Category: English Articles

Media Development – Speaking out for one’s rights

By on August 7, 2016in All, Articles, English Articles

How can media contribute to international development cooperation? Ute Schaeffer, Head of Media Development, says that access to information in the digital age is more important than ever.

We’ll begin on a positive note – for journalists as well as their “clients”. More people are using information today, and more media producers and information sources are available. In other words, information now has a greater influence than ever on social, economic and political developments in regions and their societies.

The Arab Spring, for example, could never have happened without social media. And the strengthening of Ukraine’s civil society as of 2004 was possible – despite censorship and an authoritarian political system – because people could exchange ideas via the Internet and develop stronger voices.

That’s why DW Akademie’s mandate to develop media has become more important – and more challenging – than ever. Information is now accessible in various degrees in many parts of the world. As a result, media development has become a central aspect of development policy. DW Akademie is meeting this challenge with an innovative, interdisciplinary approach.

When media decide on war or peace

What is important? What moves people? Citizen journalists at a DW Akademie workshop in Ghana

Modern media development no longer focuses exclusively on journalists. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, people can only demand their rights in a political sphere if they have access to information. This determines issues such as education and knowledge, and ultimately a person’s personal freedom. Media can even decide on war or peace, as we’ve been seeing in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq. Secondly, given media’s rapid development, it is no longer enough to improve journalists’ skills. We now need a broader approach if we want to strengthen freedom of expression over the long term. Whether the media push developments ahead or simply slow them down depends on key factors, including:
• conditions under which journalists work
• criteria and professional standards for content
• whether all levels of society have access to media
• whether people can deal with, and make use of, the flood of information

In the 50 countries where we’re working the reality can be bleak. Women’s issues in the rural areas of Burkina Faso, Kyrgyzstan and Bangladesh are rarely covered by the media, and as a result neither are major issues such as education and health. Topics that are taboo in many countries are ignored, such as the ongoing violence in Colombia and coming to terms with Guatemala’s recent history. Gays and lesbians in Uganda are politically sidelined and ignored or even harassed by the media. While this can be due to censorship, more often it’s a result of politically biased editorial offices, corruption or self-censorship.

Strengthening media structures: members of Myanmar’s preliminary press council on an information tour in Berlin

Successful and modern media development as conducted by DW Akademie requires a broad strategic approach. This can include coaching government staff and NGOs with regards to political frameworks, for example, or helping media and journalists develop business models so that they can remain, or become, financially independent.

We support press councils, professional associations and media organizations so that they can clearly represent and protect their interests in discussions with political decision makers. DW Akademie therefore has various focuses in the countries where we work. We rely on different partners, and are well aware that it can take time to produce measurable and sustainable results.

This is also why our country strategies run for three to four years instead of from one workshop to the next. Our country coordinators are media development specialists on location, familiar with its constraints and challenges. They also have wide networks. Our goal is not just to know what moves our target groups but also to be aware of potential, future issues that could effect the regions where we’re working.

Digital advances in developing countries

Setting trends: digital media pioneers from 14 countries at DW Akademie’s South4South media dialogue in Cape Town

One thing is clear: the future for journalists and media outlets in most regions where we work is a digital one, and it’s well underway. In Latin America, for example, there are numerous groundbreaking ideas online. Many of these media projects – like Guatemala’s “Plaza Publica” which DW Akademie is supporting – are based on investigative research. These alternative projects are run by dedicated citizen journalists, and without the backing of classic media corporations.

Courageous projects like these research and report on topics that traditional media won’t touch or are reluctant to do so, such as coming to terms with a country’s violent past. But there is progressand DW Akademie is bringing together innovative actors to exchange ideas and approaches. DW Akademie recently organized a meeting for digital pioneers from various countries to see how new technologies can be used to strengthen freedom of expression.

People who work in media development also need to be talent scouts. We are aware of ongoing developments, especially in the area of digital media. Whether it’s the Islamic State’s (IS) digital Jihad or Russia’s involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, media are being used as weapons. IS fighters feel right at home in the digital world. And Russia’s media strategy is equally efficient and geared to its target group. As a result, independent media have disappeared. Human rights don’t play a role in the digital Jihad, or in the minds of propaganda bloggers, or in hate speeches aimed at TV and radio users.

Supporting partners on their own paths

Learning how to work with the media: school students involved in a new media project in the Palestinian Territories

A part of media development is about teaching skills for working with media content. This applies to both social and traditional media. When calls for violence are broadcast on radio in Nigeria’s Muslim north, or misinformation and warmongering appear on Ukrainian or Russian websites, that’s when users, listeners and audiences need to know how to work with various media formats. They need to be able to distinguish truths from untruths and facts from propaganda.

That’s why DW Akademie also focuses on media literacy so that hate speech, propaganda, agitation and calls for violence evoke no response. But the Internet also offers open spaces for societies, development issues and press freedom. In Egypt, for example, the only remaining form of independent media is the Internet; all others disappeared in 2014 as part of the official anti-terror campaign. This also affected universities, non-governmental organizations and civil society.

