European Journalism - The Challenges and Opportunities
The Digital News Initiative is an European organisation established by Google to support high quality journalism via innovative technologies and innovation. It includes an "Innovation Lab" worth EUR 150m, which this year issued grants to 461 projects in association with six international media organisations. These were mainly in the areas of health, environment, travel, education, government and nonprofit sector. However, the real innovation is in the process of how this new medium of digital news is being used by the public and distributed to their communities. This is not only creating a new revenue stream for news publishers but also for the users, who can now get up-to-date information from a trusted source using a free service. Here are some examples.
First, we have the European Autism Festival, scheduled for the summer. This will feature cutting edge autism technology as well as a series of interactive conversations, which will appeal to a very specific niche: the autism community. agency is to provide an accessible platform for parents and professionals to exchange information on the latest progress in the field. According to its mission statement, the digital news initiative will be "building a community that shares information and ideas in the open and makes it easy to get the word out about breakthroughs and the impact of science and technology on society".
Secondly, in February, the European Climate Change Conference set up a new phase, namely the Energy Efficiency Europe Program (EE Pep). It will run for four years, during which member states will come together to explore how the different approaches to energy efficiency can be coordinated and integrate all of them. The program is expected to create a new framework for publishers to take on greater responsibility for providing information on energy efficiency to their consumers. In its strategy, the digital news initiative has come up with the European Values for Energy Regulation as a reference point for policy makers.
As part of the Digital News Initiative's contribution to this forum, the Nominet Open Newsstand initiative will launch a new online site. It will serve as a database of news and other information from around the world and will also serve as a hub for the Nominet Open Newsstand project, an initiative aimed at coordinating and promoting pan-European information services. agency is part of the wider effort of the EU Commission to improve the access to information across the continent. As part of this effort, many publishers are collaborating with the Nominet project, in order to increase the scope and quality of the information available on newsstands in libraries and bookstores throughout the continent. The DNI Working Group on Copyright has developed a set of guidelines, known as the Quality Evaluation of Online News, which can serve as a basis for a common approach by European publishers. The DNI WEG will also work with the European Publishers Association in developing the Guidelines for Evaluation of Online News and Information.
This group is charged with the responsibility of developing and monitoring the guidelines and making them available to the whole membership of the EPI. The aim is for the final set of guidelines to be approved by the European Union member associations and eventually applied in member countries. The Working Group has proposed five recommended improvements to the system, which it says are essential in providing a higher level of consumer protection. These include encouraging more participation from the public and ensuring that judicial reviews are made easier for people to follow.
Several publishing industry bodies have signed up to the Digital News Initiative since its inception. Among these publishers are the German Bauhaus Association, the French Society of Journalists, the Irish Independent Film Festival, the Lithuanian Publishing House, and the Netherlands News Agency. agency represent many of the different regional societies and industries that could provide important support for the innovation agenda of the European Union. However, they said that much more work needs to be done to strengthen the continent's ability to innovate. They called for publishers to take more responsibility for improving digital quality in the media landscape.
The European Journalism Forum predicted in 2018 that digital news will continue to have a major role to play in the shaping of the EU's digital policy and outlook. "The increasing role and importance of the European media will serve as an inspiration for media owners and publishers around the world," the organization said in a blog post. "This in turn will help to raise awareness about the pressing need for reforms in the face of growing threats and pressures from external actors." This group is concerned about the effect that the strengthening of digital policy will have on the freedom of expression, privacy, and the media environment at large. The forum also warned that the growth of digital news will depend largely on the efforts of European businesses to diversify their business interests.
Many publishers see the European Journalism Initiative as a challenge, not a threat, to their core business interests. While the organization may want to develop its own editorial policy and shape its direction, many publishers said they are working closely with the association in order to ensure that the guidelines are practical and useful to them. The association, they said, has made constructive efforts to explain to editors the ethics behind their business strategy. This group, they added, has made sure that it can be assured of steady support.