Christos Frangonikolopoulos

Professor of International Relations at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Aristotle University and Holder of the Jean Monnet Chair on European Integration Journalism

Christos Frangonikolopoulos (https://auth.academia.edu/ChristosFrangonikolopoulos) is Professor of International Relations at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Aristotle University and holder of the Jean Monnet Chair on European Integration Journalism (http://jeanmonnetchair.jour.auth.gr/?page_id=2112). He is also the Director of the English-taught Master of Arts (MA) in Digital Media, Communication and Journalism (http://media.jour.auth.gr) at the University of Aristotle is the first of its kind among Greek public Universities (http://media.jour.auth.gr), He studied Politics and Government (BA Honors) and International Relations (PhD) at the University of Kent at Canterbury (England).

Nikos Panagiotou
Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication, Faculty of Economic and Political Sciences, Aristotle University and DAAD Scholar to Deutsche Welle

Dr. Nikos S. Panagiotou is Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has been a DAAD Scholar at Deutsche Welle, Chevening Scholar of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office UK, RCAP Scholar from APU University Japan, Scholar to Beijing Foreign Studies University, Scholar at Sabanci University (Turkey), Scholar of the State of Luxembourg. He has an extensive research work which has been funded from Google (DNI Initiative fund). He is the initiator and organizer of Thessaloniki International Media Summer Academy and in charge of Digital Communication Network Global and Director of Peace Journalism Lab School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication, Aristotle University. He has a track record research and project work regarding disinformation, Fake News Hunters, Refugees against disinformation etc.

Christoph Schmidt
Professor of Media Management and Economics
Head of the Academic Department at Deutsche Welle Akademie

Prof. Dr. Schmidt studied Business Administration at the University of Siegen, Germany and received a post doctorate (PhD) from the University of Cologne. Prof. Dr. Schmidt worked for different companies as a Consultant and Manager. In 1995, he joined Deutsche Welle, where he held a series of managerial positions. Since 2006, Prof. Dr. Schmidt is Head of Administration and Head of the Academic Department at Deutsche Welle Akademie. Since 2000, he also teaches as a (Guest Lecturer at different universities in Germany and abroad. His main research projects focuses on International Media Systems and Human Resource Management. Prof. Schmidt teaches, amongst other topics, International Media Studies, General Media Economics, Business Management, Editorial Management, Project Management, Organization and Human Resource Management.

Sherri Hope Culver
Associate Professor, Klein College of Media and Communication, Temple University

Sherri Hope Culver serves as Director of the Center for Media and Information Literacy at Temple University, USA where she is an Associate Professor in the Klein College of Media and Communication. She teaches courses on the business of media and media management. Prior to her academic appointment, Sherri worked in the media industry for over twenty-five years as a producer and television executive. Her industry experience ranges from serving as a reporter for a public television news organization to writing and producing educational programs for young viewers. She currently produces and hosts the television series, “Media Inside Out”. Sherri is a three-term past president of the National Association for Media Literacy Education and a member of the steering committee for the North America chapter of GAPMIL. She regularly presents internationally on media literacy and children’s media topics. Sherri has authored and co-authored several books, including a chapter in the latest edition of “20 Questions about Youth and the Media” (2018).

Shin Dong Kim
Professor, The Media School, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea & Chief Director, Knowledge Cooperative for Good Governance, Seoul, Korea

Shin Dong Kim is a professor at the School of Media and Communication, Hallym University, Korea. He founded the Institute for Communication Arts and Technology (iCat) and served as the Vice President for International Affairs for the university. He has been an active advocate and innovator for the globalization of higher education throughout his professional career. His area of research and teaching covers culture and creative industries, media policy and political economy, global communications, and film studies. He is currently leading a five-year national research project on modeling the Korean ICT developments. He is preparing a book on the political economy of the Korean media industries and culture, and writing on colonial experiences represented on the Korean cinema. Dr. Kim has also been teaching at many universities globally including Dartmouth College, Sciences Po Paris, Peking University, City University of Hong Kong, University of the Philippines, Shanghai University, etc. Dr. Kim earned his PhD from Indiana University in Mass Communications.

Alexis Papachelas
Journalist, Executive Editor 
KATHIMERINI Newspaper

Alexis Papachelas was born in Athens in 1961. He has a BA in History and Economics from Bard College and a Master' s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University. He has interviewed many important global personalities from Presidents Obama, Clinton, Erdogan, Assad, to Bill Gates and others. He has also been a host of the TV current affairs shows "FAKELOI" and  the producer/ presenter of documentaries. He is currently the Executive Editor of KATHIMERINI newspaper.

Andreas Veglis
Head of Media Informatics Lab
School of Journalism & MC
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - Greece

Andreas Veglis is a Professor of media technology, and head of the Media Informatics Lab at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has served as and editor, member of scientific board and reviewer in various academic journals. Prof Veglis has more than 150 peer-reviewed papers on media technology and journalism. Specifically, he is the author or co-author of 12 books, he has published 74 papers on scientific journals and he has presented 125 papers in international and national Conferences. Prof Veglis has been involved in 30 national and international research projects. His research interests include information technology in journalism, new media, data journalism, big data, social media, open data and fake news - verification.

Betty Tsakarestou

Associate Professor & Head of ADandPRLAB, Department of Communication, Media and Culture, Panteion University

Betty Tsakarestou is Associate Professor and Head of ADandPRLAB & Director of Mass Media Division, Department of Communication, Media and Culture of Panteion University. She is Branding Chair & European Research Liaison for International Communication Division at The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).  BoD member of the Institute of Communication. She is an International Exchange Alumna of Study of U.S. Institutes on Journalism and Media of U.S. Department of State, named as International Exchange Alumna of the Month, and featured in  “Women Changing Greece,” video series by U.S Embassy Athens. She has been visiting lecturer at Copenhagen Business School, the University of Cyprus and visiting researcher at Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism, CUNY J- School.

 As Head of ADandPRLAB she has initiated cross-sector educational and innovation partnerships with leading communication and business organizations, digital media, startups and social innovators. In partnership with Inside Story, they have co-designed #YourStory 2 & 3, through co-creation workshops, engaging readers and journalists in collaborative storytelling.   

She has co-organized Startup Weekends and Startup Labs, to engage university students in startup entrepreneurship, including the Startup Weekend on “Entrepreneurial Journalism” with the support of U.S. Embassy Athens and in collaboration Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism and,  Athens Startup Weekend on Audio and Radio Innovation and Summit in partnership with Antenna Music. With the support of Stavros Niarchos Foundation, she participated with students from Panteion University at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Journalism Bootcamp, in Washington, D.C.

She served as the Director for Educational Radio-Television at the Ministry of Education focusing on its digital transition (2010-2012) and served at the editorial board of the monthly “Tribute of Ideas” at Lambrakis Press.

