Overview

Philosophy and Strategy

NFI’s Development Journalism portfolio aims to draw public attention to the conditions in which marginalized communities live, situations requiring social change and the effectiveness of state and non-state action.  This thematic area believes that using media and communication to effect awareness and change is essential to any meaningful dialogue about empowerment and social issues.

The programme area supports work that:

• Uses the media in creative ways for promoting the concerns of the disadvantaged
• Developing communication initiatives that go hand in hand with the development interventions of NFI in other thematic areas
• Orient journalists in the regional media on the effective coverage of development issues
• Encourages community based media initiatives. 

Activities

• The National Media Fellowship Programme:
  NFI offers annual fellowships to print and photo journalists from different parts of the country, to publish a series of articles on a range of development issues. Fellowships may also be offered to cover specific issues of current concern. The value of the National Media Fellowship is Rs.1 lakh each.

NFI is exploring the possibility of extending the programme to radio and television journalists. It is also planning to specifically encourage journalists outside metropolitan cities to apply.  
 
Media feature services:
NFI supports networks and NGOs that supply development articles by grassroot practitioners and activists to the print media.

• Community media projects:
  NFI assists NGOs in field projects that enable community participation in media forms that serve local development needs, and help build local development perspectives. This could include the medium of print, radio, cable, internet, and traditional and contemporary performing arts.
• Research:
  NFI supports research on the manner in which the media covers development issues, the impact of such coverage, and on measures to enhance the quality of development journalism. It also plans to support preparation of training material for use by journalism schools, and by NGOs engaged in this field.
• Forums for dialogue:
  NFI brings together journalists, NGOs, and academicians to deliberate on the role of the media in development. This is done through lectures, workshops, seminars, and conferences, organized at the local, regional and national level.

Future Outlook:

The future plans for the programme include expanding our community radio interventions to smaller NGOs in states such as Orissa, Chhatisgarh and the Northeast.  While there are a number of agencies providing technical assistance to these small NGOs, there are very few with the knowledge and experience that NFI brings in helping at the level of programming and community contribution.  The Media Fellowship Programme continues to grow from strength to strength and we hope to be able to use the programme to enhance the quality and quantity of development journalism at the national level, while continuing to train rural stringers and journalists at the local and regional levels.

We would also like to strengthen the development action and communication links across all programmes of NFI. The Development Journalism programme area is not only a thematic area of its own, but it also lends itself to deepen development communication across all the development action themes at NFI. This entails facilitating uses of communication through community media like community radio and TV, wallpapers and grassroots newspapers, and various community based and folk media.   As the programme expands, we hope to integrate it more fully into the other thematic areas at NFI, thereby making communication an essential component of all NFI programming.

Programme Officers: Mini Kakkar ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )