The Drum Beat 403 - Media Development
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Beginning with a feature of the recent issue of our sister website Soul Beat Africa's e-magazine, The Soul Beat, which highlights the March 2007 POLIS conference on media development in Africa, this issue of The Drum Beat focuses on media development trends, research and analysis, networks, capacity-building, and case studies from all over the world.
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POLIS is a joint venture by the London School of Economics and the London College of Communication. Its mission is to study and debate the changing relationship between journalism and society in the United Kingdom (UK) and internationally (for more information, please click here or email Polis@lse.ac.uk).
Inspired by the July 2006 release of a "white paper" by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) titled "Eliminating World Poverty: Making Governance Work for the Poor", in March 2007, a POLIS conference brought together senior African, UK and international journalists, policymakers, academics and media development professionals to debate the role of the media in building African society. The focus of the conference was on how the potential of the media can be seized to improve development and good governance on the African continent; the aim was not to come up with specific policy recommendations or settled opinions, but instead, to spark ideas and inspire action.
Issue 88 of The Soul Beat featured summaries of and links to both the background and session documents created and used as a basis for that conference, and the final report that was the outcome of it.
Please click here for the archived version of The Soul Beat #88.
A summary of each of the POLIS papers is also available on The Communication Initiative website - please click on the titles for the summaries:
* POLIS Conference: Background Paper
by James Deane
* Session 2: Media and the MDGs - Advocacy or Debate: What Role for the Media in Achieving the MDGs?
by James Deane
* Session 3: Media and New Technology: Can the Digital Revolution Boost the Impact of African Media on Development and Governance?
by Gerald Milward-Oliver
* Session 4: Media and Fragile States - Where Governments Are 'Unwilling or Unable' to Perform their Basic Functions, Should We Abandon Media Development Altogether?
by Sophie Middlemiss
* Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society
[Final Report]
by Charlie Beckett and Laura Kyrke-Smith (eds.)
For a hard copy of the final report, please contact Laura Kyrke-Smith Polis@lse.ac.uk
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Also see the following archived issues of The Soul Beat, related to Media Development in Africa:
The Soul Beat - Issue #61 - "Media and Development in Africa"
The Soul Beat - Issue #32 - "Journalists & Development Communication"
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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS OF MEDIA DEVELOPMENT
1.Media Matters: Perspectives on Advancing Governance & Development
by Mark Harvey (ed)
This document - the product of a year-long collaboration among media development practitioners and social, political and communications scientists - attempts to present the breadth and depth of the media development sector and includes messages to policy makers on the central role of independent media in effective international development. This resource has four key aims: to help development policy makers and practitioners understand the relevance of independent media systems to their wider goals; to highlight work on the evidence of the relationship between media, communications and the development agenda; to flag key global and regional trends and opportunities in media assistance; and to map the media assistance sector, its growing body of literature, and the emerging international research partnerships that will help define its priorities to 2015.
2.Media Pluralism Landscape
by Marie-Helene Bonin
This study aims to foster media pluralism in Mozambique along the lines of the established outputs and prepared work plan of the UNESCO/UNDP Media Development Project in Mozambique. To bolster the effort of providing information useful to the UNESCO/UNDP objective, this publication analyses the level of media pluralism in Mozambique in terms of its significance and entrenchment. The significance of media pluralism was analysed through a measurement of media diversity (both at factual and impact levels); its entrenchment was analysed through a measurement of media sustainability (both at vision and resource levels).
3.African Media Development Initiative (AMDI) - Africa
Launched January 2006, AMDI is a process which aims to mobilise a range of African and international stakeholders to boost support for the development of public and private sector media in Africa. AMDI is a consortium of partners that are working to provide funds and expertise to create an African media development facility. Their work revolves around three components. The first involved independent research and analysis of media development. The research activity generated 17 individual country reports (covering Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and one stand-alone report that summarised the key findings across the 17 countries. The research and analysis evidence was then considered at a high level technical workshop led by the members of the Advisory Group, which was held in mid-2006. This workshop reviewed the reports, and identify the priority areas which the initiative should address. Finally, a joint committee called Africa Media Initiative (AMI) has now been formed, bringing together AMDI with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) process ("Strengthening African Media - STREAM"), and they are working on detailed research specifications for a facility, and possibly a Media Development Forum to be held in the future.
Contact Thane Ryland ws.trust@bbc.co.uk OR Professor Guy Berger g.berger@ru.ac.za
4.AMDI Research Reports
This is a series of 17 separate country reports released by the African Media Development Initiative (AMDI). The countries covered include: include: Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Data presented in the reports is based on both secondary research gathered by local researchers and on extensive interviews conducted locally among key media practitioners and leaders. Each of the reports consists of 3 sections: media sector developments; challenges for future media development activities; and a case study: illustrating good practice in media development.
