Find Out Why_ Digital Fluency Lab

In this interview with Find Out Why the founding Executive Director of Digital Trust and Safety Partnership David Sullivan talks about the mission of the organization to produce digital trust and safety standards, reviewed through internal and independent third-party assessments, that ensure transparency and reduce harms associated with online content and conduct.

Prof. Jason Ā. Josephson Storm, chair of Science and Technology Studies at Williams College talks to Elena Gkiola about his latest book, Metamodernism, The Future Theory.  A thought-provoking and inspiring revision of the current theoretical systems of analysis in humanities and social sciences.  His ideas enrich our understanding of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 implications in our social world, as he paves a new way forward for theory. Professor's Storm work is refreshing, groundbreaking, and sets the philosophical foundation of Humanities in the Metaverses. 

In this interview, Maryia Ditchkowska, lecturer at the European Humanities University in Lithuania, talks about the post-truth practices in political communication and their digital manifestation during events of great uncertainty, like the pandemic.  

With governments trying to restrict online gaming in their societies, Find Out Why is raising awareness about the political aspects of games in culture, the preservation of freedoms, and the social impact of gamer communities.

We reach out to dr. Leandro Borges Lima who specializes in digital games, cyberculture, social networks and sociability on the Internet.

In his interview, he sheds light on the reality that games are integral in modern culture and he explains how they can factor into identity formation.

Alice Stollmeyer, the number one female digital EU influencer in 2019 and 2020 and the Founder and Executive Director of Defend Democracy, talks to Find Out Why about the importance of defending  democracy from the threat that the business model of big tech companies poses to societies and shares her reflections on the issue of online manipulation based on Defend Democracy's successful run of “Kieskijker”, a social media watchdog monitoring manipulation and disinformation around the Dutch elections on 17 March 2021.

For more about Defend Democracy follow this link: https://defenddemocracy.eu/ 

Dr. Luci Pangrazio, author of the book ‘Young People’s Literacies in the Digital Age’ and Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Educational Impact (REDI) talks to Find Out Why about the data literacies in young people's digital worlds. Dr. Pangrazio argues that creative ways to materialise digital data are necessary in critical analysis. 

Dr. Aída Ponce Del Castillo, senior researcher at the Brussels based Foresight Unit of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) talks to Find Out Why about the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). DSA is a legislative proposal which aims to regulate online and intermediary platforms that bring together users and providers of goods and services as well as information. The DSA builds on the existing rules (established by the E-Commerce directive) to provide a framework for identifying and removing harmful digital content and illegal products. Dr. Ponce Del Castillo has extensively focused on the impact of this regulatory package on digital labour in her recent research paper. In this interview she discusses the global impact of DSA in its attempt to regulate the Internet. 

Find Out Why is delighted to present Gyurka Jansen whose work has played an important role in the Dutch innovative media ecosystem. Jansen is a new media and online communities analyst and  journalists' consultant. In our discussion he shared his views on issues such as freelance journalism monetization systems & building  online communities, instead of traditionally reaching out to the audience. Furthermore he emphasized the importance of transparency and trust online and provided tips for outstanding content creation with high journalistic standards.   

Bettina Chang, the co-founder of City Bureau - a civic journalism lab based in Chicago- talks to Find Out Why about the future of journalism, the value of civic journalism, the debate around the financial models of news business and the need for a democratized access to journalism so that meaningful civic engagement and equitable news production can be truly achieved. 

Dr. Marina Tulin, post doctorate at Erasmus University in the Department of Media and Communication and the Coordination Manager of the TRESCA project, talks to Find Out Why about the effective communication of science, the importance of social science knowledge and how trust is built online.

The News Literacy Project (NLP) is a US based NGO that focuses on supporting young people become critical thinkers, news and media literate. In this interview, Damaso Reyes, journalist and NLP's ambassador in Europe, talks about the skills that are required today in order for young people and the general public to understand, interpret and successfully act upon information, especially within the context of being participants in Democratic societies.

Find Out Why interviews Imran Ahmed, the founder of the Center of Countering Digital Hate, a London-based advocacy group that counters “hate groups” and individuals from spreading their narratives at major social media outlets.

Find Out Why reached out to Dr. Thomas Arnold, assistant professor at the philosophical seminary of the University of Heidelberg. His views on logic, reasoning and ethics are uniquely appealing. He has designed a project which is sponsored by the Alfred Landecker Democracy Fellowship and it explores ways of achieving a form of public philosophy.

This is what he shared in his interview for Find Out Why

In his book, “Democracy’s Detectives: The Economics of Investigative Journalism", James T. Hamilton Stanford University Professor and Director of the Journalism Program, proposes an economic framework of analysis that measures the return on investment of investigative reporting and ultimately its impact to democracy and society. This is what he discussed in an interview with Find Out Why's Elena Gkiola

Dr. Anna Berti Suman is the principal investigator of the project SensJus with the mission to “provide newly required research capacity in the EU by redefining citizen sensing as source of evidence acceptable in environmental litigation and as a tool for mediating environmental conflicts”.
Dr. Anna Berti Suman is a postdoctoral fellow at the European Commission Joint Research Centre, seconded there by the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society, and author of the book “Sensing the risk: An accessible ‘toolbox’ for interested citizen science communities and policy-makers wishing to integrate citizen-sensed data into risk governance.”

In an exclusive interview with Find Out Why, Zoë Papaikonomou, an Amsterdam based investigative journalist, author, keynoter, media educator and diversity advocate shares compelling insights into the practices of inclusive journalism.

Zoë answers timely questions: 

-how mainstream media outlets can foster a culture of belonging where everyone's talents are nurtured and celebrated? 

-what tools chief editors can wield to practice inclusion?

- why inclusion strategies at the centre of media workforce, workplace, and marketplace can significantly affect both the content quality and the audience’s expansion?

She outlines the importance of new media education in today’s information world and the challenges of the online culture of anger and hate at specific social media platforms. 

This interview sheds light at the decisions involved prior to the news production and inspires us on deciding what we should look for during our media consumption.

Find the transcript of the interview at our blog posts:
https://findoutwhy.info/blog
https://findoutwhy.info/blog/f/news-production-practices-and-the-need-for-inclusivity