"In this report, we analyse six examples of digital journalism start-ups developing new editorial priorities, distribution strategies, and funding models for an increasingly digital Indian media environment. After years of slow growth, internet use and digital advertising has grown very rapidly in I
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ndia in recent years, powered especially by the spread of mobile internet use, and double-digit growth in both the number of users and which in advertising is expected to continue. India now has the second-largest number of internet users in the world and rapid growth in internet use and digital advertising is seen by many as the biggest market opportunity outside China since the internet took off in the United States in the 1990s. The start-ups we examine here are examples of how Indian journalists, technologists, and entrepreneurs are working to develop different contentbased (the Quint, Scroll), aggregation-based (InShorts, DailyHunt), or nonprofit (The Wire, Khabar Laharirya) models for doing journalism fit for a digital India." (Executive summary)
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"With more than 500 new apps entering the market every day, what does it take to build a successful digital product? You can greatly reduce your risk of failure with design sprints, a process that enables your team to prototype and test a digital product idea within a week. This practical guide show
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s you exactly what a design sprint involves and how you can incorporate the process into your organization. Design sprints not only let you test digital product ideas before you pour too many resources into a project, they also help everyone get on board — whether they're team members, decision makers, or potential users. You'll know within days whether a particular product idea is worth pursuing." (Publisher description)
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"Free Press Unlimited believes that gender equality is central to achieving its overall long-term objective that media and journalists constitute a diverse and professional media landscape and function as change agents. As such, they contribute to the overall vision of a just, inclusive and peaceful
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society. Inclusive refers to men and women of all ages and backgrounds. Free Press Unlimited’s focus on equal access, opportunities and rights for men and women media practitioners is based on existing and persisting gaps and stereotypes in media and society that often benefit men over women. To contribute to bridging these gaps, Free Press Unlimited adopted the thematic area Gender & Media. Its vision of success is: ‘Media actively advocate for gender equality and work towards increased participation and decision making of women in and through the media.’ The Gender Equality Policy reinforces this commitment and outlines the organisation’s objectives and standards in relation to gender and the media. The objective of this policy is to promote gender equality in the programmes, in partnerships and cooperation with others, in the organisation itself and in external communication." (Page 3)
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"This informed theology of communication and media analyzes how we consume new media and technologies and discusses the impact on our social and religious lives. Combining expertise in religion online, theology, and technology, the authors synthesize scholarly work on religion and the internet for a
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nonspecialist audience. They show that both media studies and theology offer important resources for helping Christians engage in a thoughtful and faith-based critical evaluation of the effect of new media technologies on society, our lives, and the church." (Publisher description)
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"PhotoVoice: A creative and effective tool for purposes such as monitoring, participatory research, data collection and capacity building. This guide has been developed to help you prepare, organise and facilitate a PhotoVoice training course in low, middle and high-income countries." (Back cover)
"In this report, we have analysed how the Hindustan Times, Dainik Jagran, and Malayala Manorama are changing their newsroom organisation and journalistic work to adapt to an increasingly digital media environment. Our analysis shows that all three newspapers are investing in expanding their digital
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activities to pursue new opportunities as digital media become more important in India, and print relatively less so. All are investing significantly more effort in digital operations than they did in the past, and more than many other Indian newspapers. This includes investments in new technology and staff with new expertise, as well as training of existing staff. We find important variations in how they are changing. At the Hindustan Times, senior editorial and managerial leaders have worked together to integrate print and digital newsrooms into one cross-platform operation equally adept at serving audiences across print, website, mobile app, and social channels. At Malayala Manorama, and especially Dainik Jagran, the transition seems to have been led more exclusively by management, and the focus has been on expanding parallel digital operations that are not part of the print newspaper organisation. By creating a brand of their own, distinct from but built on that of their print newspapers, opening up new offices and hiring new personnel to perform digital news work, Jagran Online and Manorama Online partially circumvented the inertia that often hampers attempt to change an incumbent organisation where people are proud of what they have accomplished in the past. Because they are building parallel units, they do not have to deal with the issues that arise when moving from a print to a digital or platform-agnostic newsroom." (Conclusion)
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"Two main factors influence how we might assess the quality of a massive open online course (MOOC): purpose and perspective. By purpose we mean the reason(s) the MOOC has been developed and facilitated. By perspective we mean who is measuring the quality. These two factors are intrinsically linked.
