Reflections on Media Environment Trends - IMS Annual Report 2016-2017

"...the year 2016 – mid 2017 displayed vividly the increased global connectedness of people and communities as technology continued to influence news and information and the way it is produced, regulated and repressed. In this context, the year also saw journalism facing a crisis of a fundamental nature spurred on by technological advancement, political power play and global inequality - a crisis that challenges basic notions of truth, relevance and trust."

This report from International Media Support (IMS) examines the work of this non-profit organisation, which supports local media in countries affected by armed conflict, human insecurity, and political transition, but also focuses more generally on the current trends and challenges facing the media development industry. Examining what trust in media entails and how we can rebuild and maintain it, the IMS Annual Report 2016-2017 also looks ahead, encouraging the revision and expansion of the notion of media development as the internet and everything digital continues to shape and define the environment in which all media operate.

A brief overview of the activities of IMS and partners around the world can be viewed on the map on pages 89. For example, in Pakistan, journalist safety hubs have been established at five Pakistani press clubs representing half of the country’s community of 18,000 journalists, thus improving media's response to threats. Pakistan is also featured as an example in the efforts led by IMS to document best practice models of locally-led safety mechanisms for journalists in seven countries. The research carried out between mid 2016 and 2017 also includes Colombia, Philippines, Indonesia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nepal. And support to developing investigative journalism continues to be a cornerstone of IMS' work to enhance good journalism through cooperation with investigative journalism networks in some of the world's most difficult environments for journalists such as Russia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

In one chapter of the report, "The Relevance of Journalism in a Post-Truth Era," Michelle Betz asserts that, in a time when consumers have more options than ever before, media houses need to try to understand their audiences and what drives them to specific content if journalism is to remain relevant. Her driving quesion is: If we think relevance is critical for the survival of journalism, then how do we as media developers work with local partners to make their work relevant, particularly in the contexts of conflict, post-conflict, and fragile states in which IMS operates? She explains that "[t]he question of relevance and (mass) audience is today coupled with the shear velocity with which the sector continues to change. The diffusion of internet, mobile and social media has fundamentally changed, and continues to change, the media - with numerous implications for relevance." She discusses the "glocalisation of information" and the need for bottom-up substantive qualitative and quantitative audience that seeks to understand the needs, demands, and interactions of the audience.

In exploring implications of her analysis for media developers, Betz highlights the power of the hyperlocal and the importance of operating on the appropriate platform by pointing to IMS' work following the earthquake in Nepal in April 2015. This work began as support to community radio programmes focusing on hyperlocal accountability issues such as local government promises to rebuild schools or infrastructure. Ultimately, these issues, the impact, and the programme itself made their way to national levels because they were highly relevant to the population whose only way of holding local officials accountable in the post-earthquake environment was to talk to the media - in particular, community radio. Harnessing the power of hyperlocal and forging partnerships with national, regional, or even international outlets is also important for increasing reach, illustrating common ground, and ensuring economic survival.

Next, in "The Internet as the New Frontier in Oppressing Free Speech", Susan Abbott is interested in the profound consequences the internet has brought for how we think of freedom of expression, which she says has opened up a Pandora's box for legal scholars, advocates, and digital rights activists in terms of their efforts to guard against censorship and acts of suppression of speech in various forms. As Abbott shows, both state and non-state actors pose a threat to internet freedom as well as freedom of speech and expression. (Some topics covered here include misinformation and fake news, online violence and trolling, doxing (the practice of leaking personal documents or private information by hacking to the public) and intimidation, internet shutdowns, surveillance, libel and insult laws, and cybercrime legislation). She provides some examples, and then puts forward some ideas for ways forward. In brief, Abbott suggests: (i) updating the frameworks and assessment tools that media development actors use to include many of the threats, concerns, and innovations that the digital revolution has had on journalism and internet-based communication and media; (ii) better aligning the goals and objectives of media development to be more in line with the realities of digitalisation and convergence; and (iii) getting a seat at the table in terms of internet governance, so that members of the media development community might help to inform and shape the digital rights agenda.

Abbott continues in another piece in the report, "Trust in the Digital Era", asking: "[I]f a digital democracy can't sustain trust between media and the public, will it still be possible for media development to bring about lasting political change in transitioning countries through supporting free and independent news? And if so, is rebuilding trust a prerequisite to such endeavors? This article looks at the complicated issues surrounding trust and the media, including where trust has broken down, why it has happened and approaches to responding to it." With regard to the latter (restoring trust), Abbott explores some avenues such as media literacy - the skill of being able to critically evaluate and analyse information presented through the media, recognising, for example, when it might be distorted or prone to bias. Proponents call it a prerequisite for civic participation, while critics view it as a top-down approach and point out that there is little data to confirm its success. Another idea is to look to radio, whose perceived level of trustworthiness may in and of itself attract more people to the medium. Abbott also looks at community and stakeholder media and public service broadcasting (PSB). After profiling five organisations that have published research into trust and the media, she concludes by raising a number of questions that IMS and other media development organisations should explore to support the type of media that meets the needs and restores the trust of its audiences while remaining true to the guiding ethics of good journalism.