Tag: UNESCO

UNESCO seeks nominations for the Jaime Torres Bodet Prize 2019

Stuart Mitchell

UNESCO invites Members States in consultation with their National Commissions, and non-governmental organizations maintaining official relations with UNESCO and active in a field covered by the Prize to submit nominations for the UNESCO-UNAM Jaime Torres Bodet Prize in Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts 2019. Deadline for the submission of candidates: 15 July 2019 at midnight (UTC+1, Paris time). Established in 2014 and fully endowed by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Prize is intended to reward candidates who have made an outstanding contribution to the development of knowledge…

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UNESCO and DPC release Executive Guide on Digital Preservation

Stuart Mitchell

UNESCO and the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) have collaborated to produce the UNESCO/DPC Executive Guide on Digital Preservation (link is external), an online resource for raising awareness of the importance of digital preservation, leading to action to preserve digital assets, including digital documentary heritage, in an institution, organization or government. The Executive Guide was released on May 1 and announced at the International Council on Archives (ICA) Forum of National Archivists meeting, hosted by the National Archives of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Abu Dhabi. The development of the…

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Empowering young people in Africa through media and communication

Stuart Mitchell

Today, more than 80% of African migration is internal to the African continent and involves nearly 19 million people, including 6.7 million in West Africa and 3.5 million in Central Africa. Women represent 47.1% and young people between 15 and 24 years of age 16% of migrants. Unfortunately, media capacities to cover migration are relatively weak; media content often provide inaccurate description of migration factors and scarce migrant stories or focus on migration risks, thus often misrepresenting migrants. In this context, UNESCO launches a new project “Empowering Youth in Africa…

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UNESCO publishes new guide to best practices of media councils for the digital age

Stuart Mitchell

How press councils have adapted to the digital ages? Have they for instance developed guidelines on the use of algorithms by social media? Do they address issues of online hate speech and disinformation? Are they using ICTs to improve accessibility to media users? These are some of the questions addressed by the newly published UNESCO “Guide to Best Practices for the Digital Age – Media Self-Regulation in South East Europe”. This publication offers an analytical summary combined with best practices of how media self-regulatory bodies in South East Europe have…

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First UNESCO recommendations to combat gender bias in applications using artificial intelligence

Stuart Mitchell

Beginning as early as next year, many people are expected to have more conversations with digital voice assistants than with their spouse. Presently, the vast majority of these assistants—from Amazon’s Alexa to Microsoft’s Cortana—are projected as female, in name, sound of voice and ‘personality’. ‘I’d blush if I could’, a new UNESCO publication produced in collaboration with Germany (link is external) and the EQUALS Skills Coalition (link is external) holds a critical lens to this growing and global practice, explaining how it: reflects, reinforces and spreads gender bias; models acceptance…

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