3627 The Drum Beat, October 1 2009

This issue includes:

* BUILDING JOURNALISTIC CAPACITY
* Submit your STORIES on how you have used The CI to support your work.
* STRENGTHENING MEDIA.
* Join fellow CI network members in our CI ASSOCIATES process!
* Journalists connecting with readers: YOUR VIEWS on promising means.
* MEDIA RULES AND TOOLS.
* MEDIA POLICY blog site.

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From The Communication Initiative Network – where communication and media are central to social and economic development.

Subscribe to The Drum Beat: http://www.comminit.com/en/user/register
Access this issue online at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_512.html

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From CI’s Executive Director:

Effective media are vital to local, national, and international life. No matter the context, independent analysis, information, and debate are vital for effective states, communities, and regions.

But these are challenging times for media across both the economically rich and economically challenged countries. The very nature of journalism is challenged by citizen-based processes. New technologies – especially the internet and mobile phones – diversify news sources, but raise questions about the reliability of the information/knowledge shared.

Those questions rebound to be focused on the present major media ownership models – private, public, state, and religious – how trustworthy are they? And they face other challenges as the crumbling of their advertising and subscription revenue streams threatens the very existence of some long-established media.

In that context, it is vital to review both the emerging strategic thinking and actual media initiatives that are seeking to reconcile the new media environment with established effective media and journalism principles. What can we learn from this thinking and experience? In particular, what can we learn from so-called developing country media initiatives and strategic thinking as they struggle for progress and sustainability in their contexts?

Below, in three sections –  BUILDING JOURNALIST CAPACITY, STRENGTHENING MEDIA, and MEDIA RULES AND TOOLS – you will find a collection of insights and experiences from The CI network – from (so-called) developed and developing countries – on these themes.

– Warren Feek

The selections below represent just a small sliver of the Media Development materials available on The Communication Initiative website. Please visit, in particular, our Media Development theme site – http://www.comminit.com/en/mediadev.html – and consider subscribing to our bi-monthly niche mailing, intended to complement the Drum Beat by updating you on media and media development initiatives recently placed on our website. To subscribe to the free «DB Click: Media Development», simply send an email tomediadev@comminit.com requesting to «subscribe».

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BUILDING JOURNALIST CAPACITY

1.      Civic Education for Media Professionals: A Training Manual
by Fackson Banda
As part of its efforts to strengthen the capacities of media professionals in developing countries through a series on journalism education, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published this training manual in March 2009 to offer knowledge on the relationship between media functions and active citizenship. The publication focuses on the underlying nexus of democracy, development, and the media based on the fundamental principles of democracy and human rights. It recommends participatory, student-centred training techniques, and proposes a number of exercises aimed at stimulating student reflection and pointers for investigation designed to prod media interest in particular civic issues.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/299872/2754

2.      Media and Agriculture: Linking Towns and Villages
This April 2009 article explores the need for accurate agriculture news reporting in African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries, particularly Africa, to bridge the information gap between the rural sector of developing countries and their population centres. It discusses the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) perspective of the effects of lack of journalistic training in the field of agriculture reporting and what the training needs might be. As indicated here, media organisations tend to be based in capital cities and choose to talk with officials rather than gather eyewitness stories on agriculture. Furthermore, they are dependent, often due to budget constraints, on reworking official stories and statistics rather than fact checking or gathering data.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/300420/2754

3.      Impact of Soft Containment on Freedom of Journalism and Independence of the Media in Jordan
This document describes results of a media survey conducted by ALQuds Center for Political Studies in Jordan on the freedom and independence of the media. The document summarises facts and figures on the media, discusses censorship and harassment, gives general media-related indicators, and defines «soft containment»: actions by government staff members, as well as political and economic activists, who aim to employ the media to serve certain personal and sectoral purposes and objectives, or to influence the press and the media so that they forgo their monitoring or «watchdog» role. The study, conducted from October 2008 to February 2009, hypothesised that «soft containment via tempting and attracting methods» was more a prevalent and effective method of limiting media freedom than hard containment methods, including methods of using laws and practices that overtly restrict media freedom and can cause angry local and international responses.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/292377/2754

