Matti Pohjonen, a University Researcher at HSSH’s Methodological Unit, participated in the European Media and Information Fund’s (EMIF) flagship Winter Conference held in Florence, Italy. This year’s conference, themed “Disinformation: Systemic Challenges, Structural Solutions” brought together leading experts and practitioners to discuss comprehensive strategies for combating disinformation at societal levels.
Matti attended on behalf of the InfoLead project (The Information and Media Leadership Programme for Legal Professionals and Policymakers), a new joint programme coordinated between Helsinki University, University of Oxford and University of Florence. Matti leads the Helsinki part of the project, working together on the project’s digital component with Univesity Researcher Aleksi Knuutila.
At the conference, Matti delivered a Pecha Kucha Flash Talk, which showcased some of the projects funded by EMIF in a friendly competition format.
“Presenting complex ideas in three minutes and three slides was an interesting experience to talk about a complex that academics excel in but in a simple and concise form,“ Pohjonen said.
He was one of the 16 competitors funded by EMIF that participated in the flash talks.
In addition the workshops addressed a broad range of topics linked to disinformation, including disinformation regulations and media freedom, monetization of disinformation, and links between pseudoscience and anti-scientific disinformation.
The workshop was partially organised by the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, one of the leading European institutes in social sciences and humanities. This was also the institute where the current President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, was a director before being elected this year.
“It was interesting to talk to colleagues who had worked directly with President Stubb here in Florence,” Pohjonen said.
“In fact, the presentations and events took place in the Martti Ahtisaari Peace Hall, showing the strong contribution of Finland to these topics.”