizens’ daily concerns. How science is communicated, especially on social media, can influence what people think about and how they act in response to a scientific issue. This can have tremendous consequences for issues that affect societies at large.

Humanizing science stories, and grounding scientific evidence in people’s everyday experiences can amplify the impact of news stories, especially when it comes to environmental stories. In this workshop we will explore how evidence-based approaches can connect the environment with public health. Additionally, we will examine the value of balancing what is known and what is uncertain about an evolving scientific issue or a breaking news story during a liveblogging event.

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Workshop 3: Communicating science and the power of the crowd in digital journalism

Date: 17 March 2022, 16:00-18:00 (online)
Guest speaker: Dr Myrtani Pieri, Assistant Professor in Human Physiology, Department of Life and Health Sciences, School of Sciences and Engineering, University of Nicosia
Trainer: Christiana Varda, Research Associate and PhD Student at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies, Cyprus University of Technology

The popularity of social media and the increasing reliance on the internet to access information has reshaped how journalism is conducted and how news reaches audiences. The online context provides ample opportunities to engage in dialogue with experts, as well as other professionals; the same context can also allow journalists to interact with audiences in order to gain insights regarding their own scientific concerns or interests. This workshop will first present basic communication principles for communicating science effectively to a general non-expert audience. Following this participants will have the opportunity to become familiarized with crowdsourcing as a tool that can foster professional collaboration between journalists, between experts and journalists, or between journalists and the audience.

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Workshop 2: Let the data do the talking: Tools and good practices for data journalism

Date: 10 March 2022, 16:00-18:00 (online)
Guest speaker: Dr Costas Christophi, Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health (CII) at the Cyprus University of Technology and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Trainer: Christiana Varda, Research Associate and PhD Student at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies, Cyprus University of Technology

The pandemic has inundated the public with data on a daily basis: the number of daily COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, deaths. But how can access to so much data be harnessed to engage audiences and help them make informed decisions based on evidence? Making issues that relate to environmental and health usable, accessible and comprehensible is important, as is often communicating the risks, especially for topics such as climate change or the recent technological developments in vaccines. This workshop will focus on how data journalism can help journalists tell a complex story in an engaging way. Participants will learn best practices for visualizing data using infographics. They will also explore a tool that could be used to create data visualizations, as well as a tool that helps journalists track data on the spread of misinformation on Twitter.

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The Media & Learning Association (MLA) announces a webinar series titled Wednesday Webinars on Teacher Education in Digital & Media Literacy in Europe.

Associate Professor Eleni Kyza will participate in the first webinar, which will take place on Wednesday, 23/2/2022 from 14:00-15:15 CET. The webinar is titled “Teacher Education in Digital & Media Literacy – the challenges in Initial Teacher Education”. You can register for free here: https://media-and-learning.eu/event/teacher-education-digital-and-media-literacy-the-challenges-in-initial-teacher-education/

Webinar description

Teacher training colleges all over Europe are facing an increasing demand to ensure they put in places digital and media literacy programmes for their student teachers. This comes on top of the many demands they already face in preparing teachers for the ever-changing educational system. During this webinar we will be hearing from a variety of researchers and teacher educators about their views and experiences of tackling this challenge. Should digital and media literacy be part of the formal programme in all teacher training colleges? what are the best ways to introduce and evaluate such programmes? Who should be responsible for introducing such programmes and then evaluating their success.

Speakers will include:

• Julian Mc Dougall, Professor in Media and Education , Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, University of Bournemouth, UK, A Theory of Change for Media Literacy.
• Alexandre Le Voci Sayad, Director of ZeitGeist, Brazil, International co-chairman of UNESCO MIL Alliance and board member of the International Council for Media Literacy, The medium is still the message: innovating in media education training.
• Lina Pranaityte-Wergin, Research associate, Heidelberg School of Education and scientific coordinator in the project ‘Critical Media Literacy’, Heidelberg University, Germany, Critical Media Literacy: A Challenge for Teacher Education and Beyond.
• Eleni A. Kyza, Associate professor in Information Society, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus

Workshop 1: Journalism in action: Developing competencies for mobile journalism

Date: 24 February 2022, 16:00-18:00 (online)
Guest speaker: Dr Nikolas Dietis, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the Medical School, University of Cyprus
Trainer: Christiana Varda, Research Associate and PhD Student at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies, Cyprus University of Technology

The pandemic has laid bare the value and relevance of accurately reporting science in the media, especially for controversial topics that may be prone to misinformation (e.g., COVID-19 vaccinations, climate change). This is not without its challenges, considering that journalists often need to translate complex scientific findings into comprehensible stories that a general, lay audience can understand. This workshop will look at the common challenges that journalists face when reporting on socio-scientific issues and will focus on a journalist’s most accessible asset: their mobile device. Participants will explore how to make the most of their mobile devices to deliver “social-first” stories that can be shared with audiences directly and that create new forms of storytelling to engage with online users. The workshop will also present best practices for communicating science effectively, and ways in which misinformation can more effectively be corrected on social media. Finally, participants will have the opportunity to explore a tool that allows drafting, scheduling and monitoring engagement on threaded social media posts on Twitter.

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The “ANTIbodies to MISinformation” and the “Co-creating Media Literate Youth” teams presented a very special event, marking the successful completion of the projects on Misinformation and Media Education.

Where: Cyprus University of Technology, Tassos Papadopulos Building ·
When: Sunday, November 28, 2021
Time: 10:00 – 15:00

The projects were promoted and implemented by the Open University of Cyprus and the Cyprus Youth Council and funded by the US Embassy through the Cyprus University of Technology in the framework of the European Horizon 2020 “Co-Inform Project”, in collaboration with the Pedagogical Institute of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth.

The event was open to the public and targeted primarily all students aged 12 and above, teenagers and adult learners, youth workers, youth organisations, journalists, and various educational stakeholders including teachers and parents.

Watch the welcome addresses and the panel discussion of the event:

The participants actively took part in workshops and discussions, informed about the lessons learnt and celebrated the achievements of the “Antibodies in Misinformation” and “Co-creating Media Literate Youth” projects.

For more information visit https://medialiteracy.cut.ac.cy/fightingmisinformation

We are pleased to announce that Dr Eleni A. Kyza, Media Cognition and Learning Research Group’s Lead, has been invited to give a presentation at the “Innovations in STEM Education during the Pandemic” online symposium on Friday, 23th of April, 2021.

The online symposium will bring together people and organisations involved in science education and outreach, and it is organized by Native Scientist, Lancaster University, and the University of Tubingen.

The title of the presentation is “Online STEM education for children”.

For more information and registration visit the symposium webpage.

We are pleased to announce that Dr Eleni A. Kyza, Media Cognition and Learning Research Group’s Lead, has been invited to give a presentation at the 2nd National Workshop for Media Literacy on “Media literacy, critical thinking and freedom of expression: perspectives and dilemmas”.

Dr Kyza’s presentation will focus on a key component of digital citizenship, a key aspect of media literacy, and is titled “Cultivating critical thinking as an essential component of digital citizenship”.

The conference is organized by Cyprus Pedagogical Institute and European University Cyprus as part of the EU-funded project “European MediaCoach Initiative -EMCI”. The conference will be held online on Monday 22nd of March, 2021.

You can access the Conference Program here (in greek).

Registration required. Participation is free.