Sally Ann Cruikshank
Assistant professor, School of Journalism and Strategic Media,
Middle Tennessee State University

Dr. Sally Ann Cruikshank assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media at Middle Tennessee State University. She received her Ph.D. from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, following an award-winning career as a television news producer in Pittsburgh and Miami. Cruikshank’s research spans the globe, as she has traveled to several countries to conduct research on press freedom in post-conflict and post-genocide societies. She has conducted field research in Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Myanmar (Burma). Cruikshank has also conducted extensive research on mobile technology and social media. Her research on Twitter has been published in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media and Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.

Aphrodite Salas  

Assistant Professor at Concordia University 

Aphrodite Salas is a journalist and professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Her most recent work is a short documentary and multimedia collaboration with Canadian Television (CTV) called: “from shore to sky: a reconciliation story.” She is a trained workshop facilitator on issues of combating misinformation and disinformation in news through the international organization Journalists for Human Rights. Aphrodite is also a research associate at the Concordia University Acts of Listening Lab, a member of the national board of directors of the Canadian International Council and a regular member of the Concordia Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism Studies. Her experience as a journalist is extensive, having worked as a national reporter, video journalist and assignment editor at CTV, a senior anchor at Global Quebec and a Parliamentary Correspondent for CityTV Toronto and Vancouver

George Pleios

Head of the Department of Communication and Media Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

George Pleios is Professor and Head of the Department of Communication and Media Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Director of the Laboratory for Social Research in Mass Media, Board member of the of National Council for Radio and Television (NCRT) of Greece, President of the Hellenic Sociological Society and former member of the Supervisory Board of the European Center for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF). He has taught also in Hungary, Portugal, Cyprus, Bulgaria China, Turkey and Ukraine. He is author of 6 books, 22 chapters, more than 40 articles and more than 50 presentation in Greece and internationally, and PI in more than 25 research projects. Works of him have been published in UK, USA, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, China, Australia and Turkey.

Theodora A. Maniou
Department of Social and Political Sciences,
University of Cyprus

Theodora A. Maniou (Ph.D.) is a Lecturer in Journalism, at the Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cyprus. Her area of specialization focuses on new forms of journalism, broadcast journalism in television and multimedia journalism. Prior to her current appointment, she worked as a journalist for fifteen years and is a member of the International Federation of Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists and the Journalistic Union of Macedonia-Thrace (Greece).

Sadia Jamil

Postdoctoral fellow at Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi

Dr. Sadia Jamil is a postdoctoral fellow at Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi. In July 2015, she has received her PhD degree in Journalism at the University of Queensland, Australia. She also holds postgraduate degrees in the disciplines of Media Management (University of Stirling, Scotland) and Mass Communication (University of Karachi). Dr Jamil is currently serving International Association of Media and Communication Research as the Co Vice-Chair of Journalism Research and Education Section. Dr. Jamil has published and edited collections on freedom of expression, media freedom, safety of journalists, data journalism, ethnic media and digital divides. Her most recent books include ‘the Handbook of Research on Combating Threats to Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety’ (IGI Global, 2020), ‘Ethnic Journalism in the Global South (forthcoming, Palgrave MacMillan) co-edited with Dr. Anna Gladkova, and ‘Discrimination, Gender Equality and Safety Risks in Journalism’ (forthcoming, IGI Global) co-edited with Professor Baris Coban, Professor Bora Ataman and Dr Gifty Appiah-Adeji. 

Petra Kovačević

University of Zagreb/Cardiff University

Teaching and research assistant at Department of Journalism & Media Production (University of Zagreb) and PhD student (Cardiff University). Freelance journalist and mobile journalism trainer, with special love for video and TV. I'm interested in studying and experimenting with new journalistic practices, formats and stories for young audiences. In my thesis I'm looking at ways in which solutions journalism is understood and implemented by the BBC and the ZDF in their video stories. 

Renate Schroeder
Director of the European Federation of Journalists

Renate Schroeder is the Director of the European Federation of Journalists, In 1993 she started working for the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and since 2003 she works for the EFJ. Advocacy at EU and Council of Europe level; presentation of EFJ at international meetings and fact-finding media freedom missions; project work, communication and assistance in several EFJ expert groups including on freelances, broadcasting media literacy and digital journalism, are part of her work-load in the small dynamic Brussels office.

Renate Schroeder studied International Relations and Political Science at Boston University (Bachelor’s Degree in 1988) and in Berlin at the Free University (Masters in 1992). Major themes during her Masters program were nationalism, integration and refugee policy.

Renate worked among other at the United Nations, New York, the research institute FAST in Berlin and the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation in Brussels before she joined the IFJ/EFJ team. She is of German nationality and speaks English, French, Italian, German and Spanish (passive).

Dimitris Koparanis

Dimitris Koparanis is a journalist, writer and a chef. He studied Business Administration and Journalism and writes about food and culture. At 2014 he was lucky enough to create the first food viral in Greece. He is the founder of The Benefits Media, an independent, food related, media content production agency.

Yannis Kotsifos
Director general of the Journalists’ Union of Macedonia and Thrace Daily Newspapers (ESIEMTH)

Born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1969, he has studied Greek Literature (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki). He lives and works in the city and is the director general of the Journalists’ Union of Macedonia and Thrace Daily Newspapers (ESIEMTH) and its Cultural Foundation. Having worked as a journalist in both newspapers and radio, he has also edited numerous books and collaborated with various magazines, either as a contributing editor or as an editor-at-large, or as both. Since 2013 he is a member of the Steering Committee of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ). As ESIEMTH director he has coordinated numerous projects regarding journalists’ training, media literacy, diversity reporting and ethics.

Mattia Peretti
JournalismAI Manager, Polis, London School
of Economics and Political Science

Mattia Peretti is the Manager of JournalismAI, a research and training project run by Polis – the international journalism think-tank of the LSE – with support from the Google News Initiative.

JournalismAI aims to inform media organisations about the potential offered by AI-powered technologies. The project offers research reports, training materials, a network for best practice and innovation sharing and much more.

As part of the project, Mattia coordinated the publication of the report New powers, new responsibilities. A global survey of journalism and artificial intelligence, authored by Professor Charlie Beckett.

Before joining Polis and JournalismAI, Mattia worked at the European Journalism Centre, where he led the News Impact programmes.

Doxa Komodromou

Doxa Komodromou is an experienced event organiser and presenter at the University of Cyprus, undertaking a series of such official functions both at home and abroad for over two decades, including graduations ceremonies, exhibitions, talks/discussions, visits by foreign dignitaries and inauguration of buildings at the University Campus. She has worked as a personal assistant and data researcher for former MEP Yiannakis Matsis and remains an active journalist since 2000, working for the state Broadcaster CyBC and currently at Sigma TV and Radio Proto, in the capacity of reporter, anchor TV and Radio news presenter. Doxa Komodromou also specialises in elocution and speech techniques, teaching several classes at the University of Cyprus. 

