Media Development Programme Funding: MacArthur Foundation

Media Development Programme Funding: MacArthur Foundation

MacArthur's Journalism and Media Program

The programme works to strengthen democracy in the United States (US) by informing, engaging, and activating Americans through investments in independent journalism and media. In addition to support for nonfiction multimedia storytelling, the programme funds professional non-profit reporting on critical and under-reported areas disseminated in imaginative ways, as well as participatory civic media that enables individuals and groups to express and organise themselves for social change.

Examples of funded activities through the Journalism and Media Program in 2017 include:

• Bay Area Video Coalition - US$900,000 to support the National MediaMaker Fellowship Program, a 10-month programme designed for diverse filmmakers who are working on social issues and journalistic documentary projects and in need of support and professional development opportunities.
• Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) - US$600,000 to support the CAAM Future Fund to provide development, production, and outreach grants for projects produced by Asian American directors and producers and to work with an Asian American filmmaker network to provide mentoring and professional development opportunities for emerging filmmakers.
• Latino Public Broadcasting - US$450,000 to launch a Current Issues Content Fund, which will provide project support for Latino filmmakers producing impactful media about current events as they unfold.
• National Black Programming Consortium - US$750,000 to support WOKE! Broadening Access to Black Public Media, which will support nonfiction projects on new media platforms and strengthen the consortium's network of media makers, technologists, and social justice organisations.
• Southern Documentary Fund - US$900,000 to expand its documentary programmes and launch a new fund to support projects made exclusively by filmmakers who currently work and live in the American South, with direct connection to the stories they tell.
• Sundance Institute - US$1.25 million in support for the Institute's Documentary Fund, which provides grants to short and feature-length film projects, its consultation and mentorship programme, and its New Frontier Program and Native Program supporting Native American filmmakers.
• Working Films - US$900,000 to support Docs In Action, an initiative funding and distributing short films that explore issues of social and environmental justice in communities across the United States. Working Films will also provide early impact campaign planning for social issue documentary filmmakers, with a special focus on serving filmmakers of colour and other underrepresented artists.

In 2016, Journalism and Media Program grants included:

• American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop - US$1.5 million for general operating support for production of original investigative reporting on a wide range of topics.
• Center for Investigative Reporting - US$3.5 million for general operating support for its work researching, reporting, and disseminating in-depth investigative reports.
• Center for Public Integrity - US$2 million for general operating support for its investigative reporting work on domestic and international issues.
• The Foundation for National Progress' Mother Jones - US$1.5 million for general operating support for its in-depth investigative reporting and explanatory journalism work.
• Global Press Institute - US$1.25 million for general operating support for its work recruiting, training, and staffing local women to report from its 21 foreign news desks.
• The Nation Institute's Investigative Fund - US$750,000 for general operating support for a journalism fellows programme that produces in-depth, investigative reports.
• National Public Radio - US$4 million for general operating support for its investigative and international reporting.
• Public Radio International - US$1.75 million for general operating support for its signature news programme, The World.
• Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting - US$2.5 million for general operating support for its support and dissemination of international enterprise reporting.
• Round Earth Media - US$500,000 for general operating support for its global reporting model pairing early career US journalists and journalists from other countries.
• University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism's Investigative Reporting Program - US$1.5 million for general operating support.
• WGBH Educational Foundation - US$4.2 million for general operating support for the PBS investigative journalism series FRONTLINE.

Contact: Kathy Im, Director of Journalism and Media MacArthurMedia@macfound.org

MacArthur Foundation On Nigeria Programme

A significant number of MacArthur supported media interventions are taking place though the On Nigeria programme.

On Nigeria media projects in 2019 include:

• Bayero University, Kano [Kano]: To enhance training, curriculum, teaching, and learning opportunities for the next generation of investigative journalists; and to establish a TV station.
• Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation [Lagos]: To support its Policy Radar Initiative and the investigative reports it produces; to mobilise community action around its findings; and to use social media and video to reach a broad audience.
• Daily Trust Foundation [Abuja]: To strengthen the capacity of journalists, media professionals, and students to conduct high-quality investigative and data-driven journalism.
• International Centre for Investigative Reporting [Abuja]: To support in-depth field investigations and convene town hall meetings with government officials and anti-corruption agency representatives to answer questions from the public.
• OYA Media [Lagos]: To conduct high-quality investigative reports and present them in a talk show format that will bring policymakers and citizens together to discuss issues and possible solutions.
• Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism [Abuja]: To conduct investigations on budget, procurement, and government service delivery; to expand fact checking operations for journalists; and to continue building civic technology for citizens and journalists to collaboratively learn and produce multimedia reports related to corruption.
• Sahara Reporters [Lagos]: To train journalists on investigative and data-based journalism; to support investigations into the education sector; and to continue a civic media laboratory to engage citizens in public dialogue on corruption and other social issues.
• Tiger Eye Social Foundation [Accra, Ghana]: To strengthen investigative capacity of Nigerian media by training journalists in investigative techniques and supporting field investigations on corruption.
• Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism [Lagos]: To continue its investigative reporting on corruption in the education and electricity sectors; to design sustainable reporting models for that reporting; and to develop a radio show to improve reach and impact of stories.

On Nigeria media projects funded in 2017 include:

• Bayero University, Kano [Kano]: To enhance training, curriculum, teaching, and learning opportunities for the next generation of investigative journalists.
• Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation [Lagos]: To support investigative journalism in Nigeria and to educate the public and other important audiences about issues related to corruption, with a focus on the electricity and education sectors.
• Daily Trust Foundation [Abuja]: To strengthen the capacity of journalists, media professionals, and students to conduct high-quality investigative and data-driven journalism.
• International Centre for Investigative Reporting [Abuja]: To train journalists on investigative journalism techniques and to support in-depth field investigations.
• Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism [Abuja]: To conduct investigations on financing, security, and terrorism; to create a fact checking website for journalists; and to build civic technology for citizens and journalists to collaboratively learn and produce multimedia reports related to corruption.
• Reboot [Abuja]: To train Nigerian journalism and media organisations on understanding and engaging audiences, developing sustainable business models, strengthening investigative and data-driven reporting, and collaborating with advocacy groups.
• Sahara Reporters [Abuja]: To launch a Lagos-based civic media laboratory to engage citizens in public dialogue on corruption and other social issues.
• Tiger Eye Social Foundation [Dzorwulu, Ghana]: To strengthen investigative capacity of Nigerian media by training journalists in investigative techniques and supporting field investigations on corruption.
• Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism [Lagos]: To pilot an initiative that will monitor regulatory agencies in Nigeria using media and investigative journalism.

Contact: MacArthur Foundation Nigeria info-ng@macfound.org

Editorial notes: The listings above represent only a selection of media-development-related grants by the MacArthur Foundation. The full list of Journalism and Media Program grants can be found here.

The selection of US grantees is based on the following press releases:

• MacArthur Expands its Commitment to Journalism and Media [2016]
• MacArthur Awards $5.7 Million to Support Nonfiction Media Makers From Diverse Backgrounds [2017]

The selection from Nigeria is based on the following press releases:

• MacArthur Awards Journalism and Media Grants to Advance Accountability and Transparency in Nigeria [2017]
• $6.3 Million in Journalism and Media Grants to Advance Accountability and Anti-Corruption Efforts in Nigeria [2019]

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