Barents Mediasphere Improving Cross-Border Communications

The Barents Mediasphere project promotes communications in the Barents region. It helps journalists network across borders and find new points of view on the development of the northern parts of Finland, Russia, Norway and Sweden. Barents Mediasphere project is unique in a sense that it can enhance and create practical possibilities for cross border information flow in Barents region. In this way it helps regional identity building. Very important is the facts that Russian and Nordic journalists are equal partners and participants in the project and they learn to understand better each other. This reduces misunderstandings which are potentially harmful for all cross border cooperation in the North. The project can use the contacts and networks established during over 20 years of voluntary journalist cooperation in the region. Barents Mediasphere is noteworthy as it is likely to be the only information and media project in Arctic regions which is promoting personal contacts, mobility and reporting possibilities among media. This way its results can reach the local population and make a difference.

Barents Mediasphere is not a research project strictu sensu but in order to make Arctic research understandable for the local population the local media is a key. If media has better understanding about the region as a whole it can also better put wider regional developments and research news into context.

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