4.      Periódico Intag – Ecuador
Periódico Intag is a community newspaper of the sub-region of Intag, Imbaburra, Ecuador, which was established in 2000 as a bi-monthly newspaper. The periodical provides a medium of communication for community-based organisations and supports literacy and media development, publishing the work of local writers and journalists and providing them with editorial and computer training. As described by the editor, through its concentration on news of Intag, the newspaper boosts local self-esteem by demonstrating that what residents do is newsworthy. In addition, the paper serves as a point of connection for sustainable development projects, an information repository, and a watchdog at the intersection of development, funding, and natural resource management.
Contact: periodico.intag@gmail.com
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/287444/2754

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NEW! CI STORIES!

Through CI Stories, we are seeking stories of how members of The CI Network have used The CI to support their work, connect with others in the network, and/or highlight their work with demonstrated positive impact on their organisation or work.
* Have you had discussions with colleagues based on information you found through The CI?
* Have you found materials or contacts to support a new project through The CI?
* Have you distributed CI information to your communities in order to help inform them of what other communities are doing around similar issues?

View stories submitted by others here: http://www.comminit.com/en/cistories

Please tell us your story. Go to http://www.comminit.com/en/node/add/cistories (NOTE: you must be a registered, logged in user to submit a story).

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STRENGTHENING MEDIA

5.      Independent Voices: Radio’s Role in Democracy and Development
According to the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), free media play an integral role in fostering democracy and development and have the ability to transform a number of critical areas, including government accountability, empowerment of women and minorities, and education. Speakers at this June 2009 CIMA event with «Developing Radio Partners» explored the following questions: How does radio play a fundamental role in democracy and development? How can civil society organisations tap into its potential more effectively? In the advent of broadband, text messaging, and other new information technologies, is radio still a relevant medium in which stakeholders should invest?
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/303032/2754

6.      The Chi-town Daily News: Creating a New Supply of Local News
by Matt Hampel
This December 2008 case study explores an all-local, nonprofit news website that serves readers in the city of Chicago (Illinois, United States – US). «Chi-Town Daily News» focuses on original reporting on local issues by both professional and volunteer reporters. Since March 2007, the Daily News has been actively recruiting and training residents as «volunteer grassroots journalists», with the aim of having at least one from every Chicago neighbourhood.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/290558/2754

7.      Media and Development – Where’s the Gap?
by John Davison
In this May 2009 blog, John Davison identifies what he sees as the gap in the media development debate between what has actually been achieved in practice and the academic debate on: accountability/good governance in development and poverty eradication; the role in this effort of free, pluralistic, and independent media; and the importance of local/indigenous input. He seeks to answer the question «who should fill the gap?» Davison states that consensus centres on the importance of the following: «Accountability/Good Governance in efforts for international development and poverty eradication»; «free, pluralistic and independent media in order to achieve such levels of governance by holding developing country governments to account»; and «local/indigenous input into the development of such a media industry and culture».
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/292075/2754

8.      Africa Media Initiative (AMI) – Africa
Launched in May 2008, AMI is a project designed to stimulate economic development and improve governance by strengthening an independent, pluralistic media across Africa. AMI is in part a response to the Report of the Commission for Africa, which in 2005 highlighted the need for greater attention, resources, and collaboration to strengthen Africa’s media. The current AMI process is the confluence of 2 large-scale consultative processes involving key representatives of the African media: the African Media Development Initiative (AMDI) and Strengthening African Media (STREAM). Contact: Eric Chinje echinje@worldbank.org OR Fackson Bandaf.banda@ru.ac.za
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/270168/2754

