318 | nº 27, pp. 317-336 | doxa.comunicación

July-December of 2018

Interdisciplinarity of professional profiles as a basis for the fight against hatred on social networks: Rewind

ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978

1. Introduction

The origin of the project is in the ‘Peer to Peer Facebook Global Digital Challenge’, which emerged in 2015 as a global interuniversity initiative promoted by Facebook. More than 150 universities around the world joined the project that consisted in the creation of a real communication campaign on social networks and digital media to combat extremism and bad communication practices in virtual environments. Since the launch of the project in 2015, two annual calls for competition have been launched, coinciding with the academic semesters in autumn and spring.

Each participating university presents a team formed by five to eight students who design, plan and execute a communication campaign with a budget assigned by Facebook to meet the specific objectives of scope and impact raised at the beginning of each call. The work of each team of students has the support of the professors of their university and a weekly supervision by the Facebook team to control compliance with the temporary objectives and the investment made.

At the end of each semester and depending on the results achieved, the final selection of the three best campaigns presented to the professional jury made up of prestigious experts worldwide in the field of international relations, digital communication and security is made. The three finalist campaigns are exhibited, depending on the geographical area of the participating University, in a final in Brussels for the European region, and in Washington both for the regional competition among American universities and for the grand world final.

The most outstanding aspects of this innovative teaching initiative are reflected both in the unique dynamics of the project, which takes place in the real environment, as well as in the contents, narratives and digital impacts that its implementation triggers. The possibility offered to university students to live a real experience of the development and comprehensive implementation of a digital communication campaign with an assigned budget replicates the circumstances of the professional environment to which many aspire to enter once their university academic education is completed.