ReMeD

Introduction

To have a sneak peek on how this healthy relationship between media and democracy is currently threatened, we have asked Georgios what the project is about and why it is important? “Citizens in Europe and beyond find themselves overwhelmed by a flurry of information that is selected and ranked by algorithms from social media companies and search engines. These business models privilege user engagement and virality over journalistic standards of objectivity, accuracy, and verification. As such, these are often at the expense of democratic values of fairness, respect of fundamental rights of all individuals and social groups, civic education, and ‘healthy pluralism’ ”.

How do I need to see this?

“Well, in this magna of information, I am thinking about mis- and disinformation in the landscape of social media. As demonstrated in climate scepticism, Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy, the rise of populist politics, much doubt is currently cast over verified independent news. ReMeD has 3 clear objectives to:

1. Create new knowledge and establish accountability mechanisms, processes, standards and norms for professional journalists and media content producers.
2. Address key challenges to foster healthy relationship between media and democracy.
3. Produce computational models for digital platforms, media markets and business to improve transparency”.

Why is ReMeD important?

“Current understandings of media consumption, citizen-media interaction and citizens’ interactions with social media tend to treat citizens as rational agents endowed with a predisposition to employ new technology for social benefits such as increased political participation, while consciously reducing the risks of negative side effects such as spreading of disinformation and hate speech. Policy and public debates frequently demonstrate an insufficient understanding of the socio-technical procedures that underpin the work of social media platforms and search engines in the distribution of media content. Established academic and policy views on transparency, accountability and media literacy are important, but they often miss the complex multidirectional relations that shape the interaction between citizens, media producers, and digital platforms such as social media and search engines. We see that the same social media platforms sometimes facilitate democratic forms of participation, also contribute to the spread of hate speech and toxic information and debates. ReMeD is important because it will address all the identified challenges above and produce high quality research and policy outcomes for both EU and national government and also for the academic community. “

AIM (what)

Resilient Media for Democracy in the Digital Age (ReMeD) responds to the European Commission’s call HORIZON-CL2-2022- DEMOCRACY-01-06: “Media for democracy – democratic media”, and will tackle existing challenges to a healthy relationship between media and democracy, by taking a bold approach to improve relations between citizens, media and digital technologies.

METHODOLOGY (how)

With an interdisciplinary approach and an innovative methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative methods, ReMeD will gather, analyze, compare and contrast data on professional journalists, alternative media content producers and citizens operating in technologically mediated configurations, and on the media organizations, market structures and national and international regulations that underpin media production, circulation and consumption in the contemporary media landscape. ReMeD will work closely with all parties involved in order to co-produce high-impact knowledge and solutions that will contribute to the creation of resilient democratic media that reinvigorate, strengthen and uphold democracy, the rule of law and fundamental human rights.     

IMPACT (why)

The project is particularly timely as ReMeD’s results and policy recommendations will feed directly into the contemporary debates around the design and implementation of the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the upcoming Media Freedom Act.