Here’s what I mean. An article in the Economist magazine back in 2007 spoke of a boom in journalism training in developing countries. The article raised a number of points that should grab the attention of any journalism trainer or project manager:

 “The need for basic reporting skills is still central.”

“Participants in the courses praise the results, while complaining about the lack of focus and co-ordination among some providers.”

“More is not always better. Quality varies wildly.”

“Some courses aspire loftily to build democratic societies through a free press.”

Seven years on, some of those points might sound familiar to you or even appear on your course evaluation forms. So whether you’re training journalists or working in other areas related to media development such as press freedom, community media, access to information or digital innovation, it would be worth reading the recently published research papers below.

Perhaps just as important, we can continue to ask ourselves: what’s working?, what’s not working?, and what more needs to be done in this field?

UNESCO

World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development

This recently published UNESCO study is the summary report on the global state of press freedom and the safety of journalists, presented to the UNESCO Member States in 2013. It takes a look at evolutions in media freedom, independence, pluralism and journalist safety.

If you’re a newly minted trainer, this study would be recommended reading to get a sense of global media trends. The WAN-IFRA blog has also curated a “list of the top ten trends identified in the UNESCO report”. A useful starting point, too.  

Center for International Media Assistance

Journalism Training in the Digital Era: Views From the Field

This is a timely study that should give a lot of trainers and project managers pause for thought – especially if you’re involved in training projects where there is a focus on developing new digital skills and platforms.

The report looks at the rise of digital media training and some of “the pitfalls in the rush” to it. It considers a number of cautionary questions such as: “are we being dazzled by the ‘shiny toys’ of digital media”; and, “are we mistakenly assuming that the problems Western media have faced are the same ones facing the media elsewhere?”

DW Akademie

Media Freedom Indices: What They Tell Us – And What They Don’t

The next time you talk about press freedom rankings in a training workshop, consider this: are those rankings objective? Media researcher Laura Schneider has taken a close look at how organizations such as Freedom House and Reporters without Borders produce their ratings. Schneider’s biggest criticism is that the ratings aren’t objective. She argues that they’re often being carried out by a handful of academics or media experts who are mostly from western countries. This inevitably results in bias, especially as the majority of the ranking organizations fail to state their exact definition of media freedom.

Media Freedom Indices is a practical guidebook and provides an overview of the most important details we should keep in mind when using or evaluating existing media freedom indicators. The infographic on page 11 that neatly summarizes how organizations determine their rankings is an excellent resource, too.

You can also read more about Laura Schneider’s extensive research into media freedom indices in a previous onMedia blog post.  

Knight Foundation

Knight News Challenge: A look at what we’ve learned

Since it started in 2006, the Knight News Challenge has provided more than US$37 million to fund 111 projects in the United States and around the world. The Challenge has funded projects such as FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi’s Swift River. This study examines what contributes to successful media innovation projects.

It identifies 8 Lessons Learned including:

– “Measure success based on how funding improves the field, not just on the adoption or impact of individual projects”
– “Provide support, not just money”
– “Target a need you can feel”
– “Be open to ideas”.

If you’re involved in a training or media development project where innovation is the driving force, then this study will offer some essential points for consideration.

Author: Guy Degen

Image credit: Memory Andrew J Young, Noun Project CC BY 3.0

Africa Check was launched in 2012, and is a non-profit organisation led by the media development agency AFP Foundation and the Journalism Department of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

The organisation not only examines the public claims of politicians, leaders in civil society, government agencies and NGOs, but also checks the facts journalists use in their stories.

Peter Cunliffe-Jones of the AFP Foundation is the Director of Africa Check and says getting the facts right is the “essence” of journalism. But under the pressure to feed 24 hour news, and working across more topics, journalist may feel they “don’t have the time and the expertise, or even know where to look” to verify information.

Reading an Africa Check report is a little bit like a mini-lesson in the basics of journalism. You also see that this project has the potential to have a high impact on African media and perhaps serve as a model in other countries or regions.

Take this recent example of mis-reporting the HIV rate among South African schoolgirls that appeared in The Sowetan newspaper.

It is an alarming headline that gained a lot of attention. The South African Press Association (SAPA) picked up the story citing The Sowetan, and then the story was reported by media outlets around the world and via social media networks.

By checking quotes with the Health Minister’s staff and using a publicly available source, Africa Check’s investigation found that the real rate of HIV among SA schoolgirls is half of what the media reported: “HIV prevalence among young women aged between 15 and 19 was around 12.7% in 2011”.

Africa Check reports feature a prominent box with key facts

Peter Cunliffe-Jones says it took just a few minutes to check the key facts in this story.

Peter Cunliffe-Jones: “Accuracy of our reports in media houses is fundamental to the role, purpose and survival of journalism.”

To help journalists improve their skills the Africa Check website has some useful tips for fact checking and a list of online references – potentially making it a go-to website for African journalists to start their search for sources of data.

Africa Check’s focus at the moment is South Africa, but Cunliffe-Jones says the organisation will soon broaden its coverage to countries across southern Africa. He says it’s encouraging that South African media outlets are now starting to cite Africa Check’s reports, or have corrected their stories following an Africa Check investigation.

So how does Africa Check fit into media development within Africa?

By having the project based in the journalism department of Wits University, Cunliffe-Jones says Africa Check can carry out fact checking, but also offer teaching and training. Moreover, the project is “fostering a culture of fact checking” which is fundamental to good journalism.

Watch this short video below (from Vimeo user Pokitin) for some more thoughts from Peter Cunliffe-Jones on fact checking in journalism and the Africa Check project.

Peter Cunliffe-Jones from Pokitin on Vimeo.

Author: Guy Degen