Anna Kynthia Bousdoukou

Anna Kynthia Bousdoukou is a journalist with 13 years of experience in radio and TV at Greek media organization SKAI. In 2018 she co-founded iMEdD, incubator for Media Education and Development, where she serves as Managing Director. She serves also as an advisor on grants related to journalism at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) since 2016 and she is presenting SNF’s monthly forum DIALOGUES. For 8 years, she worked as a reporter on the radio, and then as a news editor, journalist and broadcast producer. At the same time, she has contributed as a freelance columnist in various magazines. In 2011 she was assigned to present the night news of SKAI television and in 2013 she started hosting the morning news program of SKAI TV “NOW”, focusing on domestic as well as international news, politics, economy, science and innovation. She holds a degree in Sociology from Panteio University with specialization on the Sociology of Mass Media. In 2016, she joined the team of TEDxThessaloniki, which she has been presenting in recent years.

Kelly Kiki
Project Manager Lab, Journalist

Kelly Kiki has been working in the Press and media industry since 2007. She worked in print journalism, she was responsible for the Social Media strategy and content of news online publications and she has contributed to digital projects in the field of education and culture.

Before joining iMEdD, she worked as a Senior Data Analyst for almost two years; she was trained in data journalism by attending the post-bac Lede 12 program at the Columbia Journalism School in New York in 2018 under a full scholarship offered by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

She is a graduate of the Department of Communication, Media & Culture of Panteion University of Athens and she holds a Master’s degree in “Digital Media and Interactive Environments” by the Faculty of Communication & Media Studies of the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Stratis Trilikis
Programs Director, Journalist

Stratis Trilikis is a journalist who has served as director and editor-in-chief in various radio and TV stations as well as a war correspondent for print media for more that 20 years.

He was also the editor-in-chief of the morning news program of the National Television and SKAI TV for 15 years.

He holds a degree in Sociology from Panteio University with specialization on the Sociology of Mass Media.

Thanasis Troboukis
Project Manager Lab, Journalist

Thanasis Troboukis is a journalist. He has worked as a reporter and editor in Chief for some of the most successful Greek media. He set up the office of VICE Media in Greece, where he served as the Head of Content. His investigation about child trafficking in Greece was shortlisted for the Investigative Award of the European Press Prize 2017.

He took part in the ICIJ’s cross border investigation of the Paradise Paper and later he was trained in Data Journalism at the LEDE program of Columbia Journalism School in New York, with a full scholarship from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

Nicole Tung
Photojournalist

Photojournalist Nicole Tung (b. 1986) is an American citizen born and raised in Hong Kong. She graduated from New York University in 2009 after studying journalism and history and freelances for international publications and NGOs, primarily covering the Middle East. Her work often explores those most affected by conflict and the consequences of war, including migration across the Middle East, posttraumatic stress in Native American veterans, human rights abuses, and women’s rights. She has also briefly consulted for the International Organization for Migration. She is based in Istanbul, Turkey.

Lida Tsene
Researcher and teaching associate, Advertising and Public Relations Lab of Panteion University

Dr. Lida Tsene holds a PhD from Panteion University, Department of Communication, Media and Culture (2010) in the field of social media and social responsibility. Since 2008 she collaborates with the Advertising and Public Relations Lab of Panteion University as researcher and teaching associate. She worked for four years (2010-2014) as adjunct professor at the Department of Informatics and Mass Media of Western Greece Technical Educational Institution. Since 2012 she teaches at the MA Communication and new Journalism of Cyprus Open University and since 2013 at the the MA Cultural Organisations Management of the Hellenic Open University. Since 2012 she facilitates online seminars on social media, digital transformation and creative entrepreneurship en at Hellenic American Union. She has worked as a journalist, CSR and communication consultant, while since 2005 she is Head of Public Relations, Arts and Educational Programs of Comicdom Press. In 2015 she co-founded Athens Comics Library. She collaborates with Impact Hub Athens as Communication Strategist and Business Development Consultant. She has published papers in the field of digital media, journalism, communication, comics and arts management. Among her research interests are topics related to social and journalism entrepreneurship, as well as to transmedia storytelling.

Nello Barile

Associate Professor at IULM University of Milan

The research interests of Nello Barile include sociology of media and communication, culture, fashion, and consumption. He has published numerous books, articles and short essays in Italy as well as in France, Germany, Brazil and USA. At the moment he is investigating the relationships between culture, power and emerging media.

He teaches media studies and sociology of cultural processes at IULM University of Milan, where he also coordinated a Master's program in Creativity Management for 6 years.

Dimitrios Bouras
Anthropologist photographer and documentarian

DIMITIRIOS BOURAS is an Anthropologist photographer and documentarian working on long term projects which focus on humanitarian issues, conflict and war around the globe. He is a frequent lecturer and essayist at several academic institutions and international conferences. He is lecturing and presenting, as non-resident fellow, at the University of Cambridge, as well as a visiting lecturer at Northeastern University - School of Journalism, Boston, USA and The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London, UK. He is also cooperating with the CDRSE in joint cooperation with DG NEAR “Towards a different media culture in the acceding countries of the Western Balkans: Investing in raising media standards and media transparency”.

Peter Caks  

Teaching assistant and researcher, University of Maribor, Slovenia

Peter Caks, MSc, is teaching assistant and researcher at Media communication studies (University of Maribor). His research interest ranges from media convergence and hybridization, media audiences to media policy and systems. His teaching field ranges from communication and media studies to practical courses of media content. He is a PhD student of Communication Science (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Science) and guest lecturer of radio journalism at the mentioned university. His PhD field is transformation of radio news in digital age.

Dejan Pralica

Associate Professor at the Department of Media Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad

Dejan Pralica, PhD (1978, Novi Sad, Serbia) Associate Professor at the Department of Media Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad. He teaches Radio journalism, Media discourse analysis and Nonverbal communication. He received his PhD at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade (Journalism, 2010). He has published two monographs “Radio discourse” and “Who did media choose, and what the parties offered” (co-author with Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic), many papers in international journals and proceedings, four of which are on the “Thomson Reuters” list. Areas of interest: radio journalism, public media, discourse analysis and nonverbal communication.

Paul Lowe

Reader in Documentary Photography, London College of Communication, University of the Arts, UK

Dr. Paul Lowe is a Reader in Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London, UK. Paul is an award-winning photographerand educator, whose work is represented bythe VII Photo Agency. Hehas been published inTime,Newsweek,Life,The Sunday Times Magazine,The ObserverandThe Independentamongst others. He has covered breaking news the world over, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nelson Mandela’s release, famine in Africa, the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and the destruction of Grozny.

His book,Bosnians, documenting 10 years of the war and post war situation in Bosnia, was published in April 2005 bySaqibooks. His research interest focuses on the photography of conflict and human rights. His most recent books include Reporting the Siege of Sarajevo, Photography MasterclassandA Chronology of Photography, andUnderstandingPhotojournalism.

