The Role of Media Festivals in Strengthening Independent Media

"These four events, and ones like them across the Global South, are helping to rebalance international debates about journalism, innovation and media viability."

This discussion paper, published by International Media Support (IMS), looks at the emerging phenomenon of media festivals that are taking place across the Global South and that are attracting increasingly global attendees. The paper looks in particular at four diverse examples - Media Party in Argentina, Festival 3i in Brazil, Splice Beta in Thailand, and the Africa Media Festival in Kenya - and seeks to develop preliminary hypotheses about the nature of these events, what distinguishes them from other events in the independent media ecosystem, what they hope to achieve, and how they are evolving. It also seeks to discern patterns or learnings emerging from these festivals that suggest practical recommendations for those running, setting up, or supporting such events in the future, and it includes concrete examples of practices from which other practitioners can learn or adapt.

IMS rejects "single axis" frameworks of how to support independent media, instead favouring a holistic understanding of how a variety of change agents and ingredients of change must combine to drive media development. To that end, IMS champions approaches to strengthening independent media that do not happen in isolation: They have worked to support network building, collaborations, partnerships, and coalition building. IMS has shared lessons learned, for example, with stakeholders benefiting from the Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development (PRIMED) programme on coalitions for change, and more generally with the wider media development community to develop "enhanced strong and inclusive coalitions that defend and support the space for media freedom and viability in different contexts". IMS has also encouraged the principles of broader participation in international events to foster equal and contextual exchange of experiences. In this discussion paper, IMS explores the role of media festivals in the resilience of local regional and global digital native ecosystems. Media festivals have emerged from the grassroots with a renewed energy to strengthen media in their local ecosystems and offer contextual relevance to localised challenges. The paper focuses on emerging trends and patterns in Global South journalism and media innovation events that has as its objective to offer an initial review of this emerging methodology in local contexts.

As explained in the paper, "Festivals are a relatively recent phenomenon in the journalism world. Their openness, informality, and intentionally celebratory nature strikes a contrast with more formal, hierarchical and authoritative forms of event, and in doing so, opens up new pathways and possibilities for the independent media field."

The paper offers an overview of each festival (looking at how it originated, the format and purpose of the event, how it is funded, who attends, and how the programme was developed). It then goes on to describe their commonalities. It explains how, for example, despite the differences in each festival, "each seeks to be part of bringing together its ecosystem, each tries to be intentionally non-hierarchical, each is supported by a mix of philanthropic donations, commercial sponsorships and institutional partnerships, and each has a very clear idea of what its identity is, and keeps ultimate control over its own programme and agenda." In addition, they all seem to be looking to convene, distil, and advance new journalism practices, break up hierarchies, and champion new forms of media and journalism.

The paper also points out that all the events are deeply connected and committed to their respective journalism and media ecosystems. In addition, an organic relationship between the organisers, the festival, and the independent media ecosystem appears to be an essential factor for the success and integrity of these events and for the independent media ecosystem community to feel that it is being held in their interests.

Based on the findings, the brief looks at three areas where journalism festival organisers and those who support them should pay particular attention:

• Independence and editorial control - One of the recommendations here is that festivals should develop a funding ethics policy to make clear to stakeholders and the public when and from whom they will and will not accept funding, and under what circumstances. In addition, festivals addressing the independent public interest media ecosystem could be more explicit and transparent about how they develop their programme, how they solicit input, and how they review their activities.
• Equity, diversity, and inclusion - The brief recommends, for example, that festivals should extend their efforts at inclusivity and be attentive to the culture that is enabled in the spaces they create, and it offers ways in which this can be done. It also recommends that festivals and similar events should consult on and publish a clear code of conduct for participants and speakers.
• Public and ecosystem value - The brief recommends here that researchers should be supported to study this emerging class of events in more depth and with more rigour. One reason cited for this recommendation is to better articulate and track the different kinds of social, cultural, and economic value that such events create and multiply, including short-term economic effects for locations and local businesses where such events are held.