ScienceFlows joins IBERIFIER, the Spanish-Portuguese observatory that will monitor the misinformation circulating in the digital ecosystem of Spain and Portugal

The ScienceFlows team at the Polibienestar Institute will lead UVEG’s participation as a partner in the European IBERIFIER project, together with Mediaflows researchers in Language Theory and Communication Sciences. Both ScienceFlows and Mediaflows research teams come together to work together at the Spanish-Portuguese observatory IBERIFIER (Iberian Digital Media Research and Fact-Checking Hub), which will investigate and monitor misinformation circulating in digital environments. This European project, which is coordinated by the University of Navarra, with 1.47 million euros in funding from the European Commission. The consortium is made up of 23 Spanish-Portuguese institutions (twelve universities, five verification organizations and news agencies, and six other multidisciplinary research centres).

One of the objectives of the project is to create a digital media observatory in which more than 70 researchers, experts in digital communication, computer and data sciences, and strategic analysis will participate. For its part, the UVEG team will be responsible for working specifically on the tasks on business, economic, legal aspects of misinformation in the context of Spanish cybermedia.

As expressed by the project coordinator, Ramón Salaverría, at the kick-off meeting held in Pamplona on September 30 and October 1, 2021, the work lines will be:

1. To investigate the characteristics and trends of the digital media of the Iberian system.
2. To develop computer tools for the early detection of misinformation messages.
3. To verify and deny the misinformation in the Iberian territory.
4. To prepare strategic reports on misinformation threats for the Spanish and Portuguese authorities and for society in general.
5. To work on media literacy initiatives aimed at journalists, communicators, young people and society as a whole.

The UVEG team will work specifically on tasks on business, economic, legal aspects of misinformation in the context of Spanish cybermedia.

IBERIFIER joins the other Digital Media Observatories that have been launched in Europe such as: Ireland Hub, Dublin City University (Ireland); EDMO BE / NL, Stichting Nederlands Institute voor Beeld en Geluid (Netherlands); Central European Digital Media Observatory (CEDMO), Karlova University (Czech Republic); NORDIS – NORdic observatory for digital media and information DISorders, Aarhus Universitet (Denmark); Belgium-Luxembourg Research Hub on Digital Media and Disinformation (EDMO Belucox), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium); DE FACTO Observatory of Information, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (France); Italian Digital Media Observatory, Luiss Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (Italy).

Participant institutions

Universities

Universidad de Navarra (IP)

Instituto Universitário de Lisboa – ISCTE

Universidad de Granada

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche

Universitat de València – Estudi General

Universidade de Aveiro

Fundación Universitaria San Pablo CEU

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Fact-cheching and news agencies

Maldita.es

EFE Verifica

Verificat

Polígrafo

Lusa – Agência de Notícias de Portugal

Other research centres

Real Instituto Elcano

FECYT

Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación

Centro Protocolar de Formação Profissional para Jornalistas – Cenjor

OberCom – Observatório da Comunicação

Associação Literacia Para os Media e Jornalismo

Traducido por Amaia Crespo