Leora Kahn

Founder and executive director of PROOF: Media for Social Justice

Leora Kahn is founder and executive director of PROOF: Media for Social Justice. She works on global projects with Amnesty International and the United Nations. Her 2007 book Darfur: 20 years of War and Genocide has won several awards and an exhibition travels in the US under the auspices of the Holocaust Museum of Houston.

Leora curated an exhibition on child soldiers in collaboration with the UN’s Office on Children and Armed Conflict. An exhibition on rescuers during genocides, Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia and the Holocaust, originated at Yale University, travels worldwide. She produced and curated an exhibit on Legacy of Rape, which features the voices and photos of women who have experienced rape during conflict, partnering with UNFPA and TRIAL, in Bosnia,Nepal, DRC and Colombia. She just finished two exhibits on the American border and mass incarceration

Leora’s film credits include Rene and I, an award-winning documentary about the life an extraordinary woman who was experimented on by Josef Mengele during the Holocaust. She also co-produced Original Intent; a documentary that explores the judicial philosophy promoted by President George W. Bush.

Leora has been a fellow in the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University where she conducts research on rescuers and rescuing behavior and was the Cathy Cohen Lasry Visiting Lecturer at Clark University holocaust and Genocide Center. She is fellow at the Adrienne de Rothschild/Columbia University and Cambridge University for social entrepreneurs that involve starting a network between Jews and Muslims. This year she was a Fulbright Senior Specialist and taught a University of Haifa. She teaches human rights and media at International Center for Photography in New York. She is is human rights lecturer at University of Dayton where she founded the moral courage program.

Louisa Gouliamaki

LOUISA GOULIAMAKI is a Greek-Polish photojournalist and a part-time staff for Agence-France Presse. She is based in Athens, Greece, with over 25 years of experience in conflict reporting. Her work was awarded and presented at exhibitions and festivals in Greece and abroad. Louisa is a graduate of Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Technological Educational Institution (TEI) of Athens, department of photography and visual media.

Epaminondas Christophilopoulos 
Deputy Chair at Foresight Team, Presidency of the Greek Government

Dr Epaminondas Christophilopoulos is the Deputy-Chair of the Foresight Unit in the Presidency of the Government (Hellenic Republic) and Head of the UNESCO Chair on Futures Research at the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), Greece. He has initially worked in the field of technology transfer and research commercialization, before setting up the international research co-operation unit in PRAXI Network/ FORTH. Since then, he has coordinated several projects in Eastern Europe, Asia, the Gulf peninsula, and Central America, while he has extensively worked in China for over 10 years.Since 2010, he draws particular focus on future studies and set up the Foresight Unit in PRAXI Network/FORTH.He has an academic background in Physics (BSc), Environmental Studies (MSc), International Relations and Foresight (Phd). He is a certified Future Strategist, Chair of the Foresight Europe Network (FEN), member of the World Future Studies Federation (WFSF), and Co-Chair of the Greek Node of the Millennium Project. 

Alicia Fawcett

Cybersecurity expert, McKinsey & Co  

Alicia Fawcett is a multicultural technologist, open-source analyst and international expert on cyber policy, digital geo-interference, disinformation and cybersecurity. She currently works as a Senior Cybersecurity expert at McKinsey & Co, advising on a range of global cyber and data privacy issues. In addition, she serves as a Foregin Interference and Disinformation Research Fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute in Washington D.C. Alicia is deeply passionate about global technology ethics and serves on the Advisory Board at the Carnegie Council on Ethics in International Affairs, the U.S. National Cyber Moonshot committee and teaches a Cybersecurity and International Affairs course at the University of Economics, Prague. Her career is credited with vast professional experience encompassing work within both public and private sectors. Alicia has been published and cited with the Atlantic Council, The National Bureau of Asian Research, Washington Journal of Modern China, India Today, Politico and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. She received her MA in International Economic Relations and Diplomatic Studies at The University of Economics, Prague and her BA in Economics and Asian Studies at the University of Northern Colorado. She speaks Mandarin Chinese, German, Italian and French.

Andreas M. Panagopoulos  

News Director, Journalist

Andreas M. Panagopoulos is an experienced news director and on the field journalist (three decades). He is currently working as a news manager and News’ New Business Development Manager at Alter Ego Media Group. He recently, organized from the scratch the Data receipt, transmission and presentation from Greek and the international Stock Markets, the collaboration with international Media and the section Academia in the iconic economic brand of Greece OIkonomikos Tahydromos (digital edition, www.ot.gr).

He was responsible for the Newsroom organization and operation of ONETV and run the news department, the first in Greece LIVE web tV, the relaunch of MEGA TV and the digital version of Megatv.com. It also manages New Business projects on MegaTV.

During his career, he was a senior columnist at Cnn Greece and founder - director of DPG Digital Multimedia Hub. He also organized from scratch and in close collaboration with Cnn international Developers and journalists, and run CNN Greece (cnn.gr) as News Manager. For more than 7 years he was News Director for ANT1 TV and redesigned ant1news.gr.

He is a visiting professor in higher education institutions, a PhD candidate in the Department Of Journalism and Media of AUTh. He has been honored with Journalism Award Botsis Foundation. He speaks English and Greek.

Ziyah Gafic 

Photojournalist & Videographer 

Ziyah Gafic is an award-winning photojournalist and videographer based in Sarajevo focusing on societies locked in a perpetual cycle of violence and Muslim communities around the world. Over the past twenty years he covered major stories in over 60 countries. Ziyah’s work received many prestigious awards such as multiple awards at World Press Photo, Grand Prix Discovery of the Year at Les Rencontres d’Arles, Hasselblad Masters Award, City of Perpignan Award for Young Reporters at Visa pour l’Image, Photo District News, Getty Images grant for editorial photography, TED fellowship, multiple grants from Prince Claus Fonds, Magnum foundation, Pulitzer center and the National Geographic society. His work is regularly published in leading international publications. Ziyah authored several monographs including “Troubled Islam – short stories from troubled societies”, “Quest for Identity,” and the most recent, “Heartland.” Ziyah is a curator and educator at VII Academy. 

Alisher Siddique

Director of RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service  

Alisher Siddique is the Director of RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service since 2008. Under his leadership, the service has become a pioneer in using the latest digital platforms to break the information blockade in one of the world’s most closed societies. Siddique reported on the Andijon massacre in Uzbekistan in 2005, and earlier worked for the BBC’s Uzbek service in Tashkent and London. He was named “Journalist of the Year” by Reporters Without Borders-Stockholm in 2005. He holds an M.A. and B.A. in Middle East Politics and Arabic Studies from the University of Oriental Studies in Tashkent.