5.The People's Voice: The Development and Current State of the South African Small Media Sector
by A. Hadland and K. Thorne
The purpose of the study was to assist the work of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), an organisation which was established to direct funding and support to the small media sector in the interests of deepening South Africa’s young democracy. The study aims to provide an overview of relevant legislation and policy in South Africa, pre- and post-1994, as well as review international research that reveals global trends in small media development. Providing a range of data, analysis and information, this study is a resource for anyone wishing to engage effectively with the small media sector.
Also See:
Why the Media Matter: Ensuring the World's Poorest People Have a Say
NETWORKING FOR MEDIA DEVELOPMENT
6.Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) - Global
The Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) is a practitioner-led process that aims to bring greater linkages and sustainable impact to the work of the media development sector as a whole through providing a forum for collaboration, promoting and disseminating research, professionalisation and shared learning. GFMD aims to link major international media development groups as well as regional and national media non-governmental organisations (NGOs) worldwide to leverage their ability to expand people’s access to information and foster local, independent media around the world. It seeks to do this through: collaboration - creating a practitioner-led platform for the media development sector to advocate with donors, governments, opinion leaders and the wider public; substantiation - promoting and disseminating research and analysis on the effects of media development assistance on governance, civic participation, poverty alleviation, emergent crises, and markets worldwide; and professionalisation - establishing agreed-upon standards and ethics for media development work that encourage cross-sector co-operation.
Shared Learning - critiquing and evaluating the media development sector to identify and advance best practices, methods, and technology.
Contact contact@gfmd.info
7.Global Communicators Network - Global
Formed in 1985 by representatives from development and international aid agencies related to the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Global Communicators Network (GCN) is a forum for the ecumenical sharing of communication experiences and resources on justice issues. The work and commitment of this voluntary network of media professionals relates to the quest for a more just, sustainable, and participatory world order. Face-to-face dialogue and internet exchange between diverse members from "North' and 'South' countries is the network's key emphasis. Participants are people who work with mass media in their national context, who are conveying messages of social change, and who wish to share these interests and concerns with a wider forum. The Network brings communications people together in face-to-face biannual meetings at various locations around the world to discuss development and everyday issues linked to poverty and the related tensions and differing perspectives from the North and South. In between get-togethers, participants are encouraged to contribute and exchange ideas, research, images, and final products through the regular newsletter or via the GCN website. The latter includes a section whereby network members may add images to an online gallery, and/or participate in a news blog.
Contact GCN website contact form.
8.Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) - Southern Africa
MISA is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working to ensure freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and media pluralism in Southern Africa. With members in 11 of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries, MISA focuses on the need to promote free, independent, and pluralistic media by disseminating information, promoting strategies for action plans, and training journalists in media rights and democracy. MISA aims to create an environment in which civil society is empowered to claim information and access it, as part of an effort to strengthen democracy by enabling more informed citizen participation. The role of MISA is primarily one of a coordinator, facilitator, and communicator; for this reason, a key MISA strategy is working together with like-minded organisations and individuals in the effort to achieve a genuinely free and pluralistic media in southern Africa. MISA undertakes campaigns and activities in the following areas: freedom of expression, broadcasting diversity, media monitoring, gender and media support, and legal support. Broadly, MISA carries out actions such as registering human rights and media rights violations, establishing a press bureau, and supporting independent media development in the radio and television media sectors. MISA has also set up a warning communication system to respond to media rights and human rights abuses against journalists in the region.
Contact Kaitira Kandjii director@misa.org
9.Zambia Community Media Forum (ZaCoMeF) - Zambia
The Zambia Community Media Forum (ZaCoMeF) is an umbrella body representing the interests of the Zambian community media sector. Membership of ZaCoMeF is drawn from all 9 provinces of Zambia. It was formed by the Panos Institute Southern Africa, in conjunction with other stakeholders, to address certain problems affecting local community media and to strengthen this sector. It also serves as a broker and clearinghouse for community media initiatives. ZaCoMeF is an effort to bring community media actors together to exchange ideas and develop strategies for supporting this sector. Inclusivity in membership and focus is a key programme theme. The forum caters to all community media initiatives and all forms of community communication (including traditional and/or folk media, such as live drama).
Contact Elias Mthoniswa Banda Zacomef@panos.org.zm
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PULSE POLL
It's time we stopped dividing the world into North and South.
Do you agree or disagree?
[For context, see The Drum Beat #401.]
