Media literacy as a responsibility

 

The forum will bring together representatives of the communication community, institutions, and business organisations

 

On April 29, 2022, at UniCredit Bulbank’s International Centre, Aksakov Street №8, will be held the forum „Practical Aspects of Media Literacy“, organised by the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” with the support of the „Scientific Research“ Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science, BDVO and the Bulgarian Network.

The forum aims to put the current state and different aspects of media literacy in Bulgaria on the agenda. Participants will try to outline the threats to information security in crises and the challenges different audiences face in dealing with the information overload.

Improving media literacy is key to increasing public awareness in the context of instability, uncertainty and information ambiguity in the post-truth world. The wide scope of the concept, which includes credibility and information assurance, digital literacy, hate speech recognition, etc., requires a partnership between theoretically engaged experts and communication practitioners, as well as public engagement. The Forum is therefore an opportunity for collaboration between representatives of business, civil society, institutions, media and the academic community.

The forum will be attended and will be held in a presentation and moderated discussion format with participants from different sectors. The program will start at 09:00 with an opening by the hosts of the event Prof. Dr. Veselina Valkanova, Dean of FJMC, and Prof. Dr. Andreana Eftimova, head of the project.

There will be two opening lectures – „Media Literacy as responsibility: reflections on the future of communications in a VUCA and post-truth world.“ by Prof. Dr. Anna Adi from Quadriga University, Germany and „Reverse influence of post-truth on social reality – false events“ by Assoc. Georgi Lozanov from Sofia University.

Among the leading participants are Assoc. Dr. Orlin Spasov, who will speak about „Media Literacy in Bulgaria in the Context of Monitoring Media Pluralism 2021“, Assoc. Dr. Alexander Hristov, Dr. Manuela Toteva, Nadia Obretenova and others.

During the forum, a number of successful media literacy projects will be presented – information resources, fact-checking tools and fake news identification. Key topics include the effectiveness of digital communications and the importance of digital literacy.

The balance between freedom and responsibility will be discussed in the panel on information assurance as part of media literacy. Reporting the facts, brand positioning, responsibility to stakeholders are some of the issues that will be discussed by representatives of business, media, communications community and civil society.

The forum is free to attend, upon prior registration at office@bdvo.org.

The Forum is hosted by UniCredit Bulbank.

 

The event is organised as part of a project for an international forum on „Practical Aspects of Media Literacy“, funded by the Research Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science under contract No. KP-06-MNF-16 of the year 2021.