Reliable news and information are critical to our ability to navigate this world. We rely on news and information to make informed decisions for our families, on issues such as improving our schools or keeping our families healthy. We also rely on news and information to hold the powerful to account, through both the ballot box and through journalism’s ability to shine a light on public malfeasance.
Despite the extraordinary technological advances that have defined the modern information age, it is getting ever harder to find the information we need to protect “informed choice.” This trend threatens our ability to navigate the big challenges of our world, from climate change to economic disparity to protecting our democracy. This trend is pronounced in the US and is often more devasting in other parts of the world.
This colloquy will take a deep dive into the challenges facing the global news media today, while also exploring trends that provide hope that news media serving the public interest will continue to survive and thrive into the future.
Jeanne Bourgault is the President of Internews, an international non-profit that supports independent media and freedom of speech in more than 100 countries around the world. Internews has helped foster independent media sectors in countries such as Ukraine, the Philippines, and South Sudan. During her tenure, Internews expanded programming into humanitarian information, climate journalism and heath journalism, including a robust global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to Internews, Bourgault worked internationally in countries undergoing dramatic shifts in media and political landscapes, including spending three years in Russia in the early 1990s and three years in the Balkans during conflicts in Serbia and Kosovo. Jeanne and her family live in East Blue Hill.
