Wufoo

A practical two–way framework for “media for development” and “media development” to help building independent, vibrant media.

At the recent Salzburg Global Seminar on Strengthening Independent Media, a group of donors agreed to explore the practical connections between those interested in specialized health or poverty or other kinds direct communication and those who care more explicitly about development of independent media.

While admitting that these sorts of collaborations are not workable in every situation or every country, the funders believed an exploration of where the two communities have worked together in productive ways would be helpful.

The idea is to look beyond the specific stories or campaigns involved toward the media “ecosystem” as a whole. Media development experts need to grow the ecosystem to cover all issues in service of the public welfare. Media for development experts need to invest in the ecosystem, too, in order to get accurate coverage of their priority issues through media channels that are reliable, respected, and sustainable. At their highest and most professional levels, these are not totally unrelated goals.

The digital revolution, seen internationally in the rise of the internet and the cell phone, add a sense of urgency to Article 19’s call for information to be available “through any media.”

Categories where examples of cooperation are sought and suggested:

1.Transparency from Information Providers

Public data producers, including governments and news organizations, should be more transparent. People need to know the source of public information and how it was collected. This includes data provided by non-governmental organizations and multilaterals like the World Bank and UNDP, as well as academics, private research centers, and governments. Public information should be made available digitally as well as in traditional ways. Donors can engage data producers to be more transparent and to provide information in ways that is widely accessible.

2. New Training for Content Producers

Journalists and other content producers need the newer skills of computer-assisted reporting and digital storytelling to add to their existing skills of critical thinking and analysis of data and events in order to better interpret information for the public. People benefit when content producers can use the power of new tools. Increasingly, people themselves can be independent content producers and emerging self-sustaining professional journalism organizations could include them in this training.

3. Fostering Multiple Channels of Communication

3a. Innovating and Identifying Appropriate Channels - When the focus is on getting information to those who would benefit from it, new platforms as well as existing should be considered by both media development and media for development work.

3b. Scaling/Sustaining Channels - Media platforms need strong, appropriate, adaptive business models; access to resources; management skills; and supportive institutions to help them take root and provide consistent, reliable information -- on any subject -- to the public.

4. Citizen access and engagement

Universal ability to “seek, receive and impart” news and information is needed to advance all positive human endeavors. Media-related projects of all kinds should experiment with new ways for citizens to access and engage with news and information. This includes everything from traditional media to traditional public-education campaigns.

Here is an example of how a “media for development” project can help create a healthier media ecosystem by working in areas of practical overlap with “media development”:

The Gates Foundation is currently supporting a project in agricultural development. The media component results in government and other data producers providing agricultural data; community radio organizations building their internal resources and skillsetsto better tell stories from the data; community outreach to encourage input to the radio programs, which ultimately feeds back to NGO and government information providers to help shape new research and interventions. Rather than ignoring or attempting to substitute with the media ecosystem, this program engages with it. It is experimental and does not yet include a strategy to sustain this type of programming and skill development. But it clearly illustrates how an agricultural project can have a key media component that does not “use” the media as a channel so much as it builds a healthier media ecosystem.