Google funding to ensure stories from underreported regions

IMS, Danwatch and Indieframe have received €547,000 from the Google Digital Innovation Fund for a digital platform that will help connect news stories from underreported areas with the global media agenda.

The world is full of stories that remain untold or only reach a limited local audience, even though they have the potential to draw international attention. With Mediabridge.org, IMS (International Media Support), Danwatch, and IndieFrame join forces to close the gap between media working in hard-to-reach areas and their European counterparts, while economically benefiting all parties involved.

Mediabridge.org will be a platform where certified local media organisations can post a pitch, a snippet of their exclusive story, or a description of their unique documentation. European media can browse through the verified content and safely contact validated partners to co-finance investigations and purchase documentation.

“The benefits of this platform will work both ways,” says Jesper Højberg, Executive Director of IMS. “Smaller media outlets in underreported areas will have the possibility of securing co-financing of their investigative stories through cooperation with interested European media outlets. Similarly, Western-based media will gain access to stories from areas that would otherwise not be covered.”

In a competitive and economically challenged European news industry, the value of publishing exclusive, high-quality content is immense. Nonetheless, stories from hard-to-reach areas that could inform the international agenda are often overlooked and dismissed because of the costs of investigations or lack of trust in local journalists.

Jesper Nymark, Director of Danwatch added: “Today exposing misinformation, wrongdoing and injustice has never been more important. It is my belief that investigative journalism is, increasingly, a collaborative effort –between local and intl. media and journalists, as well as with civil society, tech-innovators and whistleblowers. But at the same time it is clear, that these collaborations have to be strengthened, if journalists and media are to continue to produce top-quality investigative journalism from hard-to-reach places. Mediabridge.org can help make this happen.”

The Google Digital News Platform funds projects that seek to create innovative and sustainable distribution and revenue models for good journalism.

The Mediabridge.org platform will create an accessible and safe online collaborative space where content can be developed, co-financed, and shared. It will enable an innovative news ecosystem that satisfies the demand for agendas-setting stories from European media with a supply from their non-European counterparts.

“IndieFrame’s core idea is to engage people globally to share their side of a story, so we can get more perspectives in the media,” says Cecilia Valsted, co-founder of IndieFrame.

For more information please contact Helle Wahlberg, IMS, hwa@mediasupport.org, +4528681059.