Head of Discipline of Journalism and Communications at NUI Galway leading head of global foundational course to challenge fake news on migration

By Ellen O’Donoghue

An international partnership of NUI Galway, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Irish Aid is to offer media training on migration and misinformation.

A new global partnership has been established, involving NUI Galway and the (IOM), with the support of Irish Aid, to tackle fake news around migration.

The Global Migration Media Academy is an initiative led by the IOM, involving media literacy programmes to train students and journalists to identify, challenge and debunk misinformation.

The project is co-funded by the IOM Development Fund and Irish Aid, with the development of the global foundational course being led by NUI Galway’s own, Tom Felle, Head of the Discipline of Journalism and Communications.

“It is a real feather in the cap for NUI Galway to be the lead academic partner working with the United Nations migration agency the IOM on this incredibly important global project, co-funded by the Irish Government through Irish Aid and the Department of Foreign Affairs,” Felle said, adding that “So-called ‘fake news’ around migration has reached endemic proportions, and it is having a detrimental impact on the lives of migrants globally. Disinformation is spread all too easily on social media and in the mainstream press, often created by right wing groups and populist political parties, and viewed by millions of people worldwide.

“The Discipline of Journalism and Communication at NUI Galway will be leading this project and working with partners in four pilot countries – Mexico, the Philippines, Morocco and Serbia – to train journalists and journalist students on how to recognise and debunk false information, but also on how to report responsibly on migrants and the migrant experience.” He finished.

President of NUI Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, said, “Projects such as this speak directly to two of our core values: respect and openness. By championing respect and openness, we hope to have a transformative effect on society, in Ireland and internationally, setting a positive example of excellence beyond our University.

“Our journalism academics are international experts in media literacy, and it is an honour for them to work with the IOM on this vitally important international project, as supported by Irish Aid, which will have far-reaching positive learning for society,” he finished.

The European Policy Centre has previously stated that “false narratives have and continue to be created and shared widely on social media, in populist political parties and among far-right groups in an attempt to sow division and to influence public opinion – alarmingly with serious political implications.”

The Foundation for European Progressive Studies in Brussels has carried out research on harmful content relating to migration in a number of EU countries.

Fear and lying in the EU: Fighting disinformation on migration with alternative narratives, reported that harmful content widely shared online and on social media platforms around migration was rampant. 16% of the content was outright false, 26% being unverifiable, with 34% classed as misleading and 23% seen as distorted. .Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, has come out in support of the partnership, saying, “The last 12 months have shown us all how important our news and news sources are for keeping us informed and educated. While fake news is a danger that more and more people are aware of, countering it or revealing it isn’t something that many know how to do. Therefore, I warmly welcome this important initiative from NUI Galway and Irish Aid to tackle misinformation and fake news being spread about migration.”

The Global Migration Media Academy will develop e-learning and training material to tackle fake news.

The Academy is a unique platform to standardize and mainstream media training on migration and strengthen ethical and accurate reporting.

There will be a focus on misinformation and disinformation around migration, including training students on identifying and tracking harmful content, digital forensics and verification techniques, and data journalism.

Courses are to draw on migration research and data, as well as exploring how unfolding global developments like Covid-19 influence migration and public attitudes.

Students at both established undergraduate and masters’ programmes in Universities will be encouraged to explore the complex topic of migration from different perspectives and publish compelling, nuanced and evidence-based stories.

NUI Galway also plan to host a Summer School for participants in 2022.

Further information about the IOM is available at https://www.iom.int/about-iom

NUI Galway School of Nursing and Midwifery Achieves Athena SWAN Bronze Award

By: Ewelina Szybinska

NUI Galway’s School of Nursing and Midwifery has been awarded an Athena SWAN Bronze Award for their commitment in progressing gender equality through the department and creating cultural change in the University.

Ireland introduced the Athena SWAN Charter in early 2015.

This initiative aims to provide help in addressing gender equality in higher education with the help of funding from the Higher Education Authority.

The figures show that around 10% of undergraduate students in nursing and midwifery are male.

In addition, the 2020 HSE staff report highlights that only 9.5% of nurses and midwives are men.

NUI, Galway has engaged with local secondary schools and the HSE Nursing and Midwifery Professional Development Unit to represent those courses as an opportunity for all.

