Internews 2025 Strategic Framework
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Copyright Internews 2020 All photos were produced for Internews or taken by Internews staff or partners during project activities. On the cover: Smirna Kulenović assisting photography student Daria Ćorluka on the first day of National Geographic Photo Camp Sarajevo, held in partnership with Internews in 2015. Twenty years after the Dayton peace accords, Bosnian teenagers from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds collaborated on a joint project through Photo Camp to explore each other’s lives, document shared values, and create meaningful visuals that inspire and build trust. INTERNEWS 2025 · OUR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK Contents Introduction 4 Global trends and challenges 6 Our strategic planning process 9 · Our process for this strategy 10 Elements of a healthy information environment 12 · Five Elements of a Healthy Information Environment 12 · Element 1: Good, accurate, evidence-based information 13 · Element 2: Information that everyone can access safely 14 · Element 3: Information that consumers know how to critically assess 15 · Element 4: Information that is valued by its community and sustained by 16 business models that work · Element 5: Governments and businesses that are accountable for sustaining 18 healthy information environments Advancing a Global Change Agenda 22 Measuring our impact: 25 x 25 25 Where we excel: our organizational strengths 27 · Strength 1: We are agile. We are able to work where information is most 28 under threat and where it is most urgently needed · Strength 2: We bring information solutions to the world’s most pressing 29 issues · Strength 3: We listen. We design and implement our programs through deep 29 engagement with local communities · Strength 4: We build lasting partnerships and alliances 30 Investing in our mission and building organizational resilience 31 Conclusion 32 INTERNEWS 2025 · OUR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK Introduction Information is as critical as the air we breathe. ithout information, people Our origins can neither understand nor effectively respond to 1982 was a landmark year for the modern the events that shape their information age. That year, Transmis- world. With the right, sion Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet trustworthy information, Protocol (IP) emerged as the standard for Wpeople can make better decisions about the ARPANET, establishing the foundational health and welfare of their families, parti- structure of the internet. cipate in their communities, and hold their governments to account. That same year, a small NGO called Internews was founded in Northern Since our beginning, Internews has envi- California, committed to bridging an sioned — and worked toward building information abyss by deploying what was — a world in which all people could seek, at the time cutting-edge satellite techno- receive, and impart credible information logy — the “Space Bridge” — to overcome that was important to them. Regardless of the challenges of communicating across medium. Regardless of borders. Regardless the Iron Curtain. Almost four decades later, of authorities. Internews’ mission is more critical than ever. Over the course of our 38-year history, we have witnessed — and participated in — the We’ve also seen the dangerous rise of a extraordinary advances that have defined disinformation age that is poisoning news the modern information age. People are and information channels with falsehoods more connected than ever across commu- and doctored information, exploiting and nities and continents. They have access to exacerbating humanity’s worst instincts. diverse, better, and more timely information. We’ve seen the rise of new, more invasive They have greater voice and agency as forms of government surveillance and producers and sharers of that information. censorship, malign actors intervening in the Breakthroughs in communications techno- global information space, digital and physi- logies have brought economic opportunity, cal insecurity of journalists and storytellers, supported improved health outcomes, and the disintegration of the market for local expanded access to education, and enabled news. more people to participate in governance and respond more effectively to crisis. While these negative trends are incredi- bly challenging, at Internews we have a And yet. saying: “We’ve got this.” And we do. With 4 Introduction INTERNEWS 2025 · OUR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK our legacy of work and partners networked • First, we are committing to building a across more than 120 countries, we have Global Change Agenda to complement our been on the front lines of addressing com- deep and long-standing in-country program plex information ecosystems for nearly four expertise. This Global Change Agenda decades. will elevate the insights and concerns of our partners to significantly influence the We know the challenges we face today are policies, norms, and practices of global difficult, but looking ahead, we are setting players toward building healthier information out a simple vision for our world and for our environments around the world. work. • Second, we are committing to studying We seek to realize the potential of a digi- and evaluating the actual changes that tally connected world: a world in which occur in a community when their information evidence-based information advances environment improves over time. We will human progress, enables broad opportu- deeply explore our impact around the world nity and accountability, and fuels vibrant and learn which of our approaches are most civic debate. effective and worth bringing to scale. We call this “25 x 25,” as we aim to focus research “Internews 2025” is the new strategic and external expertise on 25 diverse and framework that spells out how Internews representative communities around the intends to advance this vision over the world through the end of this strategy in next five years. What follows is a narrative 2025. summary of our ideas. We describe what it takes to build the healthy information envi- Finally, we recognize that resources are ronments that we believe are essential to necessary to support this work, so we will solving the current information crisis — and evaluate the potential funding opportuni- building resilience for whatever comes next. ties and steps we need to take to raise the diverse resources necessary to advance this We also define where we need to excel framework — while also ensuring Internews as an organization to make a meaningful remains financially and operationally resilient impact toward this vision, exemplified in our into the future. new Strategic Goal: We are all very proud of the yearlong Over the next five years, as the next 3 billion process behind this new framework, which people come online, we will join with allies emphasized listening and learning from the who share our vision, including journalists talent and experience of more than 700 staff and technologists, data scientists and legal around the world. This framework reflects specialists, as well as artists, advocates, and the work of our full Internews Alliance and storytellers. Together, we will build healthy will guide the work of both Internews US information environments in more than 100 and Internews EU in the coming years. We countries across the globe. are excited to embark on our next phase and are truly optimistic that we can make a Key to the advancement of our vision and positive change in the world. goal are two new commitments we are making with this framework: Introduction 5 INTERNEWS 2025 · OUR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK Global trends and challenges Trust in institutions is collapsing. Populism and authoritarianism are on the rise. The climate crisis is producing global instability. The very concept of “truth” is under attack in societies around the world. Emerging technologies are forcing a constant reexamination of the status quo. Major trends and challenges affecting information environments: Rise of disinformation, misinformation and mal-information 1 2 MediaMe market collapse Exponential connectivity and information inequality 3 CeCensorshipensorship and threats to 4 jjourou nalists’ security Geopolitical influencesuences aandnd the spread of authoritarianism 5 6 Global trends and challenges INTERNEWS 2025 · OUR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK hese trends are real, increasing, Cold War. The growing lack of respect and and affecting our work and our distrust in media, often fanned by political partners’ work at near existential leaders, has led to an increase in actual acts levels. They also make our work or threats of physical violence. The number more necessary than ever. of recorded threats against journalists, including death threats, doubled in Europe TOne reason? Unprecedented in 2018.3 In many places, few expect the shifts in human connectedness are in police and judicial system to investigate store, as the internet continues to undergird and successfully prosecute crimes against all aspects of our lives. Ten years ago, less journalists, including unlawful interference, than a quarter of the world’s population had arbitrary detention, and physical attacks. internet access. In 2019, that rose to 4.3 Repressive authorities demonstrate their billion people, or 56% of the world’s popu- hostility to journalism with ever more restric- lation. And almost all of us — more than tive legislation and regulation. Their targets 90% — are living within reach of a mobile adopt self-censorship as a means to keep network with 3G or greater speeds. As their jobs and avoid the worst attacks. connectivity expands to the next half of the world,