David J. Simon 

Director of the Genocide Studies Program, Yale University   

David J. Simon is the Director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University and holds the position of Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and in the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale. His research focuses on mass atrocity prevention and post-atrocity recovery, with a particular focus on cases of mass atrocity in Africa, including those in Rwanda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Cote d’Ivoire.  Simon holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.A. from Princeton University. He is co-editor (with Eve Zucker) of the 2020 volume Mass Violence and Memory in the Digital Age: Memorialization Unmoored, (Palgrave-MacMillan), and co-editor (with Leora Kahn) of the forthcoming Handbook of Genocide Studies (Edward Elgar). He has served as a consultant with the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide. 

Leonidas Skerletopoulos 

Founding partner, Social Marketing and Behaviour Change Institute of Greece (SMBC) 

Leonidas is a Social Marketing and behaviour change expert, founding partner of the Social Marketing and Behaviour Change Institute of Greece (SMBC) and Board Member of the International Social Marketing Association (ISMA). 

He has experience working as a consultant with public, non-profit and private sector organizations in the field of Marketing, Communications and Strategic Planning. He was a U.K. alumni awards finalist in Greece for 2019 and the founder of the Mindspark initiative, an initiative aiming to promote growth mindset in Greece expressed through events focused on marketing and creativity.

Vasileios Syros  

Director of the Early Modern Greek Culture Program, The Medici Archive Project, Italy

Vasileios Syros is a Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and the Director of the Early Modern Greek Culture Program at The Medici Archive Project in Florence, Italy. He is also Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for European Global Studies at the University of Basel. His main research and teaching interests center on the history of political thought as well as the history and theories of leadership and cultural diplomacy. Syros was a Junior Fellow at the Academy of Finland (2006–2008) and Senior Fellow at the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Political Thought and Conceptual Change. From 2008 to 2011 he taught as Visiting Assistant Professor of Social Thought at The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought, and in 2010 he was appointed Martin Marty Center Senior Fellow at The Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion at the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. From 2012 to 2017 he was Academy of Finland Senior Research Fellow. From 2014 to 2018 he directed the research program "Political Power in the Early Modern European and Islamic Worlds" and previously served as Principal Investigator for the project "Giovanni Botero and the Comparative Study of Early Modern Forms of Government" (2012–2017) under the auspices of the Academy of Finland as well as for the collaborative network "Eurasian Empires, Public Space/Sphere, and Collective Identities at the Threshold of Modernity" under the auspices of the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS–HS) (2014–2015). Syros has taught at Stanford University, McGill University, The University of Chicago, and the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris). In 2017/2018 he was appointed Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) Visiting Professor and Descartes Senior Fellow at the Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities at Utrecht University. He has also taught comparative political theory and cross-cultural leadership at Beijing University and Nankai University (China), Sungkyunkwan University (South Korea), Waseda University (Japan), and Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Kazakhstan). He is the General Editor of the book series Edinburgh Studies in Comparative Political Theory and Intellectual History (Edinburgh University Press) and Medieval and Early Modern Europe and the World (Brepols).

Aaron Sharockman 
Vice President for Strategic Partnerships, Poynter Institute for Media Studies

Aaron Sharockman is the executive director of PolitiFact, and the Vice President for Sales and Strategic Partnerships at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla.  Aaron oversees PolitiFact and Poynter's partnerships with newsrooms, NGOs and technology companies. He also oversees Poynter's MediaWise initiative, which aims to empower people of all ages to be more critical consumers of content online. Aaron has more than a decade of experience covering mis- and disinformation tactics with a focus empowering citizens with more accurate information.

Angelos Athanasopoulos

Ludovic Blecher

Presentation Title: Global trends in media innovation. / Why innovation is still needed.

More information about the speaker will be included soon.

Dren Gerguri

Lecturer, Department of Journalism, University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina”, Kosovo 

Speech Title: Information war and fake news

Dren Gërguri (Ph.D.) is a lecturer at the Department of Journalism, University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina” in Kosovo. He also works as a journalist since 2009 and now, he is author of “Log” at Paper Radio. He has lectured as a guest lecturer in some European universities, Including Marburg University and the University of Wroclaw. He has held several media literacy training, fake news training, in Kosovo and other Western Balkans countries. His last publication is “Kosovo: Political Crisis, One More Challenge Alongside COVID-19“, a chapter on “Political Communication and COVID-19”, a book published by Routledge. His personal blog is: www.drengerguri.com

Thomas Miller

Thomas Miller is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University and is a retired foreign service officer.  A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Mr. Miller’s last foreign assignment was Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy Berlin.  Previously he was Director of Strategic Communications, American Embassy Islamabad as well as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Athens and Chairman of the Fulbright Board.  Mr. Miller served in various positions in public diplomacy in Europe, North Africa, and South Asia. He has received numerous awards for his service including Linguist of the Year.  Before joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Miller was a Fulbright Scholar in Karachi, Pakistan, where he launched a Masters Degree in English as a Second Language.  He is the editor of Functional Approaches to Written Text and co-author of Interlink.  His foreign languages are German, Hindi, Urdu, Greek, French, and Turkish.  Mr. Miller is married and has three sons.

Clara Attene
Digital trainer and former Google News Lab Teaching Fellow

Data journalist and co-founder of Viz&Chips, an Italian journalistic startup specialised on data games and interactive visualisations. I am also a trainer on data and online journalism. Previously, I worked as a freelance business writer. 

Marije Arentze

Project Manager
DROG

Marije Arentze graduated in East-European studies at the University of Amsterdam and works as project manager on Media Literacy for DROG, the Dutch platform of experts on disinformation. Her work is focused on "vaccinating" news consumers against disinformation.

Anthi Baliou

Senior Researcher, Peace Journalism Lab

Anthi Baliou is a PhD Candidate in the field of “Literacy in Digital Mobile Media” at the Department of Journalism and Mass Media of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a Senior Researcher at the Peace Journalism Lab. At the same time, she works as a Librarian at the Library of the University of Macedonia. She is a graduate of the Department of Library Science (TEI of Thessaloniki) and holds a Master’s Degree in “Management of Cultural Units” (Hellenic Open University). She has participated in various research projects as a Research Assistand and as Project Manager (EUFactCheck, JRP, Refugees Fact-checking, COST) on the field of news cross-referencing, disinformation and media literacy. She is the Project Manager of the 5^th Thessaloniki International Summer Academy. She is also a member of the Digital Communication Network and she is occupied as a Research Assistant in projects (Influencers Hub Ukraine) and as a Trainer in Workshop Series (DCN Digital and Media Literacy for NGOs Training Program, Active Citizenship Workshop Series).  Her research interests include: Information, News and Media Literacy, Misinformation, Propaganda and Fake News, Social Influence of the Media and Social Media, Community Engagement.

Henri Bohnet

Director of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) office in Athens

Henri Bohnet is the Director of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) office in Athens, covering Greece and Cyprus. He has been working for thirteen years for KAS, having previously been stationed in Berlin, Belgrad, Skopje, Moscow and Kiev. With a M.A. in Political Science, he started off his career working for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for the OSCE, before joining KAS in 2005.

