Why we work with Facebook and Google

It is a question we discuss a lot at the European Journalism Centre.

Funding from technology companies, including Facebook and Google, accounted for about 24% of our net revenue last year. The other 76% comes from governments and philanthropic donors.

By designing programmes that recognise and account for potential conflicts, we believe significant benefit can be brought to journalists in service of our mission: to connect journalists to new ideas, skills and people. We believe the ends do justify the means.

Here’s how we design for that.

There are often marketing motivations (and dollars) behind our partnerships with platforms. That’s why we design programmes to benefit journalists, not sponsors. Take a look at last week’s News Impact Academy (click for full thread).

Sponsor logos, while present, don’t plaster the venue. There are no pay-to-play sponsor sessions or panellists. Training on partner tools is done by the partner, not by us, and only as part of a wider curriculum. (As it happens, those sessions from sponsors are often rated highest by participants.)

Firewalls between the platforms and the projects are vital.

As an example, the editors of the Data Journalism Handbook have complete editorial independence from the funder (and us at the EJC too). That’s not unspoken; it’s written into the agreement. The first chapter talks about algorithmic accountability, a hot topic for technology platforms.

When we collaborate with partners, we maintain total independence over curricula, topics, locations, speakers and formats. Several times we have featured critiques or competitors of sponsors at events, or in learning materials.

Through posts like the one I am writing now, we open up our various processes to questions and criticism, which we answer with openness.

Our partnerships also allow me to stay close to crucial discussions on misinformation, algorithmic accountability, and the role of media literacy. Our position means we are able to push for more transparency on the part of our partners too.

Focused programming. Independence. Transparency.

That’s the blueprint that allows us to design programmes that benefit journalists while engaging with the complicated role technology companies play in our industry’s future.

All funding, whether it is governmental, philanthropic, or commercial, is subject to potential conflicts. The key is to design relationships and programmes that expose, understand and mitigate those conflicts.

Related posts:

Business Transformation, and its close partner Digital Transformation, are terms we’re suddenly hearing everywhere — and yet as Business Transformation specialists here at Rulesware, we’re still…

Spring love comes like rain. Water vapor palpable like attraction. It downpours — torrential; destructive but beautiful and hopeful. Summer love is unexpected like a sunburn. It hurts long after…

The biggest addiction a person can have is discovering the unknown. Once it takes hold, there is no getting out and only way to get your fix is by pursing yourself out of your comfort zone and…