Theme: “Media behavior and news consumption in the age of AI and digitalization”
Introduction
The IFLA News Media Section in partnership with the IFLA Information Technology Section, the IFLA Serials and Other Continuing Resources Section, the IFLA Artificial Intelligence Special Interest Group, the IFLA Digital Humanities/Digital Scholarship Special Interest Group are seeking proposals for lightning talks to be presented at a session to be held at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Astana, Kazakhstan, 18-22 August 2025.
We are pleased to announce the 2025 IFLA WLIC Open Session “Media behavior and news consumption in the age of AI and digitalization” that aims to bring together librarians, educators, researchers, practitioners, and other interested stakeholders to explore the evolving dynamics of media consumption, news dissemination, and digital literacy in today’s rapidly changing social and cultural landscape.
Our proposed session is specifically connected with the first two impact areas of Strategy: Libraries are connected and energised through vibrant, global professional communities; Libraries are recognised, represented and valued as partners. Because we do believe that news literacy is the direction strongly connected with traditional libraries’ functions like bibliographic instructions and information delivery, but at the same time engagement of LIS professionals in solving problems of news literacy in digital environment foster collaboration, widen knowledge and skills of librarians and spreading the awareness about libraries’ role among different stakeholders.
Concerning the format we propose „Ignite/lightning talk: 6-7 min presentation per speaker. Drawing inspiration from but not limited to TED Talks and Pecha Kucha formats, Ignite Talk speakers will have only 7 minutes to captivate the audience on their topic of choice”. Time for the OS is limited to 60 min. so we’ll be able to accept up to 6 speakers.
In addition: Papers should reflect the conference theme, “Uniting Knowledge, Building the Future”
Suggested topics
- News Evaluation, Misinformation, and AI: Challenges and Solutions (Techniques and methodologies for assessing news credibility in the digital information ecosystem; The role of AI and machine learning in fact-checking and combating misinformation; Algorithmic bias and risks in AI-driven news production and dissemination; The evolving role of libraries from news media providers to experts in information evaluation and management).
- News Literacy, Digital Humanities, and Information Technologies (Interdisciplinary approaches to news literacy at the intersection of LIS, Digital Humanities, and information technologies; The use of news media in Digital Scholarship projects: computational use of news datasets text and data mining, NLP, distant reading; News corpora and computational analysis in misinformation research; Library strategies for responding to users news information needs, building digital projects with news content, fostering information literacy and countering disinformation).
- The Role of AI and Social Media in News Production and Dissemination (The power of social media in shaping news distribution and knowledge acquisition; Information literacy in the era of platform-driven and algorithmic news consumption; Case studies on AI applications in libraries for news analysis and information management).
Important dates & deadlines:
- 26 May 2025: Deadline for submission of proposals/abstracts
- 9 June 2025: Notification to authors about the status of a submission
- 1 July 2025: Submission of the full text of the paper
- 4 August 2024: Submission of accompanying PowerPoint slides for presentation
- 20 August 2025: Open session
Submission guidelines
Proposals should include:
- Title of proposed presentation
- Abstract of proposed paper (no more than 300 words)
- Name of presenter plus position and/or title
- Employer / affiliated institution
- Contact information including email address, telephone number
- Short biographical statement of presenter
Send proposals via email to:
- Viktor Mutev at victor.mutyev@gmail.com
- Karolina Holub at kholub@nsk.hr
Use subject line: News OS WLIC 2025_Surname, Initials
Please note:
- At least one of the paper’s authors must be present to summarize the paper during the program in Astana. Abstracts are to be submitted only with the understanding that the expenses of attending the conference will be the responsibility of the author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers.
- The language of the session is expected to be English.
- All papers presented at the WLIC 2025 will be available online under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
- All papers must be unpublished and not previously presented.
- Authors must disclose whether they submit this proposal to another WLIC 2025 session.
- Authors of accepted papers must complete the IFLA Authors’ Permission Form.
- All expenses, including registration for the conference, travel, accommodations, etc., are the responsibility of the authors/presenters. IFLA does not provide any financial support.
Open Session Planning Committee Members:
Viktor Mutev, St. Petersburg State University of Culture, IFLA News Media Section
Ayodele Alonge, University of Groningen, IFLA News Media Section
Melissa Jerome, University of Florida, IFLA News Media Section
Karolina Holub, National and University Library in Zagreb, IFLA News Media Section
Ana Krahmer, The University of North Texas Libraries, IFLA News Media Section
Nina Servizzi, New York University Libraries, IFLA News Media Section
Deborah Thomas, The Library of Congress, IFLA News Media Section
Cory Lampert, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries, Information Technology Section
Andrea Wirth, University of Nevada, Serials and Other Continuing Resources Section
Andrew Cox, University of Sheffield – Information School, Artificial Intelligence Special Interest Group
Sabrina Celi, University of Siena, Digital Humanities – Digital Scholarship Special Interest Group
Congress Participation Grants
A list of opportunities for support is available on the Grants & Awards webpage.