The current political climate, characterised by increasing populism, resurgent nationalism, and the digitally facilitated spread of misinformation, calls for the wide availability of trustworthy news. National news agencies have historically played a crucial role in providing verified, fact-based news to media organisations in most countries, but today’s national news agencies face a number of significant challenges.
New media technologies allow citizens access to news and information not only through traditional media, but also independently; not only within national media systems, but also across national borders. Thanks in part to these same media technologies, the media are also no longer dependent on news services to provide them with up-to-date news information. As a result, the commercial value of a wholesale general news service (GNS) for media clients, formerly a core news agency product, has declined.
National news agencies can continue to play an important role by providing verified, fact-based news. But new strategies are needed in order to respond to an array of financial, political, and cultural crises operating on national, transnational, and global scales.
This is a public launch event for the final report of the project, The Future of National News Agencies in Europe. It will feature a panel of short presentations on news industry ownership models and the crisis of financing in journalism, followed by a Q&A session chaired by Sarah Banet-Weiser, Professor of Media and Communications and Head of Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Speakers include:
Christine Buhagiar, Regional Director for Europe with Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Madhav Chinnappa, Google’s Director of Strategic Relations for News & Publishers, working on partnerships and collaboration between Google and the news industry.
Terhi Rantanen, Professor in Global Media and Communications at LSE and academic director of the project, The Future of National News Agencies in Europe.
Henrik Örnebring, Professor of Media and Communication at Karlstad University.
The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. Designed and conducted in conjunction with the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), The Future of National News Agencies in Europe (lse.ac.uk/news-agencies) seeks to suggest alternative futures for European news institutions through collaborative partnerships with industry leaders, policy-makers, and journalists working with and within European news agencies. This event is funded by LSE Knowledge Exchange and Impact.
Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEnewsagencies
Please direct any questions to media.newsagencies@lse.ac.uk.