Academic Centre
The aim of the event is to present new findings of digital space, social media, user literacy and ways the disinformation is spread as well as hold discussion between stakeholders and researchers to find better solutions to the serious issues the future holds.
Sebastian Bay, a researcher at NATO's Center for Excellence in Strategic Communication, will open the event with a presentation on the malicious use of social media. While media literacy researcher Dr. Klinta Ločmele will discuss the situation of media literacy in Latvia based on research conducted since 2017. Velta Skolmeistare, a doctoral student in communication science at the University of Latvia, will look at the habits of social media users. Oles Kulchitsky from the Agency of European Innovation (Ukraine), will talk about COMPACT findings and look at key examples of misinformation in Ukraine. Director of the Bratislava School of Communication and Media Andrei Školkaj (Slovakia) will present COMPACT findings on the global discourse on social media regulation.
The reports will be complemented by two roundtable discussions attended by Latvian media and communications leaders. Martins Hiršs, an associate researcher at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) will moderate the first discussion, "Disinformation Online: How Vulnerable We Actually Are?" between special Envoy on Information Security Issues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Viktors Makarovs, board member of the Latvian Association of Journalists Filips Lastovskis and Sebastian Bay.
The second discussion, "Can Media Literacy Save Us from Misinformation", will be attended by Marta Cerava, Editor-in-Chief of the Latvian public media website Lsm.lv, Iveta Locane, Senior Consultant on Web and Social Networking Issues at the Ministry of Education and Science as well as Communication and Information Program Director for Latvian National Commission for UNESCO Beāte Lielmane. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Klinta Ločmele. Participants are invited to engage in open discussions.
Since 2017 The Advanced Social and Political Research Institute is a partner of the European Union (EU) research and innovation support program Horizon 2020 project “COMPACT: From Research to Policy through Raising the State of Art on Social Media and Convergence”. The project aims to increase awareness of the latest technological discoveries among key stakeholders in the context of social media and convergence. This includes scientific, political, cultural, legal, economic and technical areas, to name but a few. The project coordinator is the National University of Ireland Galway. It is implemented by School of Communication and Media (Slovakia), Data Business Center (Slovenia), PanEuropean ICT & Ebusiness Network for SME Association (Belgium), Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASCOM)) (Bulgaria), Jožef Stefan Institute (Slovenia), Ontotext Corp. (Bulgaria), NGO Agency of European Innovations (Ukraine), Media 21 Foundation (Bulgaria), Catholic University of Portugal (Portugal), Society for Development Partnership (Partnerstvoza Drustveni Razvoj Udruge) (Croatia), Company IT-Forum (Denmark), Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (Greece), MEDIA FRAME LTD (United Kingdom), and the University of Latvia. LU research group leader professor Vita Zelče is joined by Dr. Līva Brice as well as Ph.D. students Raivis Vilūns and Sanita Dubra.
The event will be live-streamed here
 invites to symposium “Disinformation, Media Literacy, and Social Media Regulation” where Latvian researchers and opinion leaders, together with European partners, will debate about media literacy and misinformation in the digital space. The symposium is taking place at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Social Sciences, Isaiah Berlin auditorium (Lauvas street 4, Riga, Latvia).){kind=link}