What counts as ‘news’ in today’s information ecosystems? What happens when people cannot tell the difference between accurate and inaccurate, or false, information? Do viral mis- and disinformation and hate speech really cause political polarization? And to what extent these are weaponized in politics and with what consequences? How is the rise of digital platforms owned by big tech companies changing news production and consumption? What insights can the European Union gain from global experiences to address these challenges? These questions form the foundation of this event’s discussion. They are all addressed in the report of the International Observatory on Information and Democracy Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy: A Global Synthesis of the State of Knowledge on News Media, AI and Data Governance . The Observatory draws on its extensive global network of researchers to provide a nuanced and critical overview, crucial for examining the challenges confronting information ecosystems and democracies. This approach avoids oversimplifications, misleading generalizations, and Western-centric biases. The objective of this event is not only to disseminate the results of the Observatory’s research but also to highlight research consensus and dissensus, gaps and priorities for the scientific community and share actionable insights for different sectors and regions.
About the Observatory on Information and Democracy
The International Observatory on Information and Democracy (OID) is an initiative of the Forum on Information and Democracy, the implementing organization of an intergovernmental Partnership endorsed by 54 countries globally. Inspired by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Observatory provides periodic meta-analyses of the information space, its structure and how it impacts the public debate and democracy around the world. Since October 2023, the drafting team of the report has aggregated, analyzed and synthesized over 3000 sources and consulted more than 400 stakeholders from academia, civil society, public administration and the industry. It has already published a series of noteworthy reports such as AI as a Public Good: Ensuring Democratic Control of AI in the Information Space and Pluralism of News and Information in Curation and Indexing Algorithms.