9.      Media in Cooperation and Transition (MICT) – Germany, Iraq, Sudan
MICT is a German media development organisation that implements projects in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Through activities focusing on the interplay between conflict, media coverage, and reconciliation in crisis regions, MICT aims to foster the transformation of conflict towards reconciliation and to encourage dialogue among conflicting factions within society. From MICT’s perspective, the key factor in conflict transition is supporting media cooperation, media networking, media development, and capacity building in the field of journalism.
Contact: Klaas Glenewinkel klaas@mict-international.org
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/301907/2754

10.     Nonprofit Journalism: The Journey from Anomaly to a New Paradigm
by Jim Barnett
This article describes US-based journalism nonprofit businesses. Author Jim Barnett suggests that in this period when new nonprofit newsrooms are launched every month to do the work of investigative, enterprise, watchdog, and explanatory journalism, the non-profit model merits scrutiny. What the good nonprofits are doing, according to Barnett, «is to show readers how journalism can connect friends, neighborhoods, communities and, ultimately, a society….If they can reach that level, their readers’’ donations take on a whole new meaning. They become statements of personal values and nothing less than affirmations of self.»
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/301943/2754

11.     Media Dialogues – Germany, Eastern Europe/Central Asia, Middle East
The Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, or «IFA») is a German organisation that holds German-Arab media dialogues; the initiative has also been extended to Turkey, Iran, and countries in Central Asia. The purpose is to help develop balanced, professional, and objective reporting in the media in a range of countries abroad – thus supporting the German Foreign Office’s commitment to international crisis prevention, civil society strengthening, and human rights protection. The in-person media dialogues that take place on a yearly basis have covered issues such as stereotypes and prejudices, the social and legal position of women, cultural globalisation, young people, political participation, and tolerance and freedom of opinion.
Contact: Barbara Kuhnert kuhnert@ifa.de OR info@ifa.de
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/301913/2754

12.     Supporting Public Service Broadcasting: Learning from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Experience
by Alexandra Wilde and Elizabeth McCall
Though published in 2004, this paper highlights some of the key challenges of broadcasting restructuring in trying to meet broader democratic governance and poverty reduction objectives, and is informed by a case study on broadcasting restructuring in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). As indicated here, media, particularly public broadcast media, can play a role in ensuring the public’s right to receive a wide diversity of independent and non-partisan information and ideas. It can also help to promote a sense of national identity, foster democratic and other social values, provide quality educational and informational programming, and serve the needs of minority and other specialised interest groups.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/291887/2754

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BECOME A CI ASSOCIATE

The CI Partners seek the engagement of your office as a CI Associate in order to preserve, sustain, and advance this growing knowledge sharing and strategic development process.

Please consider within your organisation the possibility of supporting The CI’s work through the CI Associates process. For details and to sign up, please see http://www.comminit.com/en/ci_associates/ Also, please see Warren Feek’s note in The Drum Beat 501 –http://www.comminit.com/drum_beat_501.html – Thank you.

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Please VOTE in our MEDIA DEVELOPMENT Poll!

What are the best possibilities for journalist-readership connections? (you may choose more than one; please add clarifying comments)

Connection:
* Readers should hold journalists to a high standard of transparency.
* Journalists should ascertain topical concerns of readers.
* Journalists should build support for public risk-taking in the name of media freedom.
* Readers should hold editors, managers, and media owners accountable for journalistic freedom.

VOTE and COMMENT: http://www.comminit.com/en/node/288047/2754

RESULTS thus far (October 2):

29%: Journalists should build support for public risk-taking in the name of media freedom.
29%: Readers should hold journalists to a high standard of transparency.
27%: Readers should hold editors, managers, and media owners accountable for journalistic freedom.
15%: Journalists should ascertain topical concerns of readers.

