Projects Lab MediaLab

BROD 2.0. Bulgarian-Romanian Observatory of Digital Media

Abstract: Since 2022, BROD is an independent multidisciplinary hub countering disinformation together with partners from Bulgaria, Romania, and Europe. It succeeded in creating a collaborative framework engaging diverse stakeholders, from media to civil society, enhancing the region's capacity to confront disinformation threats. Building on these achievements, BROD 2.0 represents a transformative phase, expanding its scope to incorporate Moldova. This addition is vital, given Moldova's EU accession candidacy and its vulnerability to disinformation. BROD 2.0 aims to strengthen the governance of the EU Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) network, ensuring cohesive and coordinated actions against disinformation across Europe. By intensifying collaboration with fact-checkers, the project will bolster the credibility of its initiatives and foster a unified approach that transcends national borders. Research into disinformation trends in Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova is a primary focus of BROD 2.0. This will produce actionable insights tailored to the unique socio-political contexts, enabling targeted interventions to mitigate misinformation. The project will also prioritize developing media literacy in partnership with regional and EU entities, empowering citizens to critically evaluate information. BROD 2.0 will also assess policy implications surrounding the EU Code of Practice and the Digital Services Act, contributing to the evolution of frameworks that pre-empt future disinformation challenges. The project seeks to refine its multi-stakeholder approach, engaging leading regional and EU partners like Adriatic and Hungarian Digital Media Observatories to enhance knowledge exchange, research collaboration, and media literacy efforts. In summary, BROD 2.0 aims at creating a more resilient informational ecosystem in the region - by incorporating Moldova and strengthening EU partnerships, it aspires to foster accurate democratic discourse and combat misinformation effectively.

Journalistic Role Performance

Comics and Sciences through Multidisciplinary Investigation and Collaboration

AI Student FEST: Dezvoltarea competențelor de utilizare etică a instrumentelor AI prin instruire și gamificare

Linking euroscepticism and populism: causes and consequences

What-if: Advanced Simulations for Testing the Effect of the Information Environment on the Functioning of Democracy

How to Study Opinions in the Digital Era

Nature's Energies are with us: Young Leaders Environmental Communication and Media Network

Governance for the Green and Digital Transitions. Interdisciplinary Internships in Social Sciences and Public Management

AI ETHICS: utilizarea etică a tehnologiilor emergente în universitate

Valorificarea rezultatelor cercetării și creșterea impactului publicațiilor științifice din SNSPA

Abstract: O1. Dezvoltarea, până la 15 decembrie 2023, a infrastructurii logistice aferente evaluării și publicării rezultatelor cercetărilor în științe sociale prin actualizarea și configurarea platformei Open Journal Systems (OJS) care găzduiește website-ul revistei Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations (RJCPR), www.journalofcommunication.ro, în vederea automatizării fluxului de primire a lucrărilor, de evaluare (peer-review) a articolelor, de gestionare a feedback-ului către autori și de arhivare a conținutului publicat. O2. Creșterea gradului de conștientizare, până la 1 octombrie 2023, a min. 30 de cercetători din SNSPA cu privire la scrierea, evaluarea și publicarea articolelor științifice, creșterea vizibilității articolelor și a numărului de citări, etica cercetării. O3. Creșterea gradului de conștientizare, până la 1 decembrie 2023, a min. 10 membri ai echipelor de redacție ale celor 10 reviste științifice din SNSPA cu privire la importanța managementului articolelor primite și publicate pentru creșterea vizibilității și a impactului revistelor științifice din universitate, în vederea indexării acestora în baza de date ISI Web of Science (Wos). O4. Sprijinirea redacției Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations prin asigurarea bazei materiale necesare pentru derularea cu succes a activității editoriale. O5. Elaborarea unui raport, adresat Școlii Doctorale și Comisiei de Etică din SNSPA, care să conțină recomandări privind importanta valorificării rezultatelor cercetării prin publicații în reviste de prestigiu indexate ISI, precum și recomandări privind contribuția revistelor științifice la excelența cercetării în SNSPA.

