PUCRS, UBI and UCLan researchers look at innovation practices in journalism in Latin America and Europe
PUCRS researchers Ana Cecília Bisso Nunes and Eduardo Campos Pellanda as well as John Mills, from University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), and João Canavilhas, from Universidade Beira Interior (UBI), have been awarded with a grant for international collaborative research of the European Media Management Association (EMMA). This was the first time the association heads a project of this magnitude.
The collective project Innovating Journalism Structures and Processes: Media Labs, Innovation Teams, methods and beyond was awarded with €5000 to be given over the course of a year. The four researchers will work on the development of innovation strategies in journalism with an eye to information quality and the strengthening of digital media companies. By employing mixed methods and multidisciplinary collaboration focused on innovation processes, strategies and structures, this groundbreaking investigation will map international practices in Latin America and Europe in response to the challenges of digital transformation. Its findings will be presented in Sweden in Jun 2020.
The investigation is in line with the research that is being developed by Ana Cecília in her joint doctoral program involving PUCRS and UBI. She represented the group of researchers at the EMMA annual conference, in Cyprus, earlier in June, when the project was presented to the audience.
Visiting professor at UCLan
As part of the research funded by Emma, Ana Cecília went to UCLan as a visiting researcher at the Media Innovation Studio from Jun 10 to Jul 3. The interdisciplinary laboratory focuses on innovation from the perspectives of technology and media in the UK. The four-week stay is part of the Visiting Researchers Programme, designed to strengthen the ties with people from other organizations having similar ambitions as those of the Studio and UCLan School of Journalism, Media and Performance.
During this period, she worked on Emma’s research and worked with the University as a whole. She also got acquainted with the curriculum of the faculty of Journalism and Communications programs and shared teaching experiences. “Meeting and connecting with Digital Journalism and Media Entrepreneurship professors at UCLan was amazing. This exchange of teaching practices, articles and methodologies was very beneficial to our work. Both the integration and the fact of being able to develop the research in the same physical space were very fruitful. What’s more, it may open the doors to future projects, “she says.
Ana Cecília also participated in activities such as a Drone Journalism course, in the curriculum of the UCLan Master’s degree program. “I learned a lot and studied a lot during these last months in Portugal, as I was working worked on my PhD, and now in the United Kingdom. I am excited to share the things I have learned with my students next semester. I should also use new methodologies and teaching practices in the courses I teach”, she adds.
