Media Roundtable

Inclusive and Sustainable Cities: The New Media Agenda

Broadcast and print, digital, and social media all play an important role contributing to the fabric of urban societies and the discussion of urban issues. All types of media have an equally important role to play in helping to foster tolerance, inclusivity, and collaboration between different groups, particularly in densely populated urban areas.

Building on the active collaborative role that media has played throughout the Habitat III process, this roundtable will seek to crystalize definitions of productive media engagement in urban issues in order to provide guidance to media around the world on how their activities can best support equitable and sustainable urban development.

The media, and in particular social media, is uniquely positioned to support efforts to monitor the implementation of the New Urban Agenda on many levels, particularly at the local level. The aggregation and amplification of voices from all types of urban stakeholders into ongoing United Nations-led and other typically top-down decision-making processes should continue throughout the follow up phase. This event will enable the media constituency to explore how it can collaborate and play an active role in this inclusive implementation process.

Objectives of the Roundtable

• Explore the productive roles that media can play in supporting inclusive urban societies, and in supporting the promotion of urban resilience and sustainable development.  
• Analyze how media can support the monitoring of the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.
• Promote the active role of media in the stakeholders’ structure of the United Nations processes.

Guiding Questions

• What role can the media play in capacity building and knowledge-sharing efforts to support the implementation of the New Urban Agenda?
• Which types of urban voices are more or less able to work effectively with media? How can the less successful groups be further supported? What about cases in which authorities may restrict media activities?
• What are some best practice examples of media working in collaboration with businesses and civil society organizations at various scales, from local to multi-national organizations?
• What are some positive examples of how urban policy-makers have worked well with media to gather public opinion and/ or to communicate policy changes? What are examples in which this type of city-media collaboration has worked less effectively? What external conditions supported or hindered these efforts

Roundtable Follow Up

How do you propose to monitor the outcomes of this session in order to report back on progress at the 9th Session of the World Urban Forum (2018, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)?