Guest in Ars Electronica 2023, Digital Deal Summit as representative of Local Expert Group, Austria

Challenge description:

The media industry has been vastly transformed by technology. Traditional news media has evolved and expanded into the digital space, while the social media of the Web 2.0 has entirely changed how information is shared and received on a global level. Whereas access to and distribution of information was dictated for most of modern society by governing bodies, religious entities or publishers, the rise of digital technologies in the final third of the 21st century challenged the ability of these entities to exercise authority over information control systems. While many of the traditional channels are still used to direct information on a societal level, individuals have become distributors of information themselves. This is especially true for the spread of information on the most prevalent social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. While these digital public spaces were heralded in the early years of the 21st century as forms of social innovation and democratization, they have also become a tool for authoritarian regimes to manipulate public opinion and spread targeted disinformation and have led to the formation of echo chambers and filter bubbles that foster mis- or disinformation among individual users. Moreover, the improvements of visual-based creation models have led to the generation of fake content which is increasingly difficult for humans and machines to distinguish as artificial, adding another layer of complexity to the efforts for safeguarding democratic processes.

Subtopics of the challenge:

• Citizen Participation: Citizens can help to create counter-narratives that challenge false or misleading information or share reliable sources with their networks. Citizens and artists can work together to create campaigns or platforms that raise awareness about disinformation and encourage people to act against it. Citizens can pressure social media platforms to take responsibility for the spread of disinformation on their sites.
• Art-Science Innovation: Artists can create artwork, music, or other forms of media dealing with disinformation and misinformation, critical approaches to media, fact checking, psychological biases, and disinformation during the rise of AI. Artists can develop alternative visions for platforms.
• Education on disinformation and creating awareness on fact-checking information: Providing resources and opportunities for citizens to develop media literacy competences, cope with own biases and limitations, foster intellectual agency and evaluating disagreements about how to know. Artists can create engaging and creative content that promotes media and scientific literacy and critical thinking.
• Forensic Journalism and alternative information retrieval systems: Shed light on hidden truths, challenge conventional narratives and provide the public with a more accurate and nuanced portrayal of events, ultimately strengthening transparency, democracy and ensuring a well-informed citizenry.

FACILITATOR:

Irina Paraschivoiu (RO) is a researcher, experimenter, and educator, passionate about the human-centered design of places and technology. Merging her backgrounds in urban planning and human-computer interaction, her work focuses on how to best involve users as co-designers of technology applications in the fields of media literacy, extended reality (XR) and spatial interaction. She is Strategist and COO of Polycular, a creative technology studio creating meaningful XR experiences. She co-initiated and led Escape Fake, an augmented reality experience dedicated to educators, with the aim to develop innovative tools for education on media literacy. As a Research Fellow at the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Interfaces in Salzburg, she focuses on digital placemaking, hybrid interactions within the built environment and collaborative XR.

PARTICIPANTS:

Amilcar Correia is the main reporter at Público newspaper. He was deputy editor-in-chief and head of digital for newspaper Público’s website. He was the creator and editor-in-chief for P3, an award- winning website dedicated to young adults.

Theodora Kotsaka (GR) is a political sociologist with degrees from University of Athens (Phd in Political Sociology), Essex University UK (MA in Political Behavior), Aegean University (MA in Social Anthropology) and Panteion University (Degree in Political Science and International Relations). She works as a scientific researcher for think tanks, research institutes, EU projects and as an expert for the private sector.

Kasia Chmielinski (US)(they/them) is the Co-Founder of the Data Nutrition Project, an initiative that builds tools to mitigate bias in artificial intelligence, and a fellow at Stanford University focused on building responsible data systems.

Stefan Janjić (RS) (he/him) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Studies at Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad. Since 2018, works as an editor-in-chief at FakeNews Tragač, a fact-checking website.

Warren Jones (US) is an interdisciplinary artist working in the field of sound and music. He is the co-founder of Black Ether an artist movement aimed at reclaiming space for black artists.