A Worldwide Cause For ConcernPosted by Blevins Stone on July 28th, 2021 The Digital News Initiative (DNI) is a European organisation established by Google to 'support high-impact, high quality journalism across the continent'. It covers an "Innovation Labs" programme, awarding cash grants to 6 organisations every year. At the same time as being behind the Google search engine, it also has the tagline" Journalism", so it's not surprising that its focus is on news. The Digital News Initiative was launched in spring 2021 with the European Journalism Centre (EJCC). In the first year alone, it received funding of EUR 1 million. Its main activities are: producing and distributing the annual news magazine, Investing in new media platforms, and disseminating media stories across Europe and beyond. Justin Warfield, Author at Red Canary Collective set up the European Journalismarks project, which is a partnership programme between journalists and public policy specialists, in order to develop digital news initiatives across the continent. While behind the scenes, the digital news initiative has been crucial in supporting high quality journalism. For instance, in 2021, the EJCC invested almost EUR 150 million into the Future of European Journalism project. The European Journalismarks project will enhance the exchange of ideas and information between members of the alliance. In addition, this year the EJCC launched a project, backed by ECJP, for a European platform for investigative journalism. This is called the Europeanwire. ECJP is part of the European Journalism Union, along with other leading news organisations, such as the Guardian and La Gazette Dello Sport. It intends to "provide a platform for investigating stories in order to promote trust in information and empower citizens". The working group for the project, comprising journalists from different countries, will work on issues related to the freedom of information, privacy and digital inclusion. A recent study by the World Federation of Journalists found that journalists in many countries feel underappreciated by their employers. This was particularly true for editors, who are expected to be more knowledgeable about business interests than the public in general. Digital news organisations can promote their own business interests while serving the public good by increasing trust in the media. If implemented properly, the growth of the digital sector could lead to improvements in the economic performance of European businesses. Another way in which the digital news initiative can help boost the economic performance of the European publishing industry is through fostering new innovation. Innovation in the industry is important because it increases the value and revenue of a company. For instance, the publishing industry can benefit from greater investment in investigative reporting, translation, video, social media and other forms of digital innovation. Newer technologies may also make long-form journalism more valuable to publishers. Therefore, the interest in this type of journalism should be maintained or even promoted. Many publishing houses in Europe have made some progress so far in terms of improving their digital format, such as the spread of encyclopedias and magazine content. In line with this, there is also a growing interest from European companies in owning or taking control of newspapers from across the region. Digital news organisations can foster competition by acting as an information provider for these companies, as well as acting as a platform for feedback and reviews from customers. This can increase the diversity of information and news available on the internet, as well as create new business interests in areas where they were previously lacking. The growth of the digital news initiative in the United Kingdom is forecast to continue in the coming years. As well as benefiting the UK economy, the creation of digital editions of magazines and newspapers would certainly help the country's cultural output. There are many publishers across Europe that are keen to take advantage of this opportunity. There are only a few major obstacles standing in the way of digital publishing and increasing distribution. These obstacles include regulatory frameworks, technical barriers and the cost of translation and publishing.Like it? Share it! More by this author |