Once heralded as innovative tools for promoting democracy and enhancing civic participation, digital media quickly started to provoke serious criticism. With armies of paid internet trolls roaming social networks and users selecting their online news portals according to their pre-existing political and social views, it is very hard to maintain the image of digital media as a virtual space for truly open public debate. But it would be hard to deny that in countries were newspapers and TV stations become megaphones for political leaders and oligarchs, digital media very often remain the only source of truly independent information and opinion. Under financial and political pressure condition of journalists has become increasingly precarious – will social media help them survive or become another nail in their coffin?

• Gemma Pörzgen, Freelance journalist, Berlin; Milena Jesenská Visiting Fellow at the IWM
• Saso Ordanoski, Freelance journalist, Sloboden Pecat and USAID Project, Skopje; Milena Jesenská Visiting Fellow at the IWM
• Maria Stepanova, Essayist, journalist, poet; editor-in-chief, COLTA.RU; Russia in Global Dialogue Guest at the IWM
• Vlad Odobescu, Freelance journalist, Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism, Bucharest; Milena Jesenská Visiting Fellow at the IWM

Registration

1. Namerequired
2. Lastnamerequired
3. Emailrequired
4. By entering and attending events hosted or (co)organized by the IWM, you acknowledge and agree that your likeness may be included in photos, audios and videos of the event and used by the IWM or its partners in connection with communications about the event or in other IWM communications.

 

Generously supported by ERSTE Foundation and Open Society Foundations