What are Opinions? Integrating Theory and Methods for Automatically Analyzing Opinionated Communication

Bulgarian-Romanian Observatory of Digital Media

Quality in higher education: internationalization and databases for the development of Romanian education

Abstract: Expert validating the activity of conducting studies and analyzes on higher education funding for substantiating and optimizing higher education financing proposals in Romania – expert for FIC study institutional funding of research in universities at national and international level

THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES - RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

YouVerify!

Setting the agenda in the new media landscape

Abstract: Drawing upon one of the most disputed yet relevant theories in mass communication research, the agenda-setting theory and its ramifications – intermedia agenda-setting and network agenda-setting –, this project aims at revealing particularities of today’s media environment in what regards the sources of media information (intermedia agenda-setting), the way objects (topics) and attributes transfer from the media to the public agenda (network agenda-setting), and the predictors of media consumption behavior. By means of mixed methodologies, namely quantitative content analysis, semi-structured in-depth interviews, mind-mapping survey and sociological survey, the current project focuses on (1) investigating the degree of reciprocity between the traditional media agenda and the new/ social media agenda, (2) revealing the main media topics, their order of priority and the attributes associated with them, both in a period when an important event takes place and in a routine period, (3) analyzing if and how the main media topics, their order of priority and the attributes associated with them are transferred from the media to the public agenda, and (4) determining patterns of media consumption in today’s environment and how they are moderated by socio-demographic, individual and contextual variables. The main goal of the project is to investigate the characteristics of both the media and the public, in the attempt to reach comprehensive, reality-based conclusions about today’s media landscape and media effects. The value of the project is defined through the aforementioned goal, which represents a true challenge for researchers, mainly because, due to the constant evolution of technology, media and public-related issues are rather difficult to address; technological development is continually multiplying media outlets, is contributing to audience fragmentation, and even to creating the so-called “filter bubbles” or “echo chambers”.

Communicating science to young generations: Metaphors our children learn by

Abstract: Metaphors and analogies are key components of human cognition. They occur in all areas of human experience and imply highly sophisticated cognitive processes in which two conceptual domains (a source and a target) are mapped together so that knowledge from the source domain is transferred to the target in a way that inferences can be drawn, and new knowledge arises. It is their capacity to generate new meanings, to evoke new (mental) images that allow us to 'see' things from a different perspective that makes the use of metaphors and analogies indispensable to education, especially to science teaching and learning. Metaphors are efficient and attractive ways to explain abstract ideas in familiar terms, and they provide the basis for understanding core concepts from physics (e.g. light in terms of 'waves'), chemistry (e.g. links between molecules as chemical 'bonding') and biology (e.g. synaptic receptor as 'key-lock mechanism'). This project aims to examine the metaphors and analogies used in Romanian science textbooks for lower secondary education (5th to 8th grade) to explain abstract scientific ideas and to communicate them to students. Furthermore, the project seeks to explore how science metaphors and analogies are understood and misunderstood by young learners and the implications that (mis-) understanding complex scientific ideas might have for students' preparedness to make sense of the world we live in and, ultimately, for their future engagement with and interest in science.

Youcheck!

Metaphors of solidarity and diversity in Romanian social studies textbooks

Abstract: There is widespread recognition of the important role played by metaphors in education, especially in mediating the acquisition of new knowledge (e.g. Cameron 2003, Littlemore 2001, Littlemore & Low 2006). Metaphors provide the means to conceive and explain abstract, complex concepts and to convey these concepts linguistically, visually and in virtually any other mode in the educational process. As multimodal repositories of officially-sanctioned knowledge, school textbooks are at the same time ‘holders’ of abstract ideas that are made available to students through analogies with other (simpler, more concrete) concepts. This research project aims to analyze metaphors of solidarity and diversity in Romanian social studies textbooks for 11- and 12-years-olds. The importance of school textbooks in the construction and reproduction of social norms and values is widely acknowledged and researched (Fuchs & Bock 2018). Assuming that the way in which abstract concepts are represented in textbooks may influence how children understand the world they live in and how they act in this world, we focus on two values that are considered crucial to the European construction: solidarity and diversity. Drawing on qualitative methods of text and image analysis we ask: (1) how these abstractions are made tangible through metaphoric language and visuals in textbooks for children in formative years of their political socialization, and (2) what this may mean for their future as European citizens.