Furthermore, the University engaged with individuals to improve the understanding behind this department.

This award represents NUI Galway’s strong commitment to promoting equality within courses.

The school undertook initiatives to highlight underrepresentation of men in the discipline and underrepresentation of women at senior grades.

The Athena SWAN Gender Equality Charter was made to provide encouragement and recognition to women’s careers in STEM fields.

Following this achievement, Professor Dympna Casey, Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, said: “I look forward to supporting the implementation of our Action Plans to generate an environment where all staff feel they have opportunities to reach their potential irrespective of gender.”

Nurses and midwives make up more than half of the global healthcare workforce, she said, and approximately 90% of nurses are women.

“However, gendered issues continue to impact our professions – for example social gender norms, gender bias and stereotyping hinder women taking on leadership roles, while gender norms, biases and stereotypes also hinder the recruitment of men entering the professions”, said Professor Casey.

The University pursues to promote gender equality in nursing and midwifery.

“We therefore need to address both male under-representation and female progression. This award marks the school’s engagement with both the ‘leaky pipeline’ of female senior leadership, as well as increasing male student intake into Nursing and Midwifery.” she added.

NUI Galway has previously been awarded with School of Medicine Bronze Athena SWAN award.

Professor Tim O’Brien, Executive Dean of the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, said: “I am very proud to have the School of Nursing and Midwifery awarded the Bronze Athena SWAN award. This is a clear recognition of our college’s commitment to inclusion and diversity, and to increasing equity in both healthcare education and practice.”

The pandemic proved not to be an obstacle. NUI Galway Vice President for Equality and Diversity, Professor Anne Scott, said: “I am absolutely delighted to hear of the awarding of the Athena SWAN Bronze Award for colleagues in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. To have managed to get the Athena SWAN application successfully completed and submitted was a significant achievement in a really difficult year for many.”

New resource project launch focuses on decoding literary secrets

By Caoimhe Killeen

NUI Galway’s Moore Institute has collaborated with 12 other European institutions that aim to aid digital approaches to the study of literature.

Computational Literary Studies Infrastructure (CLS INFRA) is a four-year partnership that will focus on building a shared resource of high-quality data, tools and knowledge needed for literary studies using artificial intelligence and other computational methods.

The project is being supported with €5 million funding from the European Commission.

Dr Justin Tonra, Lecturer in English at NUI Galway, whose work in the project will focus on bridging the gap between computational and traditional literary studies, has stated the project will shed light on various topics that are represented in European culture.

“When studying literature, we often focus on a small number of books by a small number of authors”, stated Dr Tonra.

“With the aid of computers, we can ‘read’ literature at a scale that opens windows onto topics like gender, language and colonialism, and how they are represented in our shared and varied European cultural heritage.” CLS INFRA is also intended to add to rapidly evolving computational literary studies and provide a heavily data-focused approach to literature.

It will aid scholars to detect patterns which show what literary genres were prevalent at certain times, and whether the movement of literary style can be mapped across time and space. CLS INFRA will also identify and map specific requirements of researchers who wish to study literature using technology and AI.

A further aim of the project is to open Computational Literary Studies to more researchers, enabling investigation into Europe’s multi-lingual and interconnected literary heritage and cultural diversity.

Support services and training will be provided to researchers who are new to the use of AI for literary study, with support also provided for independent scholars and scholars from under-represented regions and languages.

Institutions partnering with the Moore Institute for the project include the Ghent Centre for Digital Humanities in Germany, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Netherlands and the Institute of Polish Language at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland.

Dr Maciej Eder, Director of the Institute of Polish Language at the Polish Academy of Sciences and Principal Investigator of CLS INFRA, said: “This is a very exciting project which promises to make great advances in how we use computers to study literature.

“One of the great challenges to Computational Literary Studies is that the landscape of digital literary sources is very fragmented, as scholars and readers struggle to find texts that are made accessible and reusable in standardised ways. CLS INFRA will address this deficit in a way that will allow the field to flourish.”

Dr Tonra added: “The partnership of 13 European institutes will also foster systematic and meaningful cooperation across national borders and linguistic boundaries, as well as disciplines of study.

“The emergence of information and communications technologies has given us an unprecedented opportunity to share, compare and understand this legacy across national borders and linguistic boundaries.”