Giving Compass' Take:

• In this story from Media Impact Funders, author Nicholas Benequista discusses how multi-stakeholder coalitions can facilitate media development.

• What atypical stakeholders could contribute to large scale media coalitions like the ones that Benequista describes?

• To learn about the state of global media philanthropy, click here.

In governance, health, education, and nearly every other area, there is a growing recognition that durable solutions to the world’s problems need to get the politics right. The Open Government Partnership, Global Fund, Global Campaign for Education, and the Sustainable Development Goals are among the many initiatives that seek to coordinate action from the local to the global with common objectives and strategies, but also to give civil society actors the access and moral authority they need to sustain political will, the collapse of which has doomed so many development efforts in the past.

Media development has suffered from the same weakness. Building strong media institutions, training top-notch journalists, and funding news production isn’t enough. When there is a breakdown in political and societal support for independent media, the whole effort can unravel. This threat is more acute than ever amid the new, complex threats to vibrant and plural media that are bubbling up in the current mix of politics and technological change.

Though not occurring at the necessary scale, there have been efforts to confront media challenges through diverse, multi-stakeholder coalitions that can work across borders and institutional barriers, and at multiple levels from the local to the global. Through these various initiatives, we have learned a great deal about what determines a coalition’s success. With all sectors of society having a stake in the future of media systems, these coalitions must have a wide base, including actors not traditionally included in media reform movements. For example, South Africa’s SOS Coalition has unified NGOs, CBOs, trade unions, researchers, journalists and writers, actors, law groups, freedom of expression activists, and others around the mission of preserving quality public broadcasting.

Read the full article about media coalitions by Nina Sachdev at Media Impact Funders