Media development
Media development involves capacity building for institutions or individuals related to freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity of media, as well as transparency of media ownership. Media development plays a role in democracy and effective democratic discourse through supporting free and independent media.
Support
International donors and other organizations often include support for media development as part of their overall support to international economic and democratic development. Typical efforts to develop independent media development include: journalist training and education; support for and advice on improving the legal and business environment for media; efforts to improve the sustainability of existing outlets; media literacy training; digital media training and integration; infrastructure development; monitoring and evaluation efforts, and supporting the transition of state media to public service media with editorial independence.Indicators
UNESCO Media Development Indicators
developed Media Development Indicators in 2008 as a framework for international media development.Indicators are within five categories:
- A system of regulation conducive to freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity of the media
- Plurality and diversity of media, a level economic playing field and transparency of ownership
- Media as a platform for democratic discourse
- Professional capacity building and supporting institutions that underpins freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity
- Infrastructural capacity is sufficient to support independent and pluralistic media
Media Sustainability Index
The International Research and Exchanges Board’s Media Sustainability Index is another widely used tool to evaluate the global development of independent media. The MSI is one of the most important indices "to assess how media systems change over time and across borders."The MSI uses five fundamental objectives to assess to what extent a media system is independent, sustainable and successful. The five objectives are:
- "Legal and social norms protect and promote free speech and access to public information.
- Journalism meets professional standards of quality.
- Multiple news sources provide citizens with reliable, objective news.
- Media are well-managed enterprises, allowing editorial independence.
- Supporting institutions function in the professional interests of independent media".
Media development vs. media for development
Organizations
While development of the media sector is a common activity of many development organizations, there are a small number that engage in direct media development as their primary purpose.International groups involved in media development
BBC Media Action
The BBC Media Action is a British implementer that does direct media development work. Earlier known as the BBC World Service Trust, it is active in over 40 countries and on every continent. While all its programs are media development-oriented, they focus on Emergency response, Health, Governance and human rights, Education, Environment, and Livelihoods.The Trust is funded by external grants and voluntary contributions, mainly from the UK's Department for International Development, the European Union, UN agencies, and charitable foundations. They also receive a small amount of core support from the BBC.
DW Akademie - Deutsche Welle
DW Akademie is Deutsche Welle's international center for media development, media consulting and journalism training based in Bonn and Berlin. It offers training and consulting projects.Since 1965 DW Akademie has been conducting a variety of media development projects to reinforce free and independent media, particularly in developing and transition countries. In Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia, DW Akademie engages in long-term partnerships with local broadcasters and media institutions.
DW Akademie's work is financed through public funding provided mainly by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the German Foreign Ministry and the European Union.
Reporters Without Borders
RSF monitors press freedom violations and releases an annual Press Freedom Index that ranks countries based on their score, with a higher number indicating more press freedom violations.
Internews Europe
Internews Europe is an international development organisation that specialises in supporting independent media and free information flows in fragile states, emerging democracies and some of the world's poorest countries.Thomson Foundation
is an international training and development organisation. Since 1962, it has been helping raise the standards of journalism worldwide through training, consultancy and strategic advice. It seeks to ensure that all people have an honest, factual account of what is happening in the world through improving journalism and communication. Its online learning platform has capacity to produce training courses in multiple languages. The foundation is based in London.DFID
The Department for International Development is the British government's main foreign aid agency. It is a significant funder of media development around the world. Similar to USAID, media development is often a secondary goal within larger projects.Journalists for Human Rights
is an international media development non-governmental organization whose goal is "to make everyone in the world fully aware of their rights".As Canada's largest media development organization, jhr has offices in Toronto, Canada ; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo; and Monrovia, Liberia. It also has representatives and non-profit status in the United States and the United Kingdom and operations in Ghana and Malawi.
jhr focuses its programming and efforts on strengthening the local media in countries with some level of freedom in the press, training local journalists on improving their human rights reporting skills. The organization is a pioneer in Rights Media, a new category of media development that has been defined as the “process of writing, collecting, editing, producing and distributing media that creates societal dialogue on human rights issues”. The only NGO in the world focused exclusively on human rights reporting, jhr's work in Rights Media aims to bridge the contentious divide between two camps in the sector: traditional 'media development' proponents and 'communication for development' practitioners. The former of the two focuses on developing infrastructure and professional capacity of media professionals and outlets. The latter focuses on getting particular messages into the public domain through the media. Rights Media does both — it focuses on building capacity of local media outlets to effectively get messages to the general public.
Multilateral organizations involved in media development
UNDP
Media development is only a part of the focus of the United Nations Development Program. UNDP has developed a list of Millennium Development Goals, none of which directly mention media, yet media factor into each of the goals.UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization funds some media development programs. Specifically, the Communication and Information Sector is responsible for a number of media-related programs. The International Programme for the Development of Communication funds dozens of media development projects throughout the world each year and in 2008 launched the Media Development Indicators, a framework that assesses how the media can best contribute to, and benefit from, good governance and democratic development based on five categories assessing the media ecology of a given country.The World Bank Institute
The World Bank Institute is the capacity development branch of the World Bank. It provides learning programs, policy advice and technical assistance to policy makers, government and non-government agencies and development practitioners of developing countries.The Communications for Governance and Accountability Program, was a global program at the World Bank that promoted the use of communication in governance reform programs and supported the building of democratic public spheres. CommGAP was dissolved in October, 2011.
Other international groups
GFMD
The Global Forum for Media Development is an international network of over 200 journalism support and media development organisations working across more than 70 countries. Established in 2015 and based in Brussels, Belgium.Salzburg Global Seminar
The Salzburg Global Seminar organises discussions among high-level people on particular topics.National groups: Bangladesh
is in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council accredited with World Summit on the Information Society of the United Nations and UN WSIS prize winner 2016 and Champion 2017. BNNRC's outreach extends to local, national and international forums for communicating Knowledge for Media.BNNRC's approach to media development is both knowledge-driven and context-sensitive, and it takes into account the challenges and opportunities created by the rapidly changing media environment in Bangladesh including community radio development giving voices for the voiceless.
BNNRC is actively working to improve recognition of the community electronic media sector & its work in and involvement with the communities. BNNRC represent the community electronic media sector to Government, Industry, Regulatory Bodies, Media, Academia and Development Partners from 2000.
BNNRC promote the community electronic media sector to Government, Industry, Regulatory Bodies, Media, Academia and Development Partners. It provides leadership and support for rural initiators to facilitate independent electronic community broadcasting services, to build and strengthen rural communities in line with their hopes and dreams & initiated a process to explore the future of development cooperation and the role of electronic community media over the next 15 years in line with Sustainable Development Goal.