European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) - national and multinational hubs

Outcomes and deliverables

At the end of the actions, a network of existing and newly established research hubs will be in place across the EU. Networks of expert and organisations linked to the hubs will be part of a European multidisciplinary community which will actively detect, analyse and expose disinformation campaigns in Europe. Each hub will have produced at least 10 investigations and reports on disinformation campaigns and shared them through EDMO. Hubs will have established at least 5 tailor-made media literacy programs in Member States and supported national authorities in producing reports (at least 1 per year) regarding the implementation and effectiveness of online platforms policies to tackle disinformation.

Following-up from the first round of hubs created under CEF, this topic aims to create new national or multinational hubs for analysis of digital media ecosystems in order to expand the geographical coverage of EDMO. A national/multinational hub is a network of organisations active in one or several Member State(s), that will provide specific knowledge of local information environments so as to strengthen the detection and analysis of disinformation campaigns, improve public awareness, and design effective responses relevant for national audiences. The activities of the hubs should be independent from any public authority.

These national/multinational centres will focus their activities around emerging digital media vulnerabilities and disinformation campaigns, which are of special relevance within the territory and/or linguistic area in which they will operate. Multinational hubs will cover more than one Member State with similar media ecosystems within an EU region.

Support will be provided to:

• Increase the number of independent national or multinational hubs on digital media. Each hub must pull together a national/multinational multidisciplinary community composed of academic researchers, fact-checkers, media practitioners and other relevant stakeholders in order to create a network capable of quickly detecting and analysing disinformation campaigns, as well as producing content to support mainstream and local media and public authorities in exposing harmful disinformation campaigns. They will work in cooperation with EDMO and contribute to its repositories of fact-checks, media literacy materials and scientific articles, including surveys on disinformation trends, situational analyses and assessments of online platforms’ policies to address disinformation-related harms.
• Detection, analysis and disclosure of harmful disinformation campaigns at regional, national, multinational and EU level, and analysis of their impact on society and democracy. They will analyse relevant actors, vectors, tools, methods, dissemination dynamics, and prioritised targets of disinformation campaigns by applying a common methodology, established in coordination with EDMO, to monitor the evolution of disinformation-related harms on relevant audiences. Each hub will indicate the type of collaborations intended with independent media outlets operating within its territory or linguistic area. The hubs will also monitor the financial viability of the news media sector within the territory or linguistic area covered, including the effectiveness of public support measures taken by Member States to address potential market failures affecting the plurality and diversity of the news media sector at national level. Funding will also support a regular assessment of the impact of relevant disinformation campaigns on society and democratic processes, as well as the effectiveness of the policies set out by online platforms to counter various disinformation phenomena. In addition, the hubs will actively participate to the EDMO joint research activities selected by the EDMO Governance Body and promptly react to EDMO requests linked to emerging disinformation issues.
• Media literacy. The centres will identify the needs and support tailor-made media literacy campaigns for the covered territory or linguistic area. They will also leverage on the exchange of good practices and materials stored on the EDMO platform and contribute to the EDMO repositories with newly created educational and training materials.
• Cooperation with national authorities for the monitoring of online platforms’ policies and digital media ecosystem in the territory or linguistic area covered by the proposal. In particular, they will support the competent national authorities, including the audio-visual regulator(s) overseeing, and monitor the implementation of the Code of Practice on Disinformation by its signatories. They will respond to the above-mentioned national authorities’ requests to carry out on-demand surveys on emerging online disinformation campaigns.