The fight against disinformation and the manipulation of information is one of the most pressing issues for the European Union and its Member States, this was the topic discussed at the Representation of the European Commission in Italy, on the occasion of the seminar on: “ #Disinformation #Democracy #Elections ”, in which students from the Masters in Political and Institutional Communication and Marketing and the Master in Journalism from Luiss – Department of Communication and Research and from the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy from Sapienza – University Master in Economics and Management of Communication and Media Tor Vergata participated.
Fight against disinformation and information manipulation
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Maria Pia Rossignaud, Vice President of the TuttiMedia Observatory and Director of Media Duemila , opened the meeting with Antonio Parenti, Head of the European Commission Representation Office in Italy, and Carlo Corazza, Head of the European Parliament Office in Italy. "There is now a growing awareness of the need for access to accurate information," said Maria Pia Rossignaud. "We at TuttiMedia work to raise awareness of the need for accurate and transparent information, without demonizing the new communication tools."
Carlo Corazza, Head of the European Parliament Office in Italy, emphasized the concept of the militarization of disinformation , which can only be overcome by quality reporting, because the era of European innocence is over. For at least ten years, we have been subjected to attacks on democracy.
Success for the TuttiMedia Observatory seminar
Antonio Parenti, Head of the European Commission Representation Office in Italy, then shared the idea of a Europe in decline, caught between two powers, which needs to rediscover the role of what is called the fourth estate: the media, which can and must have the task of protecting our democracy by informing citizens.
Journalist Francesco Giorgino, Director of the RAI Research Office and Director of the Luiss Master's Degree in Political and Institutional Communication and Marketing, invited participants to reflect on information without journalism and the various forms of disinformation, including plausible misinformation, which is much more dangerous than false information. Then, with Isabella Splendore, Head of the Legal and International Area of Fieg, the focus was on young people who mostly only read the free content made available by newspapers that compete with social media.
“We work to create awareness of the need for correct and transparent information”
He also highlighted the proactive collaboration between France Press and TikTok: the former provides news to the latter, to disseminate quality information through the platform. Luca Rigoni, Editor-in-Chief and Foreign Correspondent for Newsmediaset-TgCom24 and Host of Tg4/TgCom24, emphasized that the traditional verticalization of journalistic reporting , which goes from one to many, is a thing of the past: "Today, the streets have won." Giulia Pozzi, senior analyst at NewsGuard, discussed the importance of prebunking to prevent disinformation. Among the shared evaluation criteria is the need to access funding sources.
Saverio Vero, Rai Pubblicità, spoke about the unstable balance between information and persuasion, agreeing with the Frankfurt School on the issue of mind manipulation. The discussion with all the members of the TuttiMedia Observatory was concluded by Mattia Tarelli, Government Affairs and Public Policy Manager at Google, who highlighted three practices that guarantee the reliable information deployed by the search engine: the algorithm that prioritizes trustworthy sites , the watermarking of AI-generated images with the date of appearance and links to those who use them, and finally, protection from prying eyes for certain categories of people.
Technology as mediation of public space
Mihaela Gavrila, professor of Entertainment and Television Studies and Director of the Master's Degree in Security, Joint Coordination, and International Cooperation at Sapienza University of Rome, returned to the seminar's seemingly calm remarks, which in reality underscore the disruptive transformation underway. These words hark back to the teachings of Giovanni Giovannini, founder of the TuttiMedia Observatory. She then discussed technology as a mediator of public space and the need to refocus the spotlight on the intellectual.
Christian Ruggiero, Associate Professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes at the Department of Communication and Social Research at Sapienza University, instead wanted to ask some questions: where is the true mainstream and what does quality journalism really mean? Filiberto Brozzetti, Assistant Professor of AI, Law and Ethics (Research) at the Luiss Department of Law, spoke about the responsibility of discussing information ethics , misinformation tied to the context, including rules, and the responsibilities imposed on users by technology.
The information must be certified by the sources
Giampiero Gramaglia, journalist and professor at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at Sapienza University of Rome, closed the session of university representatives. He emphasized that the streets always win over the towers, as history teaches: "The words fear and control," he said, " must be replaced by hope and opportunity because I fear poorly crafted information more than disinformation. Information must be certified by its sources."
The final word went to Derrick de Kerckhove, who reiterated the key words of each speaker and summed up the morning thus: "I'm not afraid of Generative Artificial Intelligence. I've been observing the great changes for years. Writing, printing, and electricity have revolutionized the world, and every technological shift has had violent repercussions on society and even on human psychology. Although each of these technologies has been greeted with great enthusiasm and adopted with benefits for humanity, there have been some setbacks."
