Media Resilience Forums

Communities in the Nordic/Baltic/Ukrainian region are disintegrating. This makes citizens an easy prey for those who wish to manipulate information, counter community cohesion and impede sustainable development.

To counter this disintegration, we see three intrinsically intertwined defence mechanisms as instrumental: – countering environmental degradation (including depletion of natural resources, destruction of ecosystems, pollution)"of natural resources – ensuring “eco security” as perquisite to long-term development – countering cognitive warfare – ensuring citizen motivation to stand firm as united communities – countering economic decline – ensuring a stable economy for local media and the communities they serve as a backbone for the other two defence mechanisms.

Against this backdrop, Sustainable Journalism Partnership took an initiative to start a Nordic and a Baltic Media Resilience Forum, in search of solutions to this polycrisis, focusing on young participants.

As these initiatives strives to make both media and the communities they serve more resilient, this initiative expands the traditional scope of journalism from just “informing citizens” to “engaging and empowering citizens, providing them with agency to act, thereby
opening up a space for a possible better future”. In doing so, this approach explores new ways for media to connect with their audiences, gaining their trust, as well as increasing revenues through innovative, audience centred business models. The aim is to set up frameworks where young professional and citizen journalists can jointly find ways to improve resilience in our part of the world, defining resilience as a driver of transformation.

Financed by Nordic Council of Ministers & The Swedish Institute