PMA’s 2024 Highlights

Media Literate Citizens

This year saw PMA execute one of its largest project to date. Our “Building the Caribbean’s Next Generation of Media Literate Citizens” project was the realisation of years of work, beginning with our previous media literacy project in 2022. This time around, we expanded our reach and target not just media workers but educators and schoolchildren in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago.

My highlight came in November, when I was able to spend four weeks alongside our project facilitators visiting each country and engaging with more than 350 students across 13 schools. In every school and country, the sessions were dynamic and interactive. It was exciting to not only experience a high level of engagement from the youth, but also to see new PMA resources, such as our “Thumbs Down” media literacy game, in action.

There were also lots of lessons learned – from understanding the importance of flexibility to recognising incentivisation and ownership are great tools to success, we were able to take away so much for our future initiatives.

I can’t wait for us to explore further opportunities for expanding our media literacy work in the Caribbean. We’ve already received great ideas for our stakeholders on the ground, so keep an eye out for ways you can get involved and where we’ll take things next!

Desilon Daniels, Advocacy Coordinator

Opportunities for our members

I became PMA’s Membership Manager last year and I have really enjoyed connecting with our members and identifying where support is most needed.

My highlight for this year has been the opportunities that we have been able to offer our growing membership. These include knowledge sharing through our roundtables and newsletters, discounted rates for training and attendance to conferences, offers of rights-free access to content, and the expansion of our popular Global and Trainer Grant scheme.

This year, the PMA team has had the pleasure of meeting many of our members at regional events and at PMA’s first in-person meeting in Ottawa since the Covid-19 pandemic. We look forward to connecting with many more of you in the year ahead and will continue to ensure that our membership support remains both relevant and valuable.

Clare Lilley, Membership & Business Affairs Manager

How PSM are adopting AI

In September, PMA’s CEO, Kristian Porter and I were in Taiwan, for the annual PTS Symposium. The event brings together media professionals in Taiwan to hear from experts on specific subjects, and this year’s Symposium was focussed on how public media are adopting AI across various projects. The Public Media Alliance were partners for the event, and we used our global network to bring public media leaders to Taipei to present their topics.

The reason the event stands out in 2024 is because – amid the threats facing public media, the uncertainty many face to their funding, and the waning trust in them – the Symposium exhibited the best of public media: how AI is being employed in newsrooms; how AI is helping sustain and promote Indigenous languages; how AI is being used to protect sources; how AI is helping create interactive children’s content; how AI is providing new services for the deaf community.

Such examples demonstrate there is still space for public media to be creative. And it also highlighted the opportunities for public media to fulfil their public service mission in new ways using AI.

Harry Lock, Editorial Manager

An election year podcast

A personal highlight this year was to take part in the production of the 23rd episode of PMA’s podcast, Media Uncovered. This episode covering how public service media were reporting on elections was particularly timely on a year many called “the largest election year in history”.

As half of the world’s countries were holding national elections, public service media were on the frontline to ensure the democratic process.

This election year brought many challenges for the media, one being the rise and fast spread of mis- and disinformation online and on social media platforms which drove PSMs to elaborate strategies and mechanisms to counter them. The context of the elections also brought into the light the need for the media, and public service media, to raise awareness about their work and their necessity to society in general.

In a time where democracies find themselves increasingly threatened, the need for independent and stable PSM is more important than ever, to protect and ensure the perpetuation of democratic value.

Charlotte Pion, Journalist & Researcher

Making the case for public media

If 2024 was the year of elections, then 2025 will be the year when the results of those elections bear out. And some of the results portend troubling and difficult times ahead for PSM, notably in the US and Belgium, where candidates were elected on mandates to freeze funding, or defund public media entirely. And forthcoming elections in Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, and Germany, will likely see public media as one of the issues raised during the campaigns.

Making the case for public media, whether to the public or to legislators, has become a top priority for many public service media entities. For PMA, this task falls into three categories. Firstly, media literacy – highlighting and promoting the role of independent public media to the unconvinced and unaware: how it underpins democracy, informs citizens and society, supports local creative sectors, and benefits the information ecosystem. Secondly, relevance – ensuring PSM are valued, both in making relevant content and distributing it appropriately to an audience increasingly fractured in their consumption habits. And thirdly, international cooperation – providing an opportunity for PSM around the world to exchange ideas, strategies and solutions to remain and enhance their positions as the most trusted sources of news and information.

Kristian Porter, CEO

Public Media & Indigenous Peoples

In October, the annual Public Broadcasters’ International Conference was held in the Canadian capital, Ottawa. Hosted by CBC/Radio-Canada it included a first-of-its-kind feature: a day entirely dedicated to Indigenous stories and storytellers.  

Ahead of this momentous day, PMA was commissioned to prepare a research report which involved speaking to more than a dozen people from national and Indigenous broadcasters in eight countries and territories, to understand how they’re serving Indigenous Peoples, how they are working with communities, and what the 2020s pose for how public service media properly reflect Indigenous communities. 

Around the world, public broadcasters are marking nearly a century of work that has celebrated and preserved cultures; but they’re also grappling with sometimes troubling legacies and plotting how they move to a more equitable future that empowers Indigenous storytelling and journalism. This work continued in November, when PMA was at UNESCO in Paris for an expert group on Indigenous media. Work in this space will continue in 2025.  

Jamie Tahana, News & Advocacy Coordinator