BIIRGS Eye View™ Talks: Media Capture

Why do some stories dominate the headlines while others receive little attention? What changes when we look beyond the story itself and examine the conditions under which it was produced?

This introductory session explores media capture, which occurs when political or economic interests compromise a media organization’s editorial independence. The session focuses on how ownership, investment, advertising, philanthropy, and platform-based revenue models can create incentives and dependencies that may affect news coverage.

Through a guided composite news scenario, participants will examine how funding contexts, framing choices, and omitted perspectives can influence the ways issues and communities are represented.

The session does not assume that funding automatically proves media capture. Instead, it introduces a practical framework for asking informed questions about authorship, ownership, financing, evidence, and representation. Participants will also explore how media capture differs from political leaning, misinformation, and ordinary editorial judgment.

The session connects these questions to democratic wellbeing:…