Keynote speech from Susan Morgan, Senior Program Officer, Open Society Foundation.
BBC Media Action is the BBC's international development charity who use the power of media and communication to help reduce poverty and support people in understanding their rights. Sonia Whitehead will summarise how they have used qualitative research to both inform the development of TV and Radio programmes and understand their impact. Work will be presented from countries such as Ethiopia, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Somalia.
2015 was a decisive year in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of refugees arrived from war-torn Syria and beyond, walking their way through the Balkans into the EU. The largest mass migration in Europe since the 1940s brought significant changes to the continent's politics, media and public discourse. The Budapest-born financier George Soros's Open Society Foundation (OSF) sought insight into the shifting public sentiment on the refugee crisis in his own country. As the world's media descended on Budapest's Keleti Station, we worked with the OSF to form cogent strategies on Hungary's new 'illiberal' state. Insights from our human-based qualitative approach to social media informed important human rights policy, discovered unexpected threats, and promoted open society.
2015 was a decisive year in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of refugees arrived from war-torn Syria and beyond, walking their way through the Balkans into the EU. The largest mass migration in Europe since the 1940s brought significant changes to the continent's politics, media and public discourse. The Budapest-born financier George Soros's Open Society Foundation (OSF) sought insight into the shifting public sentiment on the refugee crisis in his own country. As the world's media descended on Budapest's Keleti Station, we worked with the OSF to form cogent strategies on Hungary's new 'illiberal' state. Insights from our human-based qualitative approach to social media informed important human rights policy, discovered unexpected threats, and promoted open society.