The European Excellence Exchange in Journalism (E3J)

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Led by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and working with partners across Europe, E3J  aims to unleash the combined potential of European values and cross-border collaboration for better journalism and, as a result, a better-informed public. It provides a single-entry point for all types of media organisations, networks and individuals to connect, based on mutual trust and common rules.

Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE) and the Austrian community media training and research organisation (COMMIT) work together on the implementation of the part of the E3J project focusing on public health literacy in and through community media in Europe. 

Public health as a topical strand within the EC E3J project addresses the discussion on health issues in a wide and holistic way. This encompasses much more than the goal of being healthy and refers to external living conditions such as climate and clean environment, social aspects such as poverty reduction, comprehensive access to the health system for all but also the factual and evidence-based discussion of medical findings and ways to counter disinformation. As such it touches almost all the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and as WHO underlines: “Public health is ultimately a political choice.”

The important role of trustworthy media and journalism as a source of credible information became clear again in the context of Covid 19. While on the one hand the use of trustworthy media increased, the extent and preparation of disinformation also increased vehemently. The discussion and teaching of media and information literacy (MIL) is an important field of action here, also to counteract social disintegration.

To do this work, CMFE & COMMIT (C&C) has engaged researchers in four European countries (Austria, Denmark, Ireland and Spain) to – for their own country – map how community media absorb and reflect an appropriate public health debate, recognizing that community media in many communities’ lives represent a trusted and valuable source of information – thus performing their MIL role. Based on the research, community media broadcasters and their audiences from eight grant-winning stations will be invited to exchange workshops in the four countries, to identify how the community media platforms can perform this role even more effectively.

For more information, please contact birgitte@empowerhouse.dk  or visit  https://www.e3j.org/