Reflections on media environment trends

From footage of Syria’s horror to every minute detail of the US presidential election relayed on social media, the year 2016 – mid 2017 displayed vividly the increased global connectedness of people and communities as technology continued to influence news and information and the way it is produced, regulated and repressed. In this context, the year also saw journalism facing a crisis of a fundamental nature spurred on by technological advancement, political power play and global inequality — a crisis that challenges basic notions of truth, relevance and trust.

IMS Annual Report 2016-2017 is devoted to these topics — to exploring how we can make journalism relevant in an age of post-truth no matter which part of the world we are in, and to examine what trust in media entails and how we can rebuild and maintain it. The report also looks ahead, encouraging us to revise and expand our notion of media development as the internet and everything digital continues to shape and define the environment in which all media operate.