"This collection is the first of its kind on the topic of media development. It brings together luminary thinkers in the field—both researchers and practitioners—to reflect on how advocacy groups, researchers, the international community and others can work to ensure that media can continue to s
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erve as a force of democracy and development. But that mission faces considerable challenges. Media development paradigms are still too frequently associated with Western prejudices, or out of touch with the digital age. As we move past Western blueprints and into an uncertain digital future, what does media development mean? If we are to act meaningfully to shape the future of our increasingly mediated societies, we must answer this question." (Publisher description)
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"The purpose of this document is to define IREX’s new approach to information with vibrant information systems. This will enable IREX to help partners and people generate, disseminate, consume, and use content that matters and take positive transformative action. The document provides the foundati
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on for IREX program design, implementation, and technical products." (Introduction)
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"This report: 1. Defines “information ecosystems” and proposes an analytic framework of eight critical dimensions for understanding them; 2. Analyzes information ecosystems across a spectrum of change and their impact on resilience, referencing four case studies of Internews’ previous work [In
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stability and Underdevelopment in Fata, Pakistan; East Japan Earthquake 2011; Myanmar's Democratization and Opening; Three Environmental Disasters in Indonesia]; 3. Shares insights from the Jakarta Information Ecosystems pilot, which investigated the relevance of information ecosystems to communities living in chronically flood-prone environments; and 4. Reveals the utility of an information ecosystems approach and highlights preliminary conclusions on why information matters for resilience." (Page 2)
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"Takes a broad look at the Innovation Camps and Labs convened by Internews during 2011 and 2012. It identifies what they can achieve, how best to run the events, and pitfalls to avoid. The study focuses on these key questions: The organization and process of the Innovation Camps/Labs: what were the
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main events and activities? Which were most useful? Why? How can organizers recruit appropriate participants? What combinations of people work well together? In the structure and process, what worked, what didn’t work, and why? What types of goals best suit the structure of an Innovation Lab? What were the main outcomes of Innovation Camps/Labs? How can organizers promote the sustainability of the work produced in Innovation Camps/Labs?" (Internews website)
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"Acknowledgement of the increasingly central role of data in decision making at all levels of society is increasingly visible. The High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda called for “A New Data Revolution” that would help track progress toward development goals and ensure the inclus
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ion of all people in human development. But for data to truly forge inclusiveness in development, multilateral organizations, governments, NGOs, companies, and citizens will increasingly need “infomediaries” to chase down and make sense of the most relevant data of interest to people. This new data can be an important building block for creating sustainable media institutions, stimulating wider demand for fact-based policy and decision making, and measuring progress. Today, more transparency in budgets, spending data, or service provision statistics can likewise be a critical raw material for enterprising media [...] But all of these promises will not be realized just by training journalists and providing them with the latest digital tools. The specter of all of the other well-known challenges to practicing journalism–censorship, attacks on journalists, criminal libel laws, and collapsing business models–is a reminder that in the absence of a stable, enabling, and supporting environment, data journalism is likely to remain an unfulfilled promise. The international development community should work more closely with media developers to ensure that the critical role of media is well understood and factored into overall development planning." (Conclusion)
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"In early 2013, the Internews Center for Innovation and Learning (ICIL) set out to pilot a new system that allows humanitarian communications professionals and responders to quickly gather, analyze, and act upon data to understand information needs of an affected population during a crisis. The syst
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em, called the Humanitarian Data Toolkit (HDT), was piloted under a Lean Startup Model, experimenting with a relatively rough prototype as the beginning of a process of testing and iterative development. This report documents the journey of the pilot – based on our experience, working as a collaborative team testing out the effectiveness of doing an information needs assessment with the HDT in Dadaab, Kenya." (Page 3)
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"Despite years of stock taking, donors to media development still have a number of blind spots that prevent their interventions from being more effective. In particular, media development stakeholders could improve their efforts by applying aid effectiveness principles to their practice. When examin
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ing media development assistance over the last two decades, certain patterns become clear. The consensus among media development practitioners is that media development supports all other development, both economic development and good governance, directly and indirectly. At the same time, donors often use media to promote stability, democracy, and development. Donors to media development rarely articulate a precise theory of change at the outset of their interventions. Generally, however, modernization theory–the idea that Western-style, top-down mass media would transform developing societies into “modern” nations along the same path as their Western counterparts–seems to be still unconsciously driving much of contemporary practice even though the theory itself has been long discredited." (Executive summary)
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"The international development community needs to spend less time training journalists and more time on efforts to build country level leadership for a strong and independent media as a key institution of development. This means longer-term programs, facilitating carefully planned and rigorous appro
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aches to multi-stakeholder engagement, and South-South knowledge exchange led by local champions. Building broad consensus on the important role of the media is a job that will require concerted action not only by local governments, activists and opinion leaders but also donors and the major international organizations engaged in development. As shown by the successful cases, donors and partner countries need to work together to consider the media environment in governance and public sector reforms, in reforms of the business environment, and efforts to improve the judiciary and rule of law. Our work has also demonstrated how much we don’t know about the media, particularly in the developing world. This lack of data and information about developing media markets is a significant barrier to building successful media enterprises, as well as an obstacle to donors and others who wish to support media development. New efforts should be made to expand data collection on the media in developing countries, and in particular, to help local media participants get access to data on audiences and advertising that are critical to building successful media enterprises." (Executive summary)
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"The first part of this publication provides insight into the media development practices and policy frameworks of France, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom while the second part deals with different issues and projects, such as the role of media for social transformation in Africa and coordina
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tion of international donors and implementers. The contributions to this publication indicate a broad mutual understanding of the role of, and strategies for, media development. Four common characteristics can be highlighted. First, media assistance is seen as an integral part of democracy support, mainly due to the role of media as a guarantor of accountability and platform for public discourse. Second, media assistance requires not only journalism training, but a sector approach including all levels of the media sector, as professional editorial and financial management, capable professional associations, and an enabling regulatory environment. Third, financial sustainability is of paramount importance for a functioning independent media sector, and media development cooperation must become more active in this area. Fourth, closer cooperation and partnerships among donors and implementers should be encouraged." (Executive summary)
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