The Drum Beat 815 - Themes from the PRIMED Media Development Partnership

• 1.Brave New Media Podcast
  Produced by BBC Media Action, this podcast features journalists and editors from around the world who share their struggles and successes related to running independent media outlets in difficult and polarised media environments. By exploring how these media outlets have managed to deal with issues such as disinformation, funding, and audience engagement and by speaking to media experts who reflect on these experiences, the podcast hopes to help other independent media remain viable into the future. [Sep 2022]
  
   
• 2.Media Viability Learning Brief
  This learning brief was developed to offer a point of departure for the country-specific strategies falling under the PRIMED programme. Drawing on the work of media development organisations such as Deutsche Welle Akademie and MDIF, the brief notes that work in the field of media viability remains diverse and fragmented. There is, therefore, a pressing need to reach consensus on the key indicators of success and how these indicators can be measured across the PRIMED programme. The brief defines media viability for the PRIMED programme, examines how it can be measured, highlights key strategies for improving media viability in vulnerable contexts, looks at the issue of evidence of impact, and shares lessons learned. [Apr 2022]
  
   
• 3.After the Pandemic, Building Back a Stronger Media: Inspiring Initiatives in Ensuring Media Viability
  by Larry Kilman
  From the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), this handbook examines some of the promising initiatives from media companies and their support organisations around the world. The initiatives originate from all sectors and represent a wide variety of ideas from different countries and situations. They include cross-border collaborations for investigative journalism, revenue-earning fact-checking services that combat disinformation, new business models that leverage audience and advertiser needs, and entrepreneurial education for the next generation of journalists. [2022]
  
   
• 4.Viable Independent Media in Empowered Societies (VIMES) Audience and Market Research in Latin America
  This collection of 3 studies offers an insight into the media markets and audience behaviour in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. These studies seek to create a better understanding of the current context of freedom of expression and press in the region, and how the different populations perceive and consume (independent) media. They are part of the FPU-led VIMES (Viable Independent Media in Empowered Societies) project, which works to bring together independent media outlets from Central American and Eastern European countries to exchange skills and knowledge with the aim of improving their viability. [Mar 2022]
  
   
• 5.A New Deal for Journalism
  This report from the Working Group on the Sustainability of Journalism of the Forum on Information and Democracy calls for immediate and sustained action from, and collaboration between, governments and other influential actors to improve the policy, funding, and enabling environment for independent professional journalism. It outlines the current landscape of public assistance and provides an evidence-based list of recommendations for policymakers to ensure the sustainability of independent journalism and the health of democracies everywhere. Recommendations range from direct and indirect financial support for news organisations to strengthening existing public media to fostering environments where press freedom and nonprofit newsrooms can thrive. [Jun 2021]
  
   
• See also:
  * Local Media Survival Guide 2022: How Journalism Is Innovating to Find Sustainable Ways to Serve Local Communities Around the World and Fight Against Misinformation
  * Saving Journalism 2: Global Strategies and a Look at Investigative Journalism
  * Making Big Tech Pay for the News They Use
  

• 6.Public Funding for Private Media in the MENA Region
  by Sarah Zaarour
  This paper examines national funding mechanisms for private media in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries and gives an assessment of their role in promoting viable, independent, and diverse media. Lessons learned from Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Jordan, and Palestine were used to inform discussions at the National Media Viability and Investment Conference in Sierra Leone. The conference, which was organised by BBC Media Action as part of the PRIMED programme, brought together government, media organisations, industry leaders, and other stakeholders to explore public funding and advertising models that have been used to support media viability around the world and to create a national action plan to strengthen public interest media in Sierra Leone. [Apr 2022]
  
   
• 7.Indirect and Direct Subsidies for Media: The European Experience
  by Milan F. Živković and Karolina Leaković
  This report presents 4 models of direct media subsidies in Europe - from Serbia, Croatia, Sweden, and the European Union (EU) - and offers an overview of indirect subsidy in the form of reduced value-added tax rates for newspapers, digital publications, and periodicals in EU countries and Serbia. The focus is, however, mainly on the experiences and methods of allocating selective direct media subsidies in each of the case studies in an effort to identify strategies for creating more viable public interest media. The research paper was presented at the aforementioned National Media Viability and Investment Conference in Sierra Leone. [Apr 2022]
  
   
• 8.Achieving Viability for Public Service Media in Challenging Settings: A Holistic Approach
  by James Deane, Pierre François Docquir, Winston Mano, Tarik Sabry, and Naomi Sakr, Ed.
  This policy brief, published by the Communication and Media Research Institute at the University of Westminster, looks at the issue of the viability of public service media (PSM) in settings where public funding and regulatory models are absent. Based on research evidence, it offers several possibilities that support a holistic and incremental approach to addressing the viability of PSM and offers recommendations for the way forward. [2020]
  
