Digital media are celebrated for enabling greater participation in news-making, knowledge-sharing, and civic conversation, amplifying collaborations that support and reinforce democracy. But the rise of digital media has also produced new threats. The financial models that supported our strongest media institutions have faltered, and anti-democratic forces from strongmen to terrorists have rushed to fill the void with their own media platforms.

How can our democracies adapt to a media landscape that, by kowtowing to ideological cocoons, elevates extreme opinions and conspiracy theories? And how can we re-imagine media institutions to ensure they serve democracy, producing robust debate and an inclusive public sphere?

Swissinfo editor-in-chief Reto Gysi von Warburg, German lawyer, writer, and political journalist Maximilian Steinbeis, and International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance senior manager Annette Fath-Lihic visit Zócalo to examine digital media’s dueling roles as protector and threat to democracy.

Location: Salón de Plenos del Ayuntamiento de Donostia-San Sebastián, Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain, see map here.

Date and Time: 17 November 2016, 7.00 - 9.00 pm. 

Registration here

Credits of header photo: Courtesy of Adobe Stock.