News at a crossroads

The news is breaking. It is also, in the eyes of many, broken.

Without a healthy media ecosystem, much is at stake: our understanding of the world. Our ability to relate to one another. And, crucially, our power as citizens.

So, how did we get to this place? And where do we go from here?

Enter the SNF Ithaca x iMEdD Media and Democracy Summit, a free event held at the University of Delaware on May 5 and 6. Co-hosted by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Ithaca Initiative - based within UD's Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration - and the nonprofit journalism organization iMEdD (incubator for Media Education and Development), the summit brought together leading scholars and journalists for a series of discussions on the challenges and opportunities facing both content creators and consumers. The stakes, the speakers agreed, have never been higher.

One of the summit's central themes was the foundational role journalism plays in democratic societies - not as activism or profit-driven content, but as a public good.

"Journalism - this is something that I also mention very often - is not like activism, and it's not like everything-for-profit. It's a pillar of democracy, so somehow we have to figure out how this will work," said Anna Kynthia Bousdoukou, co-founder and managing director of iMEdD.