Giving Compass' Take:

• Laura Schwartz-Henderson explains how the Internet Policy Observatory has identifies strategies for facilitating coordination and collaboration in funding media freedom.

• How can other funders use this information to guide media funding efforts? 

• Learn about funding media and journalism in Europe. 

Through our work at the Internet Policy Observatory, a project at the University of Pennsylvania, we sought to better understand how grantmaking around media and digital rights issues could be better informed by the needs and expertise of the diverse local communities engaged in research and advocacy around the world. As part of this “demand-driven” approach, we developed a study to grasp how civil society thinks about the challenges they face, the obstacles to collaboration between groups, and the ways in which donor organization practices impact local approaches to research and advocacy.

Over the past decade, the challenges facing media funders have expanded at an alarming pace. It has now become hackneyed to note the vast changes wrought by the rapid global proliferation of the internet and communication technologies (ICTs): from the crisis of disinformation and misinformation to decreased readership of traditional news providers to the Orwellian-seeming surveillance capabilities of state and private entities.

One of the most mentioned obstacles to greater strategic collaboration around national and regional media-related issues was the competition over funds, what one respondent called the “scramble for funding opportunities,” in which potential partners position themselves as competitors for limited funding rather than collaborators. Organizations also cited funding instability and seemingly capricious donor priorities as incentives for organizations to focus on short-term projects rather than broad, long-term commitments and ongoing collaborative ventures.

These and other concerns that this research brought to light make clear the importance of considering the architectures of global media funding and the ways in which localized expertise can be better understood and incorporated into funding priorities and procedures. As part of the study’s recommendations, we encourage donors to rethink grantmaking processes and question the incentives generated by current funding strategies and the effects these incentives have on opportunities for longer-term projects and collaboration across organizations. Donor organizations should see our research as a model for the ongoing incorporation of “demand-driven” research into wider strategic planning around media and technology challenges.

Read the full article about funding media freedom by Laura Schwartz-Henderson at Media Impact Funders.