Recommendations for Strengthening Media’s Role in Democracy
~A research project by Governance Innovation Labs
- Funding for Media:
One of the biggest and most urgent problems confronting public media today is funding. It’s become more and harder for public media organizations, large and small, to operate through a sustainable, viable, and healthy financial system that protects their independence. As a result, many are debating which funding model best suits their needs. The majority of funds used to sustain Indian media outlets come from commercial advertisements. But the government also has a significant role to play, managing the news market, supporting the public service broadcaster in the country, and providing public advertising dollars to private media. Increasing the variety of sources of income appears to be essential to a successful media company plan.
a. Advertisement: Advertising is a practical way for a lot of public broadcasters to independently get more income. Growing commercial interests might damage the people’s confidence in their public broadcaster in addition to affecting the quantity and quality of programming produced.
- Contextual Advertising: To make sure that advertisements are in line with audience interests and content, the strategy employs relevance criteria. Ensuring that advertisements are matched with pertinent information through the use of algorithms will protect the user experience. Investing in contextual advertising is one strategy that works well. It displays ads in contexts that are relevant to the interests and content of the audience by using data-driven targeting. Nonetheless, a lot of media companies still want to be able to access a lot of customer data for targeted internet advertising.
b. Subscription Service:
- As of right now, no public media outlet has chosen to implement a paywall, like the Financial Times does, or a particular membership model, like Spotify or Netflix. However, it is becoming more and more of an alternative in discussions about how public media will be funded in the future. To guarantee that fund givers do not dictate the topics that the organization covers, it is imperative that media get this kind of financing, which comes with strong safeguards for editorial freedom.
- In actuality, a subscription model may force public media to prioritize serving its members above the general public, despite the belief held by some that it would be less expensive for people.
c. Household Levy
- The household tax’s universal application to all inhabitants is one of its main features. Unlike other levies, which are depending on a household’s income or kind of device, the household levy is applied to all households at the same rate, regardless of the number of people living there or whether they utilize public broadcasting. A more recent approach to financing public media is the household levy, which takes into account the capacity of modern devices like smartphones and tablets to access public media material outside of conventional media.
d. Government Funding
- Direct State Support: When media groups get this kind of support, they may occasionally be mistaken for state media as opposed to public media. Nonetheless, a lot of public media institutions, who also get funding directly from the government, have additional legal and regulatory safeguards in place to assist maintain their independence.
- Indirect State Support: Programs for indirect state support may take the form of specific tax reductions or broad initiatives like the lowering of VAT. The majority of the publications are in favor of expanding indirect government assistance programs, especially those that use the tax system. When it comes to grant allocations, tax schemes are often less unpredictable than direct grant allocations, which vary annually and can need significant work from smaller media during the grant application process.
News media companies and journalists are called on to maintain high ethical standards when receiving funds either from public or private sources. This includes practices such as always acknowledging potential conflict of interest, keeping advertisement content separate from editorial content by labeling clearly, and disclosing transparently their sources of funding.
2) Actions beyond journalism:
- The job of media organizations can go beyond that of typical reporters. Initiatives that offer the public instant support and information or helpline number to answer public inquiries over the phone can be very beneficial. The media can turn to crowdsourcing and like that the public can contribute to the creation of more comprehensive media on a collaborative platform.
- Crowdfunding platforms can be used to raise money for natural disasters or medical emergencies.
- Collaborating in real time with stakeholders can efficiently tackle difficulties in the community.
- Establishing an action committee within media companies can help to guarantee that the media’s function extends beyond information dissemination and involves them actively in solving problems.
3) Role of journalists
Journalists are the backbone of democratic media. Their role in uncovering truths, holding power accountable, and providing citizens with accurate information is crucial.
- Adhering to ethical standards, seeking diverse resources, and prioritizing investigative journalism are essential practices.
- Journalists must strive to expose corruption and abuse of power, ensuring that democracy remains robust and transparent.
- News media companies are recommended to invest in professional education and training for their journalists, to update their professional skills to cope with the digital evolution and with the new services that new business models entail.
- Professionalism, transparency and independence of journalists and media companies are particularly needed when dealing with the funding of journalism by intermediary platforms to avoid biases.
4) Using AI for promoting democracy
Journalists are able to function more productively by using artificial intelligence in the media as a tool to reduce tedious tasks. The various ways in which AI can enhance journalism are:
- By analyzing large datasets, AI can identify trends, and detect fake news
- Improve comprehension of budget allocation and increased revenue
- Enhance marketing flexibility with real-time marketing intelligence
- Better personalized advertising and marketing environment
- Easier privacy protection and content security
- Higher user satisfaction by providing personalized content
- AI-driven tools can also facilitate fact-checking, ensuring the accuracy of information.
REFERENCES
https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/about-us/what-is-psm/psm-funding-models/
https://rm.coe.int/msi-res-2022-08-good-practices-for-sustainable-media-financing-for-sub/1680adf466
https://www.infosysbpm.com/blogs/media-entertainment/use-of-ai-in-media-entertainment-industry.html