Stamos Archontis 

Ellinika Hoaxes 

Stamos Archontis has a Bachelor's Degree (Hons) in Chemistry from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and he is a science communicator on YouTube where he makes videos for the channel "The Mad Scientist". He is currently attending a post-graduate program in journalism entitled “Μaster of Arts in Digital Media, Communication and Journalism” at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and for the past 4 years he has been working as a fact checker for the site Ellinika Hoaxes, a member of the International Fact Checking Network.

Dimitris Xenakis
Journalist and Co-founder of Inside Story

Dimitris has been working since 1994 on shaping digital strategies and on the development of applications and services for digital media. He has taken on top management roles in some of the most important news media organizations in Greece including in.gr, skai.gr and news247. In 2016 he co-founded inside story, an innovative subscription-based investigative and explanatory journalism site, with Tatiana Karapanagioti and a great team of co-workers. He is a founding member of Journalism Initiative, a non-profit devoted to defending freedom of the press and the right of society for unhindered and diverse access to information. He holds a PhD in Physics and has worked for a number of years as a researcher.

Elli Narewska 
Digital programme manager, NewsWise, Guardian Foundation

Elli is the digital lead for the Guardian Foundation's NewsWise news literacy programme which teaches nine to 11-year-olds about news: what it is, what it does, how to navigate things like fake news, bias, speculation and opinion, and how to create your own reports in your own words for a real audience.

Elli manages the digital content for the project as well as designing and delivering workshops and training for children, families and teachers in all areas of the UK. She has many years’ experience in news literacy and previously worked in the Guardian Education Centre, before helping to set up the NewsWise programme. 

Before working in news literacy, Elli was an English teacher in London comprehensive schools as well as in various special needs settings.

Ioannis Papadopoulos
Print reporter and multimedia producer at Kathimerini

Ioannis Papadopoulos is a print reporter and multimedia producer based in Athens, Greece. He works as a feature writer & the video editor at Kathimerini (www.kathimerini.gr). He has also worked as a feature writer at TA NEA, focusing on social issues and immigration. His work has been published at the online edition of the German newspaper Zeit, the German edition of Le Monde Diplomatique, the Greek investigative website Inside Story and the Greek edition of VICE. He is the first reporter in Greece to use a 360 camera to produce VR video. In 2017 he won the 3rd prize at the print category of the EU Migration Media Award. In 2016 he was nominated for the Special Award of the European Press Prize, which was dedicated that year to the refugee crisis. He studied Journalism at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and completed his master's in Print & Multimedia Journalism at Emerson College, Boston. He also taught a journalism lab for one semester at Emerson College as an adjunct faculty.

Paul Clemens Murschetz

Berlin University of Digital Sciences
Austrian Academy of Sciences (associated researcher)

PAUL CLEMENS MURSCHETZ (Professorial thesis in media & communication studies, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt; PhD in business studies, Vienna School of Economics and Business Administration; MSc. in media & coms, London School of Economics and Political Science) is researcher, analyst, consultant and conference speaker. Paul is associated researcher to the Austrian Academy of Sciences (CMC – Institute for Comparative Media & Communication Studies), and lecturer at the Berlin University of Digital Sciences, and Macromedia Hochschule Munich. His research work focuses on strategic media management, media economics, media convergence and media innovation management. He has published in journals such as: The International Journal on Media Management, the European Journal of Communication, ICA’s Communication Yearbook, and is a frequent conference speaker on issues of media management and economics (German Communication Association, World Media Economics Conference, European Media Management Association).

Klimentini Diakomanoli

Head of Press, Athens European Commission Representation

Mrs Klimentini Diakomanoli is as of September 2015 the Head of Press at the Athens European Commission Representation. Ms Diakomanoli assumed the same function at the EC Representation in Cyprus since the country’s accession to the EU and has previously worked as a Press Officer in Brussels in different Commission services namely on Environment, Research and Technology. She is a Law graduate (University of Athens), has a Master's Degree in Penal Law and Criminology (Université de Pau et Pays de l'Adour) and worked as a Lawyer (Athens Bar. She is also a graduate of the Greek National School of Public Administration (Press Attachés section) with her first diplomatic posting at the Greek Permanent Representation in Brussels in 1998. She is active in solidarity events' organisation as a member of different associations (Cultural Hellenic Circle of Brussels,ARGO, "Agora in Brussels" and the annual fundraising concert "12 heures pour la Grece".

Nico Drok
President of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA)

Dr. Nico Drok has been working in journalism education for more than 35 years. His main research interests are civic journalism, journalism education and news media use of young people. He is professor of Media & Civil society at Windesheim UAS, Zwolle, Netherlands. Next to that he is President of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA), which has 70 members in 30 European countries. Furthermore he is member of the Steering Committee of the World Journalism Education Council (WJEC). He is married, has two daughters and four grandchildren.

Anita Fabos
Professor of International Development, Community and Environment,Clark University

Dr. Anita Fábos, Associate Professor of International Development, Community, and Environment and Social Change, Clark University, is an anthropologist who has worked with refugees and other forced migrants in urban settings in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.

Formerly the Director of the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies program at the American University in Cairo, and Programme Coordinator for the graduate program in Refugee Studies at the University of East London, Anita has developed integrated teaching, research, and praxis programs incorporating refugee and forced migrant perspectives in collaboration with refugee-led organizations, scholars, practitioners, policy makers, and international agencies.

Anita’s research with Muslim, Arabic- speaking Sudanese in the diaspora has resulted in numerous publications, including her book Managing Muslim Mobilities: Between Spiritual Geographies and the Global Security Regime (Palgrave 2014) with Riina Isotalo, ‘Brothers’ or Others? Propriety and Gender for Muslim Arab Sudanese in Egypt (Berghahn Books 2010)

Kirstine Foge Jensen 
Interim Executive Director Guardian Foundation

Kirstine Føge Jensen is interim Executive Director and oversees the strategy and operations of the Guardian Foundation. Kirstine passionately believes that freedom of information, news literacy and a diverse media sector are cornerstones of an informed and empowered society and thereby essential for democracy itself. She has been with the Foundation for 3 years and has taken a lead role in supporting Syrian and Turkish independent media under threat.
She previously worked in documentary production, mainly working on a series about unaccompanied refugee children for DR, the Danish National Television.
Kirstine is an Anthropologist and holds a M.Sc. from the University of Copenhagen.

 Holger Briel

Professor of International Business Communication at Monarch University, Switzerland, and Graduate Programme Director in the School of Film and TV Arts at Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University

Holger Briel is a Senior Associate Professor in Media, Journalism and Communication at Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University and a journalist for a number of newspapers in Germany, Greece and China. He has taught and conducted research at universities in the UK, the USA, Germany, Austria, Greece, Cyprus, The Philippines, South Africa and China and has written books and articles on Digital Media, Cultural Changes in the Digital World, Media Theory and Intercultural Communication.  Apart from teaching in the academe, he has also engaged in field work for digital ethnography and oral history in countries such as Cyprus, Borneo, Russia and China, recording and analysing how indigenous people have come to live in deeply mediated worlds and how their expressions of their lives have changed and are changing accordingly. 

