Applied Research on the Use and Potential for Mobile-friendly Content of Community Media

Research and capacity building characterise this effort to empower community media for mobile media broadcasts, and to demonstrate the potential to better reach populations with local content and news by this means. In the first phase of the project, UNESCO is collecting lessons learned from existing experiences in mobile audiovisual content of community media - both successful and unsuccessful ones. The project will then design a pilot initiative based on UNESCO's own experience in community media, including community multimedia centres (CMCs). This will involve identifying sites and preparing the basis for operationalising an action on the use of mobile technologies by community media groups. The pilot project will also assess training needs and skills of community media and CMCs for mobile content production and diffusion. It will then prepare draft model curricula for a training programme for community media and CMCs on mobile media's content production and diffusion. This will comprise a gender equality strategy, workshop outlines, learning objectives, case studies, exercises, etc. These resources will be shared as open educational resources.

In short, by studying alternative - e.g., independent and/or participatory - audiovisual productions from community media, this project intends to shape mobile content. In this way, independent audiovisual productions, for example, could increasingly constitute a healthy percentage of mainstream video broadcast in developing countries.

Organisers explain that helping to develop media, particularly community media, also involves encouraging these media to embrace not only mobile platforms but also multi-platform delivery systems (e.g., being online, providing streaming feeds, etc.) Please see further details, below. To that end, the second phase of this project (expected to be carried out in 2010) will then build the capacities of community media and CMCs to:

1. Best exploit the capabilities of mobile radio and TV as demonstrated in good practices from other initiatives, regions, etc;
2. Produce mobile-adapted content, e.g. educational games, breaking news, and development videos;
3. Produce voice-based wikis or repositories for the use of spoken content on mobiles (instead of video- or text-based content);
4. Develop systems to diffuse their content on mobile devices, for example by means of: direct downloads, streaming, RSS, video-on-demand, and live radio and video mobile broadcast.

UNESCO will also help community media partner with telecommunication operators, telephone manufacturers, and/or major broadcasters to diffuse community media mobile content from developing countries.

Media Development.

According to UNESCO, fostering the development of the media sector and achieving free, pluralistic, and independent media are pivotal in any country for development in general. Among other conditions, there has to be a good mix of public, private, and community media, and a professional capacity that includes use of digital technologies.

The lead point person on the project, Mirta Lourenço, elaborates (in personal interview, May 22 2009):

"We have to take into account that mainstream and international broadcasters already produce programmes that adapt well to nomadic devices. This poses a strong competition for less skilled broadcasters and also for community media. If they don't go mobile now or, at least (because of the difficulties in developing contexts), begin acquiring the competencies for going mobile in future, the good reach and the good appreciation of local programmes they've always had may be affected. However, there's a gap in knowledge about digital content production tools, software and services. For example: formatting content for the small screen of the mobile device, maintaining quality of image and feel, scaling close-ups, managing slow motion, pop-ups, logos for special events, interactive mobile content, integration with the website, duration of mobile clips, etc. And even handling advertising, if applicable, and mobile reporting. In rural or remote areas, mobile phones allow journalists to cover an event or make an interview, upload the story and send it through, fast, without using a computer or an internet cafe or telecentre."

Ms Lourenço also highlights the fact that, "mobile media is probably harder in developing countries with on the one hand scarce broadband deployment (for broadband mobile) and on the other one no transition yet made from analogue to digital broadcast (for DVB-H, Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld, or other variations of the standard for digital terrestrial television).

In turn, if possible, the mobile industry should be made aware of the possibilities offered by community media for alternative content. There is now a tight competition for content and a multiplicity of actors producing content. There are increasingly more alliances between content producers, network providers and manufacturers of devices. All this is changing the very definition of media. It is no longer just traditional media producers that create content. Educational games, development stories or remote delivery of public information could successfully shape mobile content too. This content can, moreover, be uploaded as well to other mobile platforms, such as YouTube Mobile or other. The possibilities are limitless, once you have the know-how.

Another trend is the competition for audience time on internet. To keep internet users a long time in front of the screen, good quality content has to be proposed, [which calls for] relevant content, such as local content, content in local languages, etc. Community media can provide that, with excellence. Besides, in traditional media, the distribution network is predetermined (movie studios, newsstands, etc.) though perhaps in the hands of the happy few. On the contrary, with digital media there's an overload of distribution means, so this actually calls for targeted content and even very targeted content, like that of community media."

According to Lourenço, there seem to be few projects on mobile media for community media. Most of the research to date on mobile communication seems to have focused on the use of short messaging service (SMS) for service delivery in education, health, agriculture, etc., she says. However, SMS applications are - in Lourenço's estimation - "not easy to adopt by illiterate people and are less participatory since they are usually query-based services or help line desks. Besides, SMS technology implies the deployment of separate infrastructure for each SMS-based service. It therefore does not permit truly large-scale deployment of services. Few projects or studies have been devoted to voice or visual applications. When they have, they generally concern audio services, through a voice platform service that people access by means of voice recognition or keypad typing. Again these services imply the existence of separate platforms for each voice-based service and often do not constitute genuinely people-centred participatory projects."

Lourenço provides this background on mobile use trends:

"On the one hand, it is estimated that there are presently about 1.1 billion fixed broadband lines, with many people in developing countries not having fixed line access - but there are 4 billion mobile connections - and this number continues to grow. Actually, people may finally be able to connect to Internet, thanks to mobile broadband technologies.

On the other hand, the way media is conceived is certainly changing. People can nowadays create their personalized radio / TV channels, reflecting their preferences, combining ordinary TV programming and available Internet offerings. People can choose to shift programming times, to use different devices (radio, MP3, PC, etc.), to combine diverse shows or diverse channels. There is the possibility to watch the entertainment and news people want, when they want and how they want. The mobile devices can deliver show time anytime, and provide a highly versatile, personalized media experience. The diverse applications allow to tailor news and entertainment to the user."

With regard to the scope of the project, Lourenço explains that, "The choice of Commonwealth countries is due to the partnership with COL, whose members are the states of the Commonwealth but we hope the lessons learnt will be extended to the rest of the world. UNESCO has 193 Member States and 6 Associate Members. COL has 53 Member States and a long record and experience in helping countries use technology as a means of increasing the scope, scale, quality and impact of their education and training systems. Among many other initiatives, they facilitate the use of educational resources. That's why in the project we also intend to share the model curricula mentioned above as open educational resources. UNESCO and COL have a partnership agreement, signed on 9 July 2007 and carry out diverse actions jointly, basically in quality assurance systems for e-learning, cross-border education and higher education, but this time we are stepping in with media development too."

The project is being carried out in line with UNESCO's Major Programme V, Communication and Information, addressing this main line of action 3, "Promoting the development of free, independent and pluralistic media and community participation in sustainable development through community media". It will end in 2010 with recommendations to make the Member States of UNESCO and COL aware of the importance of embracing mobile media.