Journalism has turned digital all over the world, admittedly at different speeds. The Internet offers a platform, a two-way channel for distributing different media formats as well as receiving feedback.

The Internet has fundamentally changed journalism at every stage: from research to production to choosing multimedia formats for telling the stories. This requires new skills and is why partners all over the world are increasingly asking for digital training. Which interactive journalism formats are available online? they ask. How can journalistic contents be presented online? DW Akademie focuses on key issues in digital developments such as effective social media strategies for media makers, ethical questions on the use of social media, data driven journalism and online research as well as digital security and mobile reporting.

This is not about passing down fancy development concepts from the global North to the global South, but about supporting partners in pursuing their own paths. This is both a demanding and enriching task for us. And it’s why we’ll continue to find long-term answers to the question that essentially drives us: what will remain once we’ve left?

Using media literacy to fight disinformation

By on July 19, 2016in All, Articles, English Articles

Russia is waging an information war in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region. DW Akademie is taking action and training journalists and media users in these regions how to deal with disinformation campaigns.

0,,19399387_303,00.jpg

In many small towns like here in Borjomi,Georgia, people also watch Russian satellite TV. The local media markets are financially weak.

Tiraspol, July 2016. Tiraspol? Yes, you read it correctly. Tiraspol. That’s the capital of Transnistria, a tiny unrecognized territory wedged between Ukraine and Moldova that broke away from Moldova in 1990. Transnistria is home to some 500,000 inhabitants who are predominantly Russian speaking. It’s also home to one of the so-called “frozen conflicts” that Russia has fomented in the neighborhood.

0,,19399482_404,00.jpg

The audience in Tiraspol attending the DW Akademie panel discussion on migration and refugees was an eclectic mix. Crowded into the venue belonging to an independent cultural association, one of DW’s cooperation partners, were journalists, teachers, students and two UN refugee agency representatives, as well as four official panelists sent by the government (or the country’s intelligence service).

The discussion revolved around migration and the risks resulting from the flood of refugees into Germany and other parts of Europe. Around whether it was true that Germany’s security situation had deteriorated since the arrival of the refugees, as is claimed by Russian media.

It was about the refugees’ own stories as recounted in the DW book I wrote about refugees called “Einfach Nur Weg” (which translates as “Just Get Away”). Most of all, the discussion was about the concrete steps of creating the book – about the interviewees and whether and how I conducted research.

Broadly speaking, the discussion was about the credibility of journalism and how journalists work. In Transnistria, as in other post-Soviet states, independent media is rare and people are regularly exposed to disinformation campaigns. At the DW Akademie event, it became clear how the Kremlin’s information war is playing out in the region – not just in pro-Russian Transnistria but also in other countries where DW Akademie is active, such as Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine and Moldova.

0,,19399490_401,00.jpg

Military transports like this one in Georgia are part of everyday life in many post-Soviet countries due to frozen conflicts

It’s an unequal battle where glossy, wealthy media supported by rich Russian investors fight it out against financially weak and less professional media.

Georgia alone has around 140 TV stations and 70 radio stations competing for a share of the market and most of these outlets aren’t economically viable.

Moldova, with a population of 3.5 million, has 70 TV stations, 60 radio stations and 170 newspapers.

0,,19399486_404,00.jpg

These countries don’t have independent media; instead, the media (alongside banks and the courts) has become a tool used by oligarchs to fight their power battles. In most of the post-Soviet countries, people’s trust in politics and the media is at an all-time low. The media in Moscow are quick to use this to their advantage, filling the vacuum with pro-Russian information.

The Kremlin’s strategic goal is to destabilize its neighborhood by destroying the credibility of state institutions and pro-Western politicians and undermining the growth of democracies. That’s why Moscow is feeding territorial conflicts in South Ossetia for example, as well as in Ukraine’s breakaway Donbass region and in Transnistria. The same motivation is behind Moscow’s (dis)information campaigns that use targeted messages and modern packaging to advertize its policies. And the distribution of these messages is easy – Russia’s neighboring states are home to large minority groups who speak better Russian than the official languages of the countries they live in; these minorities almost exclusively tune in to the free-to-air Russian programs.

In the non-linear, hybrid war that’s being waged to advance Russia’s national interests, the media play a key role. The first casualty of this war is truth. Among its victims are journalists and independent media companies as well as everyone else who’s trying to navigate the jungle of half-truths and biased, or blatantly false, information.

This is where DW Akademie comes in, with its focus on strengthening media literacy among tomorrow’s decision-makers. We specifically seek to train young people, civil society organizations, teachers and university professors. First and foremost, media literacy means asking the right questions and developing a critical approach to the media. What distinguishes fact from opinion? How can I find alternate information? The overall goal is to strengthen the basic human right to freedom of information. For Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region, this means equipping civil society, media users and media professional with the appropriate tools to keep a cool head under fire in the information war, distinguish fact from fiction and realize the importance of, and use, research and facts.