Media and digital culture

The move to digital has brought with it new ways of experiencing the world around us. We can access news wherever we are from a wide choice of sources and platforms. A vast range of different movies, TV and radio shows produced in Europe are now available to an increasingly wide audience.

However, this era has brought with it new challenges. Disinformation spreads faster online than it ever did in the offline world, with potentially damaging consequences while journalists and media outlets face various obstacles in several countries. Media service providers may find their content unfairly removed by very large online platforms or not easily accessible in user interfaces. 

Over the past few years, the EU has stepped up its work in this field to address many of these challenges with actions such as: 

• The updated Audiovisual Media Services Directive oversees EU-wide coordination of national legislation on all audiovisual media, ensuring that values such as diversity, inclusion, and fairness are preserved.
• The European Media Freedom Act is a set of rules to protect media pluralism and independence in the EU, and taking into account the digital transformation of the media space.
• The Recommendation on the protection, safety and empowerment of journalists aims to ensure safer working conditions for all media professionals. 
• The European Media and Audiovisual Action Plan aims to boost European media and help maintain European cultural and technology autonomy in the Digital Decade.
• The 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation was set up as a tool to limit the spread of online disinformation and to quickly respond to crises.
• The European Digital Media Observatory is the EU's largest interdisciplinary network, bringing together fact-checkers, media literacy experts, and academia to counter disinformation.
• The Media Pluralism Monitor is a scientific tool designed to identify potential risks to media pluralism.
• the European Film Forum is a platform enabling exchange of best practices between policy makers and stakeholders in the audiovisual sector.
• Europeana is Europe's digital cultural platform that focuses on local, sustainable, accessible, and innovative tourism to promote Europe's rich cultural and natural diversity.