Giannis Mylopoulos  

Creative Consultant and Digital Storyteller

Giannis Mylopoulos was born in Thessaloniki. He wrote his first stories in the age of seven and since then he has not stopped reading what he writes in a regular basis, wherever he is in the world. Giannis is an award-winning UNESCO writer, published author of two fiction books and a screen writer for tv and web series. He studied Marketing, Business Administration, Organizational Change and Social Sciences, graduating from Kingston University and the University of Sheffield in the UK. He specialized in the Creative Writing of modern entrepreneurship and strategic communication through Business Storytelling. He works as a productive Creative Consultant and Digital Storyteller for the content creation in digital economy of the creative industry. His work has been recognized by notable scientific and cultural institutes, companies and international organizations in Europe, the USA and Greece. You can find more information about his latest book in social media with the #MyloBook and you can contact Giannis Mylopoulos at his personal social media and of course at his brand new website giannismylopoulos.gr

Elsa Poimenidou
Journalist, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation

Elsa Poimenidou received her MA in the field of Digital Media from the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is currently working at the news and information department of the Greek State TV channel ERT3, inThessaloniki. She serves the channel almost 20 years, form which the last six she runs her live daily show about current affairs. Besides her work on television, she also collaborates with newspapers and websites. Due to her love in news content production and dissemination, she is highly interested in Social Media and Networking, and she has participated in projects and campaigns as a content manager in Greece and abroad. She follows the latest developments on a local and international scale and new formats on tv video. Her research interests are Crisis Management, Social Media, new forms and tools on tv content.

Athina Pachatouridi 
Google Strategic Partner Manager, Greece, Cyprus, Malta

Athina is currently managing the Strategic Partnerships for Greece, Cyprus and Malta at Google. Before that she worked with the private equity market in London and NY for Salesforce where she helped her customers improve their companies efficiencies and processes. She has a broad experience in the software and hardware markets as she has also worked for Cisco where she managed a diverse portfolio of clients including the London Boroughs, where she helped grow innovation within the UK public sector with the help of technology.

Athina is also a Yoga Teacher in Dublin and she is extremely interested in mindfulness and meditation and how these practices can improve employees day to day behaviours and productivity at work and at the moment she is running wellness courses on these topics for the Irish community.

Franak Viačorka
Vice President, Digital Communication Network

Franak Viačorka is the Vice President of the Digital Communication Network. He concurrently works as the consultant for U.S. Agency for Global Media, and Creative Director of RFE/RL Belarus service. As a journalist, he is a co-author of award-winning multimedia projects, documentaries, and feature films. Franak has conducted more than 50 training courses on digital communication and New Media for activists and journalists from Europe and the United States. Franak is the organizer and mentor of LaunchMe Media Accelerator, aiming to build collaboration between media and IT in Eastern Europe.Franak graduated from American University in Washington D.C. and Warsaw University in Poland; he also studied at Georgetown University and the College of Europe and European Humanities University.

Apostolos Staikos

Journalist, Euronews

Apostolos Staikos is a journalist and has been working for euronews since 2012. He covers current and international affairs and travels around the world in order to produce special programmes.He has also worked for ERT (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation) for 6 years. He has studied Ancient History and Archaeology (University of Wales, Lampeter – BA), Politics and the Mass Media (University of Liverpool - MA) and Television Journalism (University of Nottingham Trent, MA). He lives in Athens.

Jens Siegert

Team leader of the EU project „Public Diplomacy. EU and Russia“

Jens Siegert is the team leader oft he EU project „Public Diplomacy. EU and Russia“. He is a publicist and Special Advisor to Board of the International Memorial Society. Until summer 2015 he was the director of the Moscow office of the Heinrich-Böll- Stiftung, a foundation closely linked to the German Green Party. He set up the office in 1999. He is an expert on Russian domestic and foreign politics and provided many publications about that, Russian-EU and Russian-western relationship and especially about Russian civil society issues. He writes a Russlandblog and a regular column in the “Russland-Analysen”. He was born in 1960 in Germany, studied political science, sociology and economy in Marburg. From 1988 to 2001 he worked as a free lanced journalist for German, Austrian and Swiss media, based in Cologne and Moscow. He lives and works in Moscow since 1993.

Veronica Yarnykh

Head of International Programs of UNESCO

PhD in economy (2003), Master of Education (2018). Associate Professor in Media Communication of the Journalism Faculty of the Russian State University for Humanities. Head of Master’s program “International Journalism & Global Communications”. Head of International Programs of UNESCO. Chair of media education (Moscow State Pedagogical University).  In my experience, there are the teaching experience at the University and business-schools and at the same time real business experience on the position of the top management of the organization, as well as more than 20  years of expertise in consulting in the field of management of the organization and control of corporate communications.

The theme of my doctoral research now is the field of brand – journalism, model of media influence in global space  and media literacy in corporate communications.

Mania Xenou

Founder and CEO of Reliant Communications

Mania is the founder and CEO of Reliant Communications, an independent full-service communications agency, specializing in corporate consulting, media relations, and crisis management and a member of IPREX, the world’s second largest independent agency network made up of leading, independent PR agencies in major markets worldwide.

With 35 years of field experience, she has served as Communications & Public affairs Manager for Coca-Cola Hellas, Kraft Foods Hellas, Jacobs Suchard/Pavlides, and others.

Mania is also a teaching partner at the Department of Communications and Media of Panteion University of Athens where she teaches Crisis Management.

Mania holds degrees in Business Administration & Organizational Behavior, and Italian Literature.

Christian Spahr

Secretary General, Assembly of European Regions
Founder and board member, SEECOM

Christian Spahr is Secretary General of the Assembly of European Regions (AER), the political platform for 140 regional governments in 30 countries of wider Europe – from Norway to Turkey and from Portugal to Russia. AER makes the regions’ voices heard on EU level. It supports its members in capacity building, sustainable development, cooperation with civil society, citizen dialogue, and accessing funding. Christian is also founder and board member of SEECOM (South East Europe Public Sector Communication Association, http://seecom.info), Europe's first professional association for government PR managers (80 members from 15 countries). From 2018 to 2020, he was the European Commission’s spokesperson for regional policy. Before, Christian was director of the Media Program South East Europe of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, based in Sofia. He has further experience in print and broadcast journalism, the education sector, and non-profit work. Christian authored and edited publications on political communication, entrepreneurial journalism, journalism education, and media in transitional countries. He has worked with Southeast European journalists and experts on the topics of disinformation and strategic communication. Christian has been a speaker at political and media events in many EU countries, the Balkans, and Ukraine.

