Vilma Luoma-aho wins the Vuoden Uno (Uno of the Year) award and JSBE receives significant funding for misinformation research from the Strategic Research Council
This year’s Vuoden Uno (Uno of the Year) award was given to Professor Vilma Luoma-aho from the Ģֱ. For a long time, Luoma-aho has conducted pioneering research by studying the reliability of digital communication and influencing through information.
“Luoma-aho has studied these topics excellently and shared the results with the public actively and extensively,” says Professor Taina Rantanen, the Chair of the Jyväskylä chapter of the Finnish Union of University Professors.
“Making research findings known to the public is one of the main duties of professors today,” Luoma-aho summarizes.
Throughout her career she has fostered strong cooperation with communication professionals, for example, by leading the board of the ProCom association in 2016–2017. She also served as the chair of the editorial board of the ProComma Academic book series for ten years. ProComma Academic is a channel for science communication, annually summing up the latest scientific findings so that professionals can apply them in practice. The book series was awarded with the Kultasulka Award 2018 in Finland and the international Comms Award 2016 in Canada.
Luoma-aho has also produced a podcast series (Digital Corporate Communication Dialogues) based on her latest book about digital communication (Handbook of Digital Corporate Communication, 2023). Luoma-aho currently serves on the board of the Arthur W. Page Society, an association for the communication leaders of the world’s largest companies and brands.
Understanding misinformation plays a key role in Luoma-aho’s research, as well as in the granted SRC funding.
“Our new project investigates the misinformation and hallucinations created by artificial intelligence,” Luoma-aho says. “When I wrote about fake groups on the Internet for the first time in 2015, my topic was considered marginal. Unfortunately, recent years have opened the eyes of many sceptics to the prevalence of digital influencing.”
The Vuoden Uno award is given every year to a member of the Finnish Union of University Professors. This development-oriented prize, named after Uno Cygnaeus, has been awarded since 2020 when the Jyväskylä chapter of the union celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.
The Strategic Research Council (SRC) focuses its funding on pivotal themes that challenge society in order to produce new research knowledge for societal decision-making.
The Finnish Union of University Professors is a trade union that advances the position of professors and assistant/associate professors in the labour market. The union also promotes the position of science in society.
Further information on the Vuoden Uno award:
Professor Taina Rantanen
Chair of the Jyväskylä chapter of the Finnish Union of University Professors
taina.rantanen@jyu.fi
+358 40 805 3590
Further information on the funding of SRC:
Professor Vilma Luoma-Aho
Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics
vilma.luoma-aho@jyu.fi
+358 40 805 3098
Further information on the AIDEMOC project:
Read more about the new multidisciplinary (research.fi). The project is part of the Strategic Research Council's Democracy for the Future (DEMOC) programme.