Quality in higher education: internationalization and database fof the development of Romanian education

The State of the Nation The development of an innovative instrument for grounding the development of public policies in Romania

Abstract: The project contributes to operationalizing one or several of the key results of the Strategy for Consolidating Public Administration 2014-2020 and the Operational Programme Administrative Capacity – Applicant’s guide 2015: The system of indicators concerning the state of Romanian society, The State of the Nation data aggregator, the public opinion barometers and the public policy project for using research in supporting decisions contribute to reaching specific objective 1.1, result 2 of OPAC, applying the evidence-based policies system in central authorities and public institutions, including ex ante evaluation of the impact. Optimising the Applicant’s institutional capacity and the training programme aimed at political decision-makers and civil servants for using The State of the Nation data aggregator and the research results for supporting decisions and policies – contribute to reaching specific objective 1.1 OPAC result 5 – improved knowledge and abilities of staff from central authorities and public institutions; The project The State of the Nation helps reach General Objective II of the Strategy for Consolidating Public Administration, “Implementing an efficient management in public administration – Consolidating strategic planning and improving the process of evaluating the impact of regulations and public consultations; Improving the process of evaluating the impact of regulations and public consultations, specified in the Strategy for Consolidating Public Administration (Specific objective II.1) will be supported by the project’s activities, as the project will aggregate and synthesize public data, with an important role in supporting decisions, and will also evaluate citizens’ perceptions on various dimensions of a country’s development; The project The State of the Nation contributes to reaching Specific Objective II.6 of the Strategy for Consolidating Public Administration – “Quality, research and innovation in public administration”, with a focus on “best practices, research and innovation”. The project implementation will facilitate the identification of areas where public administration officials could collaborate with the academia and the establishment of strategic partners and networks for information and best practices exchange; The project contributes to reaching specific objective IV.3 – “The establishment of a structure coordinated by the Prime Minister, with tasks in monitoring and appraising performance in public services” through its main objective, developing a multi-dimensional system of indicators which will allow an accurate radiography of Romania’s and regions’ situation, and the evaluation of public perception. The State of the Nation project is complementary to a series of initiatives of the Secretariat-General of the Government (SGG), and is part of a strategic projects portfolio, meant to consolidate the institutional capacity of public administration on decision support and public policies design.

Populist Political Communication in Europe: Comprehending the Challenge of Mediated Political Populism for Democratic Politics

Euroentrepreneurship: university qualifications for the europeanization of the Romanian society

Euroscepticism and populism in the 2014 EU Parliament elections

Developing the Draft Strategic Framework for Increasing Tertiary Education Attainment, Quality, and Efficiency

Metaphors the Crisis Lives By: An Inquiry Into Metaphorical Framing of the U.S. Financial Crisis (Fulbright Senior Award)

Abstract: Metaphors shape the reality in which we live today. They also facilitate our understanding of this reality by translating complex and abstract issues into simpler and more familiar terms. In light of the cognitive turn in metaphor theory, much scholarly work focuses on the analysis of metaphorical thinking underlying our understanding of politics and economy. Given my professional interests and background, the research I propose has a three-pronged goal: to identify metaphors used in newspapers to frame the U.S. financial crisis, to examine the functions that metaphors had in providing therein alternative framings of the financial crisis and to explore the factors that motivated the U.S. journalists’ choice of particular metaphors to communicate about the topic. I hope that the outcome of my research will impact on further work on metaphor use, discourse analysis and journalism.

Public Policies in Higher Education: A Necessary Premise for Romania’s development

Instruments and mechanisms of growth and facilitation of higher education access based on horizontal and vertical partnerships among institutions of education, central and local structures of the educational system and social actors

The media construction of europeanization as a public problem in the context of the European integration of Romanian society

Intercultural communication in the European context. Construction of a Conjunctive paradigm on the new rapport between national cultures and the emergence of European cultural identity