Democratic values are being challenged.
It’s time to step in now.
We intervene with strategic value-based communication, exactly where disinformation has its effect: when people form their opinion based on what they see and hear.
Programs are designed together with research, institutions and NGOs around the most pressing topics where manipulation and misleading content take place: extremism, equality, inclusion, media trust, migration, vaccine scepticism, climate denial, etc.
What We Do
Impact-communication framework
The OpenEcho framework is built around data-driven techniques to reach people inside their online bubbles, with storytelling and behavioural science to resonate with audiences. Impact is not measured in likes or reach, but in actual societal outcomes.
The integration of research grounds everything in evidence and keeps it transparent about what works.
Benefits for public-interest organisations:
Engaging with hard-to-reach audiences.
Creating relevance, also with people who have different perspectives.
Demonstrating actual societal outcomes.
Connecting with research and universities.
Academic research delivers important insights on disinformation, FIMI, resilience, platform dynamics and digital literacy. But a practical challenge remains:
How do we translate these insights into real-world interventions to counter disinformation, deploy to target audiences and measure their impact on democratic and societal resilience?
This is the gap that OpenEcho is designed to address.
We are currently connecting with researchers and universities. OpenEcho offers a validation framework, where research findings can be implemented in proactive digital communication, tested live in online platforms and continuously refined through real-time measurement.
We work with partners who share our goals.
News!
Cooperation with the Austrian Journalists Club
OpenEcho has formed a cooperation with the Austrian Journalists Club (ÖJC), for a pilot project on media trust, with the objective to strengthen the understanding of independent media’s role in society. Focussed on young, social-first audiences in regional Austria.
Use Case: Media Trust
Why it matters, and how a resilient society starts with trust.
Media-critical individuals are more likely to turn to alternative sources of information. This makes them more susceptible to disinformation and polarisation, undermines public discourse and weakens democratic institutions. At the World Economic Forum 2025 this was highlighted as key societal risk. Low trust in media and institutions contributes to the problem.
Trust in institutions is declining. Trust in “the media” in Austria is at 38% (2025) and has declined by 12% since pre-Brexit/Trump 10 years ago (Reuters Digital News Report). As comparison: in Germany it’s at 47%. Among younger audiences and people with lower media literacy, trust is even lower (20–25% and 10–15% respectively). Strengthening this trust back to previous levels is therefore both urgent and promising.
Research shows: trust increases when media are perceived as independent, transparent, representative and as serving society. Through storytelling, we connect these drivers with topics that are relevant to a young and social-first audience. But trust cannot be forced. Our behavioural approach therefore focuses on small steps and long-term impact, using content that broadens perspectives without confrontation.
Shared values: a better understanding about why the media plays an important role to keep our society fair, makes us more resilient against manipulation and fake news. This contributes to social cohesion, solidarity in online discourse and openness to other perspectives. It reduces scepticism toward media and freedom of information and supports a more resilient democracy.