Athanasios Grammenos
Post-Doc Researcher, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Dr. Athanasios Grammenos is the Project Manager for Greece of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and a Post-Doc Researcher at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Macedonia, an MA in Diplomacy from the Graduate Institute of Political and International Studies of Reading University and a BA in Political Science and History from Panteion University. He has published several papers in academic journals and he writes regularly for the Press. His research focuses on international relations and religion, political philosophy, and liberalism. He has long experience as a political advisor and analyst. He is the author of the book Orthodox American; Archbishop Iakovos in Greek American Relations (in Greek with English summary). He has also published the poetry collection Margaron.

Nadezda Azhgikhina

Journalist, Human rights activist

Journalist, writer, human rights activist, executive director of PEN Moscow, vice president of European Federation of Journalists. Graduated from Moscos State Univresity, Faculty of Journalism (1982), Ph.D in Russian literature, Moscow State University, Faculty of Journalism ( 1990). Worked as journalist and editor in Ogonyok ( Little Flame), front line of perestroyla Magazine in 1989-1995, in Nezavissimaya Gazeta ( Independent) in 1995-2001, in Russian Union of Journalists ( as board member) in 2003-2016. Senior lecturer in MSU Faculty of Journalism, since 2012. Lectures in Tampere University, Finlamd (special courses), Barnard College, Columbia Universoity, USA ( spceial course), London School of Economics, Bath, Sheffied, Yall, Princeton, NYU, Sorbonna, Sodertorn and other universities. Member of Union of Russian Writers since 1991, member of Russian PEN 2010-2016, member of Gender Council of International Federatuon of Journalists since 2001, member of the board of GAMAG- Europe since 2015, co -founder and co-president of the Associatoon of Women Journalists (1994-2001), co -founder of Free Word Association since 2017. Author and editor of 19 books and collections on contemporary culture, media development , human rights and gender equality. Regular contribibutor for The Nation magazine, editor of New Review web site. Awarded with Northern Star Swedish oder for development of Russian-Swedish cultural contacts, AWASS award в for Russian- American women’s cooperation , Grant Dink medal for human rights development and professional awards for journalism.

Jeremy Caplan

Director of Teaching and Learning, CUNY's Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, New York City

Jeremy Caplan is Director of Teaching and Learning at CUNY's Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. He also leads the school's Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program, a 100-day online program for independent journalists building new ventures—sites, newsletters, podcasts— around the world. Over the past 10 years he has supported hundreds of journalists around the world developing their own niche journalism projects. A former Time Magazine reporter, he writes Wonder Tools   a weekly newsletter spotlighting the most useful tools for creative productivity. 

Irene Andriopoulou

Head of Education, EKOME

Irene Andriopoulou is a media literacy researcher, policy analyst, practitioner and advocate in the field of media for nearly 20 years. She was Head of Media Literacy Department at the Hellenic Audiovisual Institute - IOM (2004-2011), developing a series of innovative media literacy projects, among them, the "Greek Media Literacy Database for Children, Young People and the Media" and the first "Nationwide Research on Media Literacy Education in Primary Schools" in Greece. She has also worked for the national public service broadcaster ERT (Children’s program section) and the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecoms & the Media. She was also Research Associate at ELIAMEP - Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy on the Crisis Observatory Plus (2013-2019). Presently, she is Head of Research, Studies and Educational Programs Department at EKOME, the National Centre of Audiovisual Media and Communication in Greece. She is the Greek editor of UNESCO “Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers” (2014), co-author with Art Silverblatt of “Media Literacy: Keys to Interpreting Media Messages" (2016) and editor of the “White Paper of EKOME on Media and Information Literacy”. She is also project manager of the UNESCO MIL Alliance European Sub Chapter Mediterranean Group, coordinated by EKOME.

Irene is member of the EC Media Literacy Expert Group (DG Connect) since 2006. Since 2019 she was elected as global co-Secretary General of the International Steering Committee for UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance. Through media and digital literacy research projects for parents, educators, children, policymakers, media stakeholders, Irene holds a multi-disciplinary approach, focusing on evidence - based research combined with practice through public service platforms for a lifelong learning media literacy competence for all. She holds a BA on Communication & Mass Media, Athens University, a Master of Arts in Media Studies, Sussex University, and is a PhD candidate at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on MIL policies.

Dimitris Giannakoudis
Coordinator & Specialist, Xanthi American Space (Xanthi TechLab)

Dimitris Giannakoudis is Coordinator & Specialist at Xanthi American Space (Xanthi TechLab). 

A partnership between Xanthi Cultural Center and Athens U.S. Embassy, with educational programs on new technologies, educational robotics, women empowerment, youth entrepreneurship for young people in the wider region. It organises with success the First Lego League Regional Competition in partnership with eduACT, the Democritus University of Thrace, and local associations. For that effort was congratulated by the President of the Hellenic Republic Mr. Prokopios Pavlopoulos.

For the activities and the partnerships concerning youth entrepreneurship, Xanthi Tech Lab ranked fourth in the Start-upper Awards 2018 under the category of Public-Private Initiative and Structures. Awarded as well in Bravo Sustainability Awards 2019 and 2021 for the partnerships and the projects he managed contributing to the local community. It collaborates with university student associations, the DCN SE Hub Thessaloniki, the DUTH. the Fulbright Foundation, American College of Thessaloniki, Creative BizzLab, American Farm School, The Mindspark, First Lego League Greece, public and private organizations, IEEE’s F.E.A.S.T. Greece, eduACT, Hellenic Space Agency, Hellenic Initiative, Envolve Entrepreneurship, Open Coffee Kavala, the Mindspark, Hellenic U.S. Alumni Association in which he is a member and others. She has been trained in EU Policies and Institutions.

He holds a Bachelor of History and Ethnology and a Master’s degree from the Department of Law of the Democritus University of Thrace, specializing in South-Eastern Europe. He also holds a Diploma in Negotiations & Conflict Management at Athens University of Economics and Business and he is a member of Negotiator’s Association Greece. He is a member of the Bravo Sustainable Awards Dialogue and Assessment Committee.

Mounir Ibrahim
Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Truepic

Mounir Ibrahim is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Truepic, an award winning technology company specializing in image authenticity and provenance.  From 2009-2017, Mounir was a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, served in Damascus, Washington, Istanbul, Bogota, and New York at the US Mission to the United Nations.  Mounir is a TEDx speaker, term member with the Council on Foreign Relations, and his writing has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, World Economic Forum, and MIT Innovations Journal.  Mounir received his BA in International Relations and Political Science from American University and his MA in International Affairs from Columbia University. 

Eylem Yanardağoğlu
Associate  professor, Head of the New Media Department,
Kadir Has University in Istanbul

Eylem Yanardağoğlu is an associate  professor and head of the New Media department at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. She received her PhD at City, University of London Sociology department .  She taught courses on Introduction to New Media, New Media Theories, Social Media, Sociology of News, International Communication, Online Journalism at various undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Having published extensively on the state of Turkish media, her research interests include digital citizenship, digital transformation of news and consumption, and transational expansion of Turkish TV series.

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