Video conference April 19, 2021 (PhD Program): «FACTMedia Research Project: How academics can defeat disinformation?»

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Conference main themes

The concept of accountability refers to the compromise undertaken by the media in terms of its professional praxis and aims to “protect and promote the freedom of expression”, “prevent or limit the damage that the media may cause” and “promote positive benefits for society”. 

One of the tasks which the media must carry out, when making themselves accountable before the citizenry is to fight against disinformation. This goal is a key challenge if, over the next few years, we are to overcome the crisis of trust in journalism.

Bearing in mind this need, this conference aims to analyze in which ways the accountability tools already in place are evolving and are adapting themselves to face up to the problem of disinformation as well as to identify those more recently-created accountability mechanisms. This detailed knowledge will serve as a starting point to later formulate a methodological and curricular proposal, which allows news verification modules to be introduced into Spanish universities.

Keywords

Disinformation, Media Accountability, Media Literacy, Curricular proposal

Useful data

About the speaker

Ruth Rodríguez-Martínez is a full-time professor at Pompeu Fabra University, where she has been teaching since 2006. Her main lines of research are Media Accountability and Journalism in Democratic Transitions. She has participated in seven national research projects funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and one project funded by the European Commission, all of them related to these lines of research.

In order to disseminate the results of her research activity, she has published articles in national and international indexed scientific journals (JCR and Scopus) and participated in numerous international conferences. She has carried out various predoctoral and postdoctoral stay: predoctoral stay at the National Library of France (2004); postdoctoral stay at the Missouri School of Journalism, USA (2008); postdoctoral stay at the Center national de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS, Paris (2010); Post-doctoral stay, funded by the AGAUR Grant, at the Columbia School of Journalism, Columbia University (2013). As a teacher, she teaches classes mainly in English, in journalism studies and in various Official Masters: Master Strategic Public Relations and Communication Management, Master Interdisciplinary of Interactive Systems, Master of Advanced Studies in Social Communication, Master on Power, Media and Difference.

Rodríguez-Martínez is the current coordinator of International Relations at the Faculty of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University and has been Head of Journalism studies at the Faculty of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University. Since 2011 she has been part of the Evaluation and Prospective Agency (ANEP) for the evaluation of research projects and the formation of research groups in the field of Social Sciences. She is a regular reviewer of various scientific journals indexed in JCR and Scopus and is a member of the Consell de la Información de Catalunya. Mail: ruth.rodriguez@upf.edu