MIRROR

The perception of Europe and individual European countries has a high impact on expectations and decisions of citizens from outside Europe (considering) coming to Europe, especially from countries of origin (COO) for migration. Misperceptions and targeted misinformation campaigns can lead to security threats. It is therefore crucial for border control and other relevant security agencies and policy makers to better understand how Europe is perceived abroad, detect discrepancies between image and reality, spot instances of media manipulation, and develop their abilities for counteracting such misconceptions and the security threats resulting from them.

The goal of the MIRROR (Migration-Related Risks caused by misconceptions of Opportunities and Requirement) project was to develop an integrated platform, a set of tools on top of this platform. The team also wanted to develop a systematic methodology for the comprehensive intermedia analysis of the perception of Europe, the detection of discrepancies between perception of and reality in Europe, and the creation of awareness for the impact of such misconceptions and the resulting threats, including hybrid threats.

In a process driven by perception-specific threat analysis, the MIRROR project combined methods of automated text, multimedia and social network analysis for various types of media (including social media) with empirical studies to create a substantiated picture of the perception of Europe and to combine evidences from different sources.

For achieving its goals, MIRROR brought together a strong multidisciplinary consortium combining research excellence experts in text and multimedia analysis, social network analysis, security research, social science, law and ethics, gender research with commercial partners and border agencies as well as civil society organizations.

Duration of the project

2019 - 2022

Awarded grant

5,181,977 euros (of which 420,625 euros for the UG), obtained from Horizon 2020

Contact persons at our Faculty

Prof. G.P. (Jeanne) Mifsud Bonnici
Mr. M. (Melania) Tudorica

Websites with additional information