The EUMEPLAT project was presented on two different occasions during the UNIMED General Assembly, which took place in Amman, at the University of Jordan, on 22^nd and 23^rd June 2022.

On June 22^nd, the session on “Media and Skills Gap” featured the participation of Andrea Miconi from IULM University, EUMEPLAT principal investigator, and Salah Khalil, Founding Trustee of Al-Fanar Media, an independent nonprofit news organisation focusing on education, research and culture in the Arab region.

Moderated by UNIMED Honorary President, Wail Benjelloun, the session was intended to analyze the contribution of Higher Education Institutions in addressing the challenges raised by the use of media and the digital transformation. In the words of Mr. Benjelloun, universities today have the duty to teach digital literacy to all students, as a transversal skill.

Andrea Miconi underlined that media literacy is an issue on both shores of the Mediterranean, where there is a need to understand the media system and to use media and technologies in a proper way. Media is a powerful instrument to inform and shape opinions and perceptions so reality and truth can be distorted. The fight against disinformation is not always successful, so fact-checking must be taught as a method.

Salah Khalil highlighted that the problem related to communication and social media is about framing and abilities. Thus, the skills required are much larger than media literacy and include the capacity to evaluate, understand and analyze the information and the context. The fact-checking process needs to be transparent and build credibility.

On the day after, EUMEPLAT main objectives and ongoing research tasks and results were presented to all the General Assembly attendees during a plenary session devoted to the major projects UNIMED is leading or partner of.