Trust and Truth in Media Fund

In 2017, Internews has been working in more than 50 countries to ensure access to trusted, quality information that empowers people to have a voice in their future and to live healthy, secure and rewarding lives. We have been working at the intersection of media, infrastructure and development to build healthy media adn information environments for communities across the globe. We address the unfinished business that stands in the way of trusted information reaching the most vulnerabel and disadvantaged: the market gaps, the repressive regimes, the remaining information deserts adn the growing information gluts.

Our approach to overcoming these obstacles can be divided into four key areas.

Access: We worked to build sustainable and safe local media and information access by: supplementing or improving market-based expansion; supporting local activists and journalists through digital and physical security training to address cyber threats and hate speech; and addressing market failures.

We worked with women like Carolina Botero Cabrera, a Colombian lawyer leading Karisma, an organization fighting for internet freedom and gender equity. Carolina writes an editorial in the El Espectador, but like so many women has faced harassment online, leading to the risk that they simply take themselves offline. Through our work with women like Carolina we are able to better understand the intricacies of online violence against women so that we can introduce policies that will tackle the issue head on without taking away the internet’s role as a tool for freedom of expression.

Inclusion: We prioritized inclusion of excluded groups by combatting censorship, building the capacity of people to access information even in closed societies, and challenging the norms that drive cultural exclusion.

We worked to advance disability rights in Sri Lanka though technology training for women. We worked with disability activist Manique Gunaratne to help her achieve her dream - to unite women with disabilities and “change attitudes from sympathy to empathy, dependence to independence, hidden to open, and exclusion to inclusion.” By empowering women with disabilities through training in technology we are helping women find employment, their independence and, as they are more visible in daily life, changing social attitudes. Technology has made great strides in getting people with all types of disabilities connected online (sreen readers, speech to text devices etc) and participating in civic life. Training disabled women in technology is not just a way to expand employment opportunities; they can use the Internet to get information about their human rights and use social media to promote rights and conduct advocacy campaigns. They can go online to start a business. It’s a way to take part in social life.

Content: When content spurs conversations and leads to action, when it reflects diverse voices, it is a powerful vehicle for change. We built the skills of content creators while helping them evolve sustainable business models so they can keep high-quality information flowing. When we see people energized by information, engaging in issues from personal health to their children’s education to simply sharing a moment of joy, we know we are in the presence of quality content.

We worked with communities to ensure that they understood complex issues affecting them - from climate change to health issues to the economy. For example, we worked with riverboat riverboat captain, Guy Mayo, to help him deliver health information on cholera to the villages along the river bank. “It was the first time that an organization has included us in the fight against cholera,” said Anatole Crispin Prince Ngbokotto, president of an association of river boat drivers. "Until Internews, no one has included us in the well-being of our people despite the fact that it is our canoes that transport tje sick to Bangui". The fight against cholera requires the dissemination of timely and accurate information, including health advice to avoid cholera: basic hygiene, food and clean water consumption. Honka Cholera also explained what to do if citzens see the symptoms of cholera in someone.

Engagement: The rapid proliferation and democratization of media has created new challenges, including propaganda, misinformation and echo chambers. We have been striving to improve media, information and data literacy, so that people are better able to discern the validity and integrity of the news and information they consume. True engagement requires building the capacity to listen and all people in a community must drive the conversation, so we adopt strategies to engage underrepresented voices. 

We worked to change Ukrainian attitudes towards both domestic and Russian journalism through media literacy education in schools and universities. At this critical junction, with Ukraine seeking to strengthen its democratic gains and its relationship with the West as well as fight corruption, providing people with the skills they need to engage critically with media and information is paramount. We see a ground up approach as the most effective way forward. Generation Z are digital natives able to disseminate information to their families, peers and siblings effectively. We have seen how some have even been acting as mentors to their family members who beforehand did not know about the existence of disinformation in the media. One student said he helped his parents understand the issue. “I would evaluate their media literacy training as low, but we are helping them and they are interested in what we are learning during those lessons,” he said. Without perhaps even realizing it, Ukraine’s Generation Z are creating a demand for change and therefore carving a path towards a more democratic society where balanced reporting and access to unbiased information eventually becomes the norm.

This campaign will be closing but our work continues and we would welcome your on-going support for future campaigns.

Thank you to each and every one of you for your support.