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From a university perspective, investing in setting up and running a MOOC in, for example, Clinical Trials, may be a worthwhile investment if it serves the purpose of extending global reputation. But for a learner, the purpose of participating in the MOOC could be to network with other students. The university may measure quality by monitoring the scale and reach of the students — so, if the MOOC has over 25,000 participants from 46 countries, it could be viewed as high quality. However, learners may find it difficult to connect with other students on the MOOC platform. For this reason, the MOOC will appear low quality to them. This link between purpose and perspective makes the measurement of quality challenging. The present Guidelines for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of MOOCs have been developed to guide the selection of quality metrics by four stakeholder groups: governments, accreditation bodies, institutions and learners. There are two stages for using the guidelines. The first stage involves identifying the purpose(s) of the MOOC from the stakeholders’ perspectives. In the second stage, stakeholders are encouraged to reflect on the metrics that will determine whether that purpose has been achieved. A range of quality metrics, associated with different stages of learning (before, during or after MOOC creation and participation), is provided in Appendix 1. Each of the stakeholder groups is likely to be interested in different stages of the learning process and different measures." (Pages 4-5)
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"The IDEAS Guide is for organisations and people who are doing small media and communication projects. It is designed to cater for a range of different skill levels in evaluation. It is ideal for project managers and team members responsible for reporting and evaluation, as well as any other partici
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pants who are interested in evaluation. The IDEAS Guide leads you through the process of designing a project, and thinking about the project’s evaluation. The guide is focused on how to do useful evaluation for learning and continual project improvement. To achieve this, it is important to think about the evaluation of the project as you design it, and to learn from evaluation during the implementation of the project. Focusing on what you can learn by carrying out a project is especially important when the project idea is new and innovative." (Introduction, page 5)
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"The IDEAS Facilitators’ Guide provides briefing notes on how you, as a facilitator, can support small-grant recipients to use the IDEAS Guide to clarify their project design, and to plan and manage their evaluation. The Facilitators’ Guide is best used in conjunction with the IDEAS Guide. These
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guides are designed to be used together in the planning and implementation of a workshop. Facilitators can also adapt the steps to suit the mode and length of delivery. The Facilitators’ Guide was developed to accompany the IDEAS Guide to help facilitators to effectively support capacity development for individuals working in grassroots and community organisations who might have little or no experience of evaluation. It may also be helpful for more experienced practitioners. The approach integrates evaluation into the design of projects." (Page 4)
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"El presente documento es un analisis descriptivo del sector de crowdfunding – financiamiento mediante una multitud de donantes por medio de Internet - en América Latina. Su objetivo es conocer el tamaño, las caracteríticas y la dinámica de las plataformas latinoamericanas de crowdfunding. Par
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a ello, se realizó una encuesta a los operadores de dichas plataformas, entrevistas con administradores de plataformas y un análisis de los datos publicados en los portales web de las plataformas sobre la dinámica de las campañas y los inversionistas. El sector en América Latina ha tenido un crecimiento importante desde 2009 a la fecha. Los países que cuentan con un sector más desarrollado son Brasil, México y Chile. Se encontró que la internacionalización de los portales es todavía limitada y, por lo tanto, las plataformas lationamericans tienen aún la mayoría de fundraisers en el mismo país en donde operan. El análisis de datos ofrece una información detallada sobre los rasgos distintivos de cada uno de los cuatro modelos de crowdfunding analizados (donaciones, recompensas, deuda y acciones). El análisis de las entrevistas realizadas informa sobre los detalles de los modelos de negocio y la forma en que las plataformas lationamericanas capitalizan oportunidades y enfrentan retos inherentes a la dinámica de este tipo de plataformas. Finalmente, se describen los principales avances y retos en distintos países de América Latina en la promoción de este sector." (Resumen)
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"The starting point for any initiative seeking to establish a hotline will be to understand the particulars of the national context in which the hotline will be developed. Overall, this means conducting an environmental scan that takes in the local legislation, the socio-cultural context, the likely
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scale of the problem and existing efforts to combat the problem in your country." (Page 1)
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"Building a theory of change with solid theoretical foundations and widespread buy-in requires organizations to invest time and resources into a process with multiple steps and participation at all levels of the program. In this article we outline some of the preparatory work needed to guide a team
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through the process of building a theory of change and what to expect at each stage. These include the importance of consensus, when to develop a theory of change, the literature review, linking program activities to outputs and outcomes, the importance of considering assumptions and risks, and how to use the theory of change for CART data collection. The principles and processes we describe can be applied both at the organizational level and at the program or project level." (Page 2)
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"The Social Impact Navigator provides an accessible introduction to the issue of impact orientation. We want to show you how with simple steps, you can plan and implement your project in an impact-oriented way and analyze your results. We present instruments suitable for everyday use that will give
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you practical help in integrating an impact orientation into your project work, and support you as you address the issue of impact orientation inside your organization. Above all, we want to motivate you to engage with the issue yourself. Who is the target audience? This publication is directed toward non-profit and other civil society organizations, and their projects and programs that have as yet had only limited experience with the issues of impact orientation and social impact analysis. We want to show that by taking simple, small steps, even organizations with limited resources for monitoring and evaluation can review the effectiveness of their work and learn from these results." (About the guide, page 9)
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"For journalists promoting the free flow of information in repressive or restrictive media environments, the issue of financial sustainability is complex. Both media in exile (out-of-country news outlets feeding independent information into the country of origin) and news outlets in restrictive news
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environments (in-country providing counter-information) exist in flawed market situations and often rely on grant funding. This is the first academic study of the revenue streams of these media, providing scarce empirical data and a typology of funding structures of these media. This article examines three main revenue categories: grant funding, earned income and donations. The major factors influencing revenue streams compared to online media start-ups in open markets are discussed. The article finds significant barriers to revenue creation and identifies the need for alternative approaches, particularly partnerships, to promote economic resilience for media under threat." (Abstract)
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"This article is intended as a resource for community broadcasters and researchers. It draws on interviews and discussion with community broadcasters and activists to identify practical examples of funding methods. The seven common methods of funding a community station are detailed. These are: supp
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ort from the station's own community; patronage from a larger organisation; commercial advertising and sponsorship; competitive grants; service contracts; support by NGOs; support by governmental agencies. The article points to resources where the reader can discover more fully how each funding method is used, and concludes that a prudent station may use several methods to help ensure economic sustainability." (Abstract)
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