The topic of the Kastelholm talks 2018 “Media, power and courage – credibility and trust in the public discourse” focuses on two key changes to the prerequisites for public discussion: firstly the rapid and comprehensive leaks of classified information to the public through the intervention of individuals and secondly the denial of the importance of truth, relevance and credibility of persons that make public statements. The trust in media, that has been the media’s own historical goal, has been questioned by individuals with their “own access to facts” and who may spread (false) statements in a widely and fast way. This becomes a challenge for those societies that build their social model on informed democracy. The societies where power defines truth has on the other hand another starting point in this regard. Confidence is seen as a central explanation for why democratic countries in practice never go to war with each other. Theories of deterrence and balance of power are based on a fundamental consensus about the current situation, in short what is true or false. Premature or fake information can, in an already tense environment, increase the risk of war.
Information on how to register will be available at the Swedish version of this webpage from 26 February.
Merete Mazzarella (photo: Teemo Rajala/CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), Olof Ehrenkrona (photo: Kristian Pohl/Regeringskansliet), Anders Mellbourn (photo: privat) and Britt Lundberg (photo: Magnus Fröderberg/Norden.org).