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MEDIA DEVELOPMENT THROUGH CAPACITY-BUILDING
10.Fundación para un Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI) - Colombia
FNPI is an international centre dedicated to the training and professional development of young and mid-career professional journalists from Latin American and Caribbean countries. FNPI was founded in 1995 with the leadership of the Nobel Prize Literature award winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. FNPI's core project is the New Journalism Workshop, which is an itinerant programme that also includes training seminars. García Márquez's original idea was to conduct workshops in which leading journalists and editors (master teachers) from all over the world discuss the nuts and bolts of the craft with young reporters, in sessions that had a tone more like an extended conversation among friends than a formal university class. The seminars are attended by groups of up to 50 journalists and experts for two or three days, where participants debate on current topics that journalists cover in Latin America, for instance: corruption, terrorism, poverty, or elections. Other focus areas of FNPI include: New Journalism Award - CEMEX+FNPI; a virtual community; various publications; the Antonio Nariño Project; the New Journalism Programme for the Caribbean Region of Colombia; and the Journalism and Children's Rights Project.
Contact Jaime Abello Banfi jabello@fnpi.org
11.International Center For Media Studies and Development - West Africa
This is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working to promote and develop the media industry in West Africa, especially in Liberia. The organisation supports freedom of the independent press through capacity building, partnership, and advocacy. INCEMSADWA's core strategies include: training and holding workshops for members of the independent media in an effort to help them produce sound and professional journalism by strengthening their ability to think strategically and make critical decisions on major issues affecting society; building partnerships with local, national and international organisations to develop and empower the independent press; and speaking and engaging in advocacy to promote major issues in journalism today, such as changes in the field's ethics, reporters' and editors' relationships with their audiences, and ownership and boundaries.
Contact Josephus Gray media2h2@yahoo.com OR info_incemsawa@yahoo.com
See Also:
Timor-Leste Media Development Center (TLMDC) - Timor-Leste
International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) - Global
Independent Journalism Centre - Lagos, Nigeria
UNESCO Media Project - Mozambique
EXAMPLES OF MEDIA DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
12.Why Templates for Media Development Do Not Work in Crisis States: Defining and Understanding Media Development Strategies in Post-War and Crisis States
by James Putzel and Joost van der Zwan with Tim Allen, Monroe Price, and Nicole Stremlau
This report, resulting from a 2005 workshop at the London School of Economics Crisis States Research Centre, sets out alternative approaches to media development in post-war situations. The document explores the role of media in fragile states, where the political process is destabilised and delegitimised, and attempts to explain why mainstream media development templates do not work in these contexts. It summarises panel discussions that revolved around case studies as diverse as Uganda, Afghanistan, and the Balkans.
13.Media Development in the Tsunami Aftermath in Indonesia
by Nurhaya Muchtar
This paper describes the rise of emergency and community radio stations following the December 2004 Tsunami. The author describes how more than a dozen radio stations were taken off the air by the Tsunami, and how new stations quickly arose to fill the need for information following the disaster. Suara Aceh, or Voice of Aceh, was founded as an emergency station, and funded by the local private radio stations association (PRSSNI). Assisted by staff from the stations that had closed, Suara Aceh provided both news and messages from survivors to family members. The goal of this station was to fill a void until the private stations were back on the air. Sixteen community stations followed, with some support from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), political parties or local government. These stations now compete with commercial stations that have gone back on the air.
14. Global Media and the Development Story: An Introduction
by G. Pascal Zachary
This article, accompanied by six commentaries from international journalists, is a response to the following questions by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI): "What are the strengths and weaknesses of media coverage of hunger and poverty? How can coverage of these issues be improved?" The author's three general recommendations for journalistic improvement globally are: give voice to the voiceless, look at what works, and blame and shame, but explain and correct, too. He gives divergent advice to journalists from developed and developing countries, first for those from developing countries: use statistics better; investigate the hunger-industrial complex in their own countries; and closely observe trends in food imports, especially imports from wealthy countries. For those journalists from developed countries, he advises: report on famines with greater sophistication; give agriculture its due; and pay attention to the struggling middle classes.
See Also:
Media Foundation for West Africa - West Africa
Community Radio Society of Tafea (CReST FM) - Tafea, Vanuatu
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Also see the following archived issues of The Drum Beat, related to media development:
The Drum Beat 293 - Commission for Africa Report: Communication for Development
The Drum Beat - Issue #243 - "Media for Children & Adolescents"
The Drum Beat - Issue #234 - "Reporting on Development Issues"
The Drum Beat 194 - OUR Media/NUESTROS Medios: Strengthening Citizens' Media & Communication
The Drum Beat - Issue #176 - "ANDI - News Agency for Children's Rights"
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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com
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