About us
Media & Democracy is a national collaboration platform for media innovation and social research. The goal is to strengthen the media's innovative power, journalism, public discourse, and democracy. Priority areas for the platform are experimental research projects, data and AI-related media development, media and information literacy as well as knowledge dissemination and networking.
Media & Democracy’s starting point is the historical conversion of the media landscape. Digitalization has revolutionized possibilities of producing, publishing, and consuming media content and traditional and publishing-driven media no longer have the same dominant and central role.
What effects – both positive and negative – will the changes in the media landscape have on journalism, media, people, and democracy? The interface between media and democracy development is an area in which Sweden already made progress about 250 years ago. Then with adopting the world's first freedom of the press regulation.
Media & Democracy is a neutral development environment where media actors, academies and other social institutions jointly initiate and drive research around competition-neutral opportunities and challenges – mainly in experimental projects. Other central activities are knowledge dissemination and management and facilitation of various networks.
Together with AI Sweden, Sweden's center for applied AI, Media & Democracy drives research and development in the data and AI area with a focus on news media. In collaboration with AI Sweden, the program also leads the national initiative Future of Democracy.
Here are some of Media & Democracy's milestones:
- 2014: The initiative is born. Current Swedish media research is mapped.
- 2015: Open workshops between the media sector and academics.
- 2016-2017: Preliminary study period financed by Region Västra Götaland
- 2017: Media & Democracy is established as a program at Lindholmen Science Park and Region Västra Götaland funds the platform.
- 2018: The first research and innovation projects are implemented.
- 2019: Media & Democracy becomes a platform for a national AI initiative financed by Vinnova and the media companies Hall Media, Stampen, and Sveriges Television.
- 2020: Borås Tidning has been appointed as the editorial office of the year and the Media & Democracy projects Beta Borås 1 and Beta Borås 2 are regarded as two contributing initiatives.
- 2020: Region Västra Götaland continues to fund the platform.
- 2021: International Youth Think Tank is added to Media & Democracy.
Media & Democracy held the first Future of Democracy Summit together with AI Sweden and other collaboration partners. - 2022: Media & Democracy initiates innovative research projects within Collaborative Journalism: Local democracy in a digital world and Strengthened local journalism in crises. The genre involves collaboration between two or more news and information organizations, which aims to complement the organization's resources and maximize the impact of the content produced.
- 2023: The world's largest conference in investigative journalism - Global Investigate Journalism Conference - was arranged in Gothenburg. Media & Democracy was responsible for the start day's pre-conference at Lindholmen Science Park. The theme was innovative methods, collaboration and AI as a journalistic tool.
Media & Democracy is managed by Lindholmen Science Park and financed by Region Västra Götaland and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. The initiative is also supported by Sweden's commercial media within Tidningsutgivarna (TU), public services companies Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio, media academies such as University of Gothenburg, Jönköping University, Karlstad University, Linnaeus University, Mid Sweden University, and Södertörn University. In addition, international participants Nordicom, the global organization WAN-IFRA and in Norway by the development network NxtMedia, Norwegian Research Center for AI Innovation (NorwAI) and the industry association and publisher organization Mediebedriftenes Landsforening (MBL).
The managing group consists of:
Robert Olsson, chairman
Anna Careborg, Appointed news and sports director, Sveriges Television
Bengt Johansson, professor at the University of Gothenburg
Anette Novak, former CEO, Swedish Film Institute
Martin Svensson, co-director of AI Sweden
Johan Taubert, CEO TU Medier i Sverige
Jenny Wiik, Associate professor at University of Gothenburg and University of Malmö
Martin Holmberg, programme manager of Media & Democracy
Do you want to know more?
Our innovation projects
Nyhetsflöde
Nominate the 2022 collaborator of the year
Who do you think has created conditions for successful partnerships during the past year in an open and committed way? Now is the time for nominations! The collaborator of the year will be awarded...
Application for project funding is now open
Application for Lindholmen Science Park’s next project funding of film and television projects is now open. The deadline for applications is May 18 at 5 pm CET.
Lindholmen Democracy Talks reports results from democracy talks in 17 cities
Media & Democracy has previously reported on the European democracy campaign that the International Youth Think Tank (IYTT) carried out from 1 to 3 April. The results will be presented at IYTT's lunch...
Campaign weekend for the democracy
When the International Youth Think Tank (IYTT) visited the cradle of democracy in Athens last autumn, a simple and concrete method was born, Open Chair Democracy Talks. It gives voice to citizens and...
IYC's final report will be launched on the event: Demokratin 100 år – en framtidsdag
For the past two years, the government has initiated a gathering of forces for democracy in Sweden under the name "Democracy 100 years". On March 15, a final future conference will be held in...
World leading democracy research on Lindholmen Democracy Talks
The lunch event Lindholmen Democracy Talks continues. On February 23, the International Youth Think Tank (IYTT) invites Xavier Romero Vidal, a researcher at Cambridge's Center for the Future of...
Next application for project funding opens
Application for Lindholmen Science Park’s next project funding of film and television projects opens on January 3 and closes on February 3 at 5 pm CET.
Youth Fellows at the Nobel Week Dialogue
Two Youth Fellows from the International Youth Think Tank participate in the Nobel Week Dialogue. The theme is "City of the Future" and Lisa Mastiaux and Daniel Hakan Urquijo will also have the...
Unknown ideas to be presented at Lindholmen Democracy Talks
No one knows what ideas will be presented at Lindholmen Democracy Talks on 25 November. The reason: the ideas will be just newly hatched.
Open Call: Göteborg Konst söker konstkonsulter för enprocentregeln
Är du utövande professionell konstnär, curator eller konstvetare med erfarenhet av offentlig konst? Göteborg Konst söker nu konstkonsulter och du är välkommen att skicka in din intresseanmälan till...
Robert Olsson new chairman of the Media & Democracy steering group
There are currently three changes in the Media & Democracy steering group. Robert Olsson will be the new chairman and, as previously reported, Anna Careborg, CEO and editor-in-chief of Svenska...
Lindholmen Democracy Talks starts in September
In September, there will be a premiere for a new form of lunch event at Lindholmen Science Park. It's the Media & democracy project International Youth Think Tank that initiates the Lindholmen...
