IN A BRAND new initiative by The Journal, readers will be given the opportunity to engage with editors and journalists as they examine a range of topics that impact the people of Ireland, giving the audience all the facts that they need to know.

The Good Information Project will enlist audience feedback to identify critical challenges facing our country, our democracy and our place in the European Union and wider world. Our journalists will then seek information on and solutions to those key concerns and return those findings in a variety of formats on and off our site.

We want to create a space in which Irish news consumers can learn how to identify good information about issues which majorly impact them, understand where to seek it out and become equipped to pass on those skills to others in their networks.

This project will draw on expert voices, citizens who have a lived experience of our topics, and those who think they might have solutions.

Throughout 2021 and into 2022, the editorial team will interact with readers – and listen to them – through online events, messaging services and other bespoke products.

Over 15 distinct topic cycles, The Good Information Project will focus on key areas - climate change, economic recovery and equality and inclusion - where policy, legislation, change and innovation at a national and European level are at a particularly critical juncture. We’ll be examining questions such as:

• Can Ireland be carbon-emission free by 2050?
• What should the working week look like after the Covid-19 crisis?
• What could a new Constitution look like?

Each four-week cycle will draw down on these pillars to find an engaging topic to put to our audience.

We will begin the collaboration process with organised listening sessions and then through our journalism, factchecking and research create a suite of content to inform and engage. Expect to see longform articles, in-depth interviews, factchecks, webinars, videos, social media content and more for each topic.

This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.

Here’s the very first way to get involved

If you would like to hear more about the project as it gets underway, find out what the first topic is going to be and how you can have your say on it, sign up to The Good Information Project newsletter in the box below: