Google has announced that it will fund the research at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on the future of digital journalism.

The research will be carried out by assistant professor of the Department of Journalism and Mass Media, Nikos Panagiotou and it will be funded through the Digital News Initiative Fund.

Panagiotou and his team will research the main challenges facing news organizations and try to explain why the use and consumption of news content are constantly losing ground.

“People are turning to other kinds of information, turning to either blogs or social media, and especially in Greece this is becoming a dominant trend,” Panagiotou says.

Citizen journalism is good and contributes to general knowledge, but it cannot substitute for valid and authoritative information, he adds.

He says that Google will help implement his research by providing funding for laboratory equipment, as well as by funding the development of a pan-European sample of 5,000 people.

Panagiotou’s proposal was among hundreds that were submitted for evaluation by Google together with 11 leading European news organizations (Financial Times, Guardian, Les Echos, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, NRC Media, El Pais, Global Editors Network, European Journalism Center, The Economist, La Stampa, Die Zeit).

Source: greece.greekreporter.com