Science-Technology-Society goes Graz – FH JOANNEUM at the STS Conference

From May 8th to May 10th, the annual STS conference took place at the Weitzer Hotel in Graz. During these three days, international researchers presented and exchanged their current projects on the topic of “Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies”. FH JOANNEUM was represented with two research projects.

With the topic “Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies”, the Department for Science, Technology and Society (STS) of Graz University of Technology organizes the annual STS Conference in Graz. This year marked the 21st STS conference. From May 8th to 10th, countless international researchers gathered at Hotel Weitzer in Graz to discuss everything related to science, technology and society. Among the research topics presented were two by the institute of Journalism and Digital Media at FH JOANNEUM: SEVA (Self-Explanatory Visual Analytics for Data-Driven Insight Discovery) and U-YouPa (Understanding Youth Participation and Media literacy in Digital Dialogue Spaces).

The U-YouPa Project at FH JOANNEUM

On the second day of the conference, researchers from FH JOANNEUM presented their research regarding political participation, youth, and social media in the project U-YouPa. Gabriel Malli, Robert Gutounig and Eva Goldgruber presented “Infoslide education and ‘trojan journalism’: Encouraging young people’s political participation on social media”. They investigated ways to promote young people’s political participation on social media with differently prepared journalistic content. For this purpose, they analyzed two Austrian social media channels: “Die_chefredaktion” and “wien.stabil”. Both case studies show that adapting journalistic methods on social media platforms can help to promote the political participation of young people.

Sonja Radkohl presented “Supporting the Political Participation of Young People Using Content Strategy Methods – a Fridays For Future Case Study”. She analyzed how Fridays for Future communicated on Social Media. For the Graz-branch of the activists, it is difficult to motivate people for their cause. Radkohl identifies a too-small social media team, little organization within the group and poor knowledge of their target group as causes. Using content strategy methods, Fridays For Future Graz could make more effective use of social media.

Research from hither and yonder

“On the Importance of the Plaza. Political Participation of Young Skateboarders in a Digital Society” by Susanne Sackl-Sharif and Miran Maric, who are also based in Graz, was presented. They analyzed the digital networking of the local skating scene in response to the skating ban on public squares during the Corona pandemic.

“Wokeism in the public debate – Discouraging or triggering political participation among youth?” by Harald Hornmoen, Elisabet M. Nilsson and Dagny Stuedahl is a Norwegian-Swedish collaboration. It showed how a strong awareness of social injustice and discrimination affects youth participation in political discourse.

The STS conference days were rounded off during breaks with a buffet provided by the Hotel Weitzer. There, the guests could not only exchange ideas, but also fortify themselves for the upcoming presentations.