What’s happening to information?

Over the next few weeks, I’m attending a series of events that are all about the relationship between information and democracy:

• Tonight (16 April), I’m on a panel about ‘Democracy in the Disinformation Age’ at an event co-hosted by Goodenough College and Cumberland Lodge.
• On 23 April, I’m speaking at a webinar about ‘Community Foundations on the Local Frontline of Disinformation’ hosted by the European Community Foundation Initiative (ECFI).
• At the end of the month, I’m attending the Convention on Information and Democracy, co-hosted by LSE and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).
• And on 6 May, I’m catching the Eurostar to Brussels for the intriguingly titled ‘European Pluralistic Media Horizon Summit’, organised by International Media Support (IMS).

I’m not just boasting about my busy calendar (though it’s fair to say that I love my job). It’s more that this run of events has made me wonder what’s going on. Why the surge of interest in such a previously niche topic? There are many more obvious challenges facing our society, from the climate crisis to economic inequality. So, why are so many people increasingly eager to talk about information?

It’s not just academics and activists. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) recently unveiled Protecting What Matters: Towards a more confident, cohesive and resilient United Kingdom, a policy paper which dwells on the impact of misinformation and disinformation on communities. And the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has now published Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan, which goes into much more detail on the same topic.

I think that several things are coming together here:

• The chaotic state of US politics has shaken up fundamental democratic norms. Once upon a time, we expected politicians to disagree about policies but broadly agree on the underlying facts. Now, politics has become a battleground over reality itself. From the streets of Minneapolis to the Straits of Hormuz, the US administration and its supporters are apparently living in a different world from their political opponents.
• Meanwhile, the dominance of big tech platforms has transformed the media economy. Major newspaper publishers and broadcasters which could once tell governments what to do are no longer the biggest kids on the block. Whilst the press barons and tech titans fight it out, a new ecosystem is emerging at grassroots level, from indie news providers to content creators and influencers.
• The role of information in society has been transformed. Instead of passively browsing a newspaper or gawping at the TV, we are actively involved in creating and sharing information. This has led to an explosion of information that is unprecedented in human history. Many of us are understandably responding to this overload by withdrawing into comfort zones and turning away from information that challenges or upsets us – including public interest journalism.
• Communications technology continues to evolve at a dizzying rate. Every year brings a revolution that would previously have taken decades or even centuries. We are now on the brink of an era in which machines become not just distributors but also producers of information. This could address or exacerbate the other dimensions of the information crisis.

It’s hard to say which of these phenomena is causing which. Does the state of the economy drive the political disruption, or vice-versa? Is big tech really to blame for everything, or is polarisation actually a function of deeper changes in society?

Different people have different answers to these questions. I’m most interested in where we go from here. What kind of information ecosystem do we actually want? And how can we shape such an ecosystem? Until recently, policymakers have put these questions in the ‘too difficult’ box. But the information crisis has become too big to ignore. And so, we are seeing urgent moves to make sense of and respond to the situation.

The brilliant work of Demos has played an important role here, directing policymakers’ attention to the issue of epistemic security. Other civil society organisations are also playing their part, from IPPR to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

At PINF, we believe ever more strongly that a healthy democracy depends on healthy local news ecosystems. That’s why last year we launched our mission to regenerate local news in the UK by (a) building a Local News Fund as a source of catalytic capital for local news providers that add value to their communities; (b) leading the Local News Campaign to shape a policy and regulatory environment in which local news can thrive; and (c) facilitating the Local News Futures programme to support and celebrate pioneering new models of local news.

Our mission is important, but it’s only a part of this bigger puzzle, and I’m looking forward to hearing what our friends and colleagues are up in the UK and further afield.

Jonathan Heawood is Executive Director of the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF).

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