Science and Journalism – Together Against Infodemic

June 8, 2022

More than 30 journalists and representatives of the academic community took part in the second training on the project “Science and Journalism – Together Against Infodemic”, which took place in Plovdiv on June 8, 2022.

Speakers at the event were Maria Cheresheva, Vice-President of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ-Bulgaria), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vessela Kazashka (Administrative Director at the Center for Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology, CPSBB), Georgi Marchev, journalist from Factckeck.bg and Milena Ilieva from “Paisii Hilendarski” University of Plovdiv.

The main goal of the event was to present tools and methodologies for verification and fact checking, which are useful in the preparation of scientific and journalistic texts and in screening reliable content from existing information in the media on socially important topics.

What is misinformation, how does it work and how to counteract it, increase trust in the media and science in the context of socially important topics, basics of communication and communication channels to build a successful media presence, ethical standards in presenting reliable information were among the main topics for discussion during the training.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vessela Kazashka (CPSBB) presented Bulgarian and world scientific databases for verification and publication of scientific content, as well as the established world standards for indexing scientific publications (IF, h-index).

As the cooperation between journalists and scientists is crucial for the analysis and verification of scientific information, the organizers of the project “Science and Journalism – Together Against Infodemic” are currently preparing a register of scientists to be available to journalists for consultations in the preparation and media analysis of trustworthy scientific information related to socially important topics.

More about the project:

The project “Science and Journalism: Together Against Infodemia”, launched in October 2021, provides a series of trainings and fact-checking collaborations. It is implemented with financial support of EUR 91,190 provided by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Mechanism. The partnering organizations of the project are: the Association of European Journalists – Bulgaria (AEJ – Bulgaria); Norsensus Mediaforum, Norway; Trakia University; The Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology (CPSBB); The Association for Career Development and Training (ACRO).