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MEDIA RULES AND TOOLS

13.     Citizen Media Law Project’s Legal Guide
The Citizen Media Law Project (CMLP) makes available several interlinked online resources for those seeking information on US-based media law based on the conviction that «[k]nowing your legal rights and responsibilities is important for anyone who publishes online. The CMLP’s legal guide addresses the legal issues you may encounter as you gather information and publish your work. The guide is intended for use by citizen media creators with or without formal legal training, as well as others with an interest in these issues.»
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/276566/2754

14.     Media Cloud – United States and Global
Media Cloud is a system designed to enable understanding and analysis of the way news is produced and distributed, and how the internet is fundamentally altering this process. The web-based research tool automatically builds an archive of news stories and blog posts, applies language processing, and offers ways to analyse and visualise the data. While researchers at Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University are using Media Cloud to address a set of research questions, they designed the open-source project with the broader purpose of providing a platform for open, collaborative research by scholars around the world.
Contact: cyber@law.harvard.edu
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/299048/307

15.     Covering Elections in Small States: Guidelines for Broadcasters
by Mary Raine
Prepared for the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) Regional Conference in the Pacific, February 2009, this handbook includes journalistic guidelines for election coverage in the Pacific region. Among the contents are: Preparing for an Election, Election Coverage, Reporting a Campaign, The Right to Reply, Opinion Polls, Exit Polls, Reporting Referenda, The Responsibilities of Authorities, and more.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/298404/2754

16.     Good, But How Good? Monitoring and Evaluation of Media Assistance Projects
by Andy Mosher
This June 2009 report examines the methodology for measuring the effectiveness of media development programmes, tracing the increasing use of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) among practitioners in the media assistance community. While terminology and methods vary widely, all organisations in this sector seem to agree that the M&E process must begin with the formulation of a proper plan. M&E practitioners share a number of tools, techniques, and approaches, such as marshalling of baseline data, use of content analysis, balancing quantitative and qualitative data, and employing outside evaluators.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/298991/2754

17.     Reporting Research: Using Evidence for Effective Journalism
This 2008 media briefing from Panos London offers communicators and journalists support and ideas on using research to create debates and inform people of problems and possible solutions. Its premise is that research can create powerful stories for news and features that have direct relevance for their audiences. The document discusses who generally sets the development research agenda and how this impacts and influences what is researched and why developing country universities and research organisations often don’t have a voice in agenda setting or in what they research and how they research development. The strategy of journalists talking to researchers in person or by telephone, rather than using their research documents exclusively, is recommended.
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/283047/2754

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COMMUNICATION, MEDIA, and DEVELOPMENT POLICY BLOGS

The Communication, Media, and Development Policy website is a space for analysis, ideas, and debates on development policy issues from communication and media perspectives. Please read the blogs of interest to you and contribute your reactions and comments through «Post a Comment or Question».

http://www.comminit.com/en/development_policy

New Blog!

Little Green People, by Warren Feek

In considering the «people» side of development, Warren reflects on a recent article on «Ending Africa’s Hunger…» that reviews funding strategies based on technical innovation and application and why they fail. He details what he sees as the «Inverse Technology-Development Puzzle»…

http://www.comminit.com/en/node/303029/bbc

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This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Julie Levy.

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The Drum Beat is the email and web network of The Communication Initiative Partnership – ANDI, BBC World Service Trust, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Calandria, CFSC Consortium, CIDA, DFID, FAO, Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, Ford Foundation, Healthlink Worldwide, Inter-American Development Bank, International Institute for Communication and Development, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, MISA, PAHO, The Panos Institute, The Rockefeller Foundation, SAfAIDS, Sesame Workshop, Soul City, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNICEF, USAID, WHO, W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Chair of the Partners Group: Garth Japhet, Founder, Soul City garth@heartlines.org.za
Executive Director: Warren Feek wfeek@comminit.com

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The Editor of The Drum Beat is Kier Olsen DeVries.

Please send material for The Drum Beat to The CI’s Editorial Director – Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

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.