This is a guest post by Jo Elsom, Lead, and Prashanth Pillay, Research and Evaluation Manager at ABC International Development.
Independent media operating in the public interest is a crucial ingredient for a healthy society, supporting both economic and social development. Yet, the Pacific media sector continues to confront a high turn-over of journalists, challenging its longer-term media viability. As development communicators and practitioners, it is important to forge mutually strengthening relationships with regional media, who are the key source of mass communication and information for citizens.
| About ABC International Development |
| The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the largest independent, public sector media organisation in the Pacific region. It takes Australia’s voice to the world and provides a voice for the people of our region. ABC International Development (ABCID), the media development arm of the ABC, works with Pacific media practitioners and partners in building regional media capacity to be professional, inclusive and resilient. |
It starts with understanding the importance of being respectful of the knowledge, practices and processes embedded within the region’s diverse national media landscapes.
After analysing data from our media development programs, we can share five learnings for working with Pacific media. These insights reaffirm findings from our previous research on the need for cultural sensitivity and nuance when working with Pacific media organisations, who each exhibit varying strengths and areas for potential growth. We hope the learning assists development and communication practitioners who may not yet have an in-depth understanding of the region, its countries, cultures and peoples.
- Digital media is different in each country
There is an appetite for digital transformation within the Pacific media sector, where levels of infrastructure (connectivity) and technical capacity vary greatly. Digital media support needs to be carefully tailored to each context, to ensure that it is viable and sustainable.
High impact, nimble and relatively cost-effective initiatives, such as the use of mobile journalism, can provide media practitioners with great versatility to cover different types of stories.
As a radio journalist in Tonga said: “we need an adaptable pace of change and our focus (the media sector) should be on the low-hanging fruit: simple and effective solutions that have far-reaching impact on how we use media to tell stories. The shiny new toys don’t always work for us…and I say that proudly…”.
Digital and social platforms continue to attract growing audiences but traditional media – especially radio – remains critical for conveying information and community discussion, often in local language.
- Church Media is a trusted information source
In a 2019 citizen media engagement study in PNG, 85% of 1,539 respondents cited church media as their most trusted source of information. Through our own internal evaluation surveys across activities in Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tonga, 75% of participants out of a cohort of 330 listed the church as a key information source above other forms of media.
Church media can be a key channel for disseminating emergency and health-related information, both in urban and remote localities. Importantly, church media can play a key role in facilitating outreach and community events, providing avenues for two-way information and knowledge sharing.
Highlighting and discussing community issues through church media can also attract the attention of leaders and encourage them to respond to community concerns.
- Traditional storytelling is important
Traditional storytelling is a cornerstone of effective audience and community engagement. Our insights show that content with a traditional storytelling angle increases audience relatability, leading to higher levels of engagement and audience reach.
This was evident in our research on climate change reporting practices in the Pacific, which showed that traditional stories have a critical role to play alongside science-based explanations.
A recent ABCID study on climate change communication practices found that media practitioners in Vanuatu and Fiji use traditional knowledge on how local flora changes, or how fish hide in mangroves, to predict forthcoming cyclones and improve disaster preparedness.
- Invest in early-career journalists
There are high turn-over rates among journalists in the media sector, mainly due to more competitive salaries in other industries. The media sector often ‘loses’ journalists to better paid communications roles in the development co-operation sector. Depleting the media industry can be an unintentional impact of development co-operation.
Our program evaluations have shown that there are many ways to support early career journalists and provide them with incentives beyond remuneration. These include mentoring, networking and regional or international industry placements, which allow journalists to grow in their role. Industry placements also benefit the hosting media – for example, ABC journalists become better informed about the Pacific as a result of their collaboration and mentorship.
- Small countries have small media markets
Pacific countries have small, unique media markets. Across the Pacific, journalists are often reporting on people they know, or even on family. Culture, respect, and relationships are always important, and social hierarchy matters, even within a professional setting.
As development practitioners, we have a professional obligation to respect these cultural nuances and work alongside our Pacific media partners, guided by them on the methods and processes most conducive to the media’s operating environment.
As the Pacific attracts increased global attention, development practitioners and communicators should be mindful of aligning, not duplicating, their efforts. They also need to recognise the absorptive capacity of the media. This is a delicate balance. Our research on media capacity and digital transformation in Pacific newsrooms showed that sustainable capacity building was more likely to occur when solutions, such as ideas for a new content management system, were carefully tailored to existing newsroom workflows, rather than as a new process.
What does this mean for development co-operation communicators?
Our Pacific media colleagues have a treasure trove of voices and information to share at a national, regional and global scale.
For communication practitioners in development co-operation ministries and agencies, it can be wise to consider how to engage with media in meaningful ways, supporting the sector and promoting its independence.
They can make specialists available to brief young journalists on a topic and empower them to cover the issue. Communicators can also invite media to join their next visit to a remote area, allowing them to tell stories often overlooked. They should consider paying media for a public service announcement rather than seeking free coverage – post-pandemic media businesses are fragile and need advertising revenues. All this supports the long game – a healthy, diverse media sector operating in the public interest.
Prioritise the desire to ‘listen and learn’ over the desire to ‘talk and tell’, in order to speak with the region. As a media editor from Solomon Islands said during one of our recent reflection sessions, “…real potential for change is often found somewhere in between the quietest and loudest voices.”
ABCID will, through a series of in-depth studies, be releasing contemporary snapshots of the Pacific media landscape. We invite you to watch this space for further insights and updates.
The insights shared in this piece were presented at an OECD DevCom Workshop in June 2023, co-hosted with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
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