   
• 9.Media Sustainability and Access to Public Interest Journalism: Strategies and Considerations
  Published by the South Africa National Editors' Forum (SANEF), this report seeks to contribute to SANEF's mission of achieving media sustainability and universal access to public interest journalism in South Africa. It presents a series of strategies and policy options to promote media sustainability drawn from local, regional, and international comparative practices and examples for further deliberation and debate by media stakeholders, including the establishment of a media sustainability fund, state support schemes, coupon systems for news sites, and a public interest wire system. [May 2021]
  
   

• 10.Gender and Media Viability: Making a Business Case for Diversity
  by Magdalena Skrzypek
  Based on MDIF's 25 years of experience in supporting independent media, including its work in Ethiopia as a part of the PRIMED initiative, this article discusses the relationship between gender and media business performance, highlighting media innovations from around the world that champion women and improve media viability. It looks at the benefits of a women-focused approach in areas such as content strategy, audience engagement, revenue management, and product design. [Mar 2022]
  
   
• 11.Global Study: Gender Equality and Media Regulation
  by Sarah Macharia and Joan Barata Mir
  This report, initiated by Fojo Media Institute, seeks to interrogate how media regulators worldwide have approached the mandate to promote and protect gender equality and women's freedom of expression while attending to obligations to uphold media freedom. It offers a global overview of legislation and policies, with more in-depth studies of 5 Fojo partner countries: Armenia, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Somalia, and Zimbabwe. It also includes good practice examples and recommendations on how to achieve better gender equality and safety for journalists. [Mar 2022]
  
   
• 12.Where Are the Women? Insights from Across Asia on the Barriers to Including Women as Sources and Journalists in Environmental Reporting
  by Sweta Daga, Okky Madasari, Zofeen Ebrahim, and Edz dela Cruz
  This report, published by the Environmental Journalism Network, sets out to discover some of the challenges women in Asia face - both as journalists and as sources for the media - in the context of environmental reporting. It shares the findings of research conducted in Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines that was designed to assess how reporters think about gender, what kind of barriers they face when seeking to include women's voices in their stories, and how social and cultural views of women create challenges to inclusion. [Dec 2021]
  
   
• 13.Making the Invisible Visible: Intersectional Gender Guides For Protecting Women Journalists
  This set of 3 guides provides recommendations on how to mainstream an intersectional gender approach into an organisation's work to protect journalists and social communicators, with a focus on: monitoring and documenting attacks against journalists; advocating on emblematic cases for advocacy; and organising protection training. The guides from part of ARTICLE 19's project Equally Safe: Towards a Feminist Approach to the Safety of Journalists, which seeks to help civil society, journalists, researchers, and policymakers apply an intersectional feminist approach in their work. [2021]
  
   
• See also:
  * Sexism's Toll on Journalism
  * Guideline for Gender Responsive Media
  

• 14.Coalitions for Change: Collective Action, Better Media Ecosystems
  by Michael Randall
  This learning brief is based on the findings of an online workshop that was organised by IMS in early September 2021. The brief focuses on the issue of coalition building in the field of media development and provides an overview of strategies, lessons learned, and key considerations to develop "enhanced strong and inclusive coalitions that defend and support the space for media freedom and viability in different contexts". [Nov 2021]
  
   
• 15.Government and Industry-led Initiatives to Support the Development of the Media Market in Kenya
  by Dr. Haron Mwangi
  "Media coalitions have significant convening power and are able to engage government and development partners in a structured manner which is useful in maintaining momentum for change processes." This paper explores a range of initiatives that show how the media in Kenya is working closely with the government to reform media law and policy. Based on the experience of the Kenyan media, the study also offers a list of recommendations that could be useful to other countries who are seeking solutions to media viability. The paper was presented at the aforementioned National Media Viability and Investment Conference in Sierra Leone. [Apr 2022]
  
   
• 16.Money Trail: The Fight Against Corruption and Inequality Has Been Strengthened
  by Pratik Tandon
  This report highlights the stories, achievements, and activities of Money Trail, a collaborative journalism project that sought to increase the capacity of journalists to produce stories on money laundering, corruption, and illicit financing in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Finance Uncovered, FPU, Journalismfund.eu, and Oxfam Novib worked together to offer training and grants for journalists to investigate cross-border illicit financial flows, tax abuse, and corruption in the 3 regions. [Nov 2021]
  
   
• 17.Reset Required? Evaluating the Media Freedom Coalition After its First Two Years
  by Dr Mary Myers, Dr Martin Scott, Dr Mel Bunce, Lina Yassin, Maria Carmen (Ica) Fernandez, and Dr Rachel Khan
  The purpose of this report is to evaluate the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) in its first 2 years of operation (2019-2021). The MFC is a cross-regional collaboration of 50 countries working together to advocate for media freedom and the safety of journalists. The report is based on: over 100 interviews with relevant stakeholders; analyses of news coverage, social media commentary, and public statements; a survey of media freedom campaigners; and case studies in Sudan and the Philippines that examine how, and to what extent, the MFC has impacted journalism and media freedom on the ground. [Feb 2022]
  
   
• See also:
  The Ultimate Stress Test for International Support
  

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