PUP journ chair speaks about media literacy, citizen journ at University of Vienna

Renowned particularly for its Humanities work, with nine Nobel Laureates including the chemist Hans Fischer and the physician Karl Landsteiner, plus other Nobel associations including the physicist Erwin Schrödinger, the economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek and the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, as its notable alumni – the University of Vienna (UV), Austria is now inquisitive over the issues of media literacy and citizen journalism in Southeast Asia.

Reinforcing its aim to sustain a wide range of studies while promoting new and innovative fields of research, the University of Vienna establishes new networks in the field of Communication and Journalism by inviting communication experts from various parts of the Philippines.

Last July, in her capacity as the chairperson of the Department of Journalism of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Prof. Hemmady Mora was invited to deliver a talk on Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism.

Graduate students on Communication Science from Germany, Australia, Russia, UK, Croatia and Brazil participated and shared their experiences and views on Media and Information Literacy. 

Mora discussed the UNESCO framework on MIL and its utilization among ASEAN nations, with primary reference to the Philippines, which has included MIL in its Senior High School Curriculum.  In the emergence of new media technologies, Mora emphasized the need for MIL competencies in terms of accessing, analyzing, evaluating, using and sharing media resources skillfully, safely, responsibly and ethically.

After the talk, Phoebe Maares and Sandra Banjac as speaker for their new podcast series entitled “Beyond the Ivory Tower” at the Journalism Studies Centre led by Professor Folker Hanusch, at the University of Vienna, also invited Prof. Mora. 

The podcast aims to provide an accessible conversation about current research in journalism, intended for an academic as well as a broader audience. 

Mora discussed how Citizen Journalism is being utilized nowadays in the Philippines, benefiting different media establishments and remote communities as well.

The podcast may be accessed via http://journalismstudies.univie.ac.at/podcast/