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The theme of the 2010 meeting was Digital Media– Strategies to Optimize Investment and Promote Innovation and Sustainability. Within that framework, participants engaged in discussions how digital media will continue to transform the production, distribution and consumption of news and information. Thirty individuals, representing a range of major public and private donor organizations, as well as thought leaders in digital media and research, attended the three and one-half day gathering.
In an effort to better share media development research across agencies to find areas where investment could be most beneficial, a meeting of independent media development researchers was held at the Open Society Institute in New York City. Top international researchers and scholars worked to create a platform for better communication to increase the effectiveness of funding for media development. The meeting was sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Salzburg Global Seminar and the Global Forum for Media Development.
Media Development Researchers Meeting Report
The 2009 media and governance donors meeting ended on October 11, 2009, following four days of discussions and dialogue among some of the largest and most influential donor organizations and private foundations in the world.
The meeting itself, Governance, Media, and Development: Aligning Strategies to Maximize Results, was followed by a full day of private discussions among donor agencies and foundations. This discussion, and those that preceded it, highlighted some key areas for continuing collaboration and additional investment.
The first of the SIM meetings, 2020 Vision: Setting a Long-Term Agenda for Global Media Development, was held in October, 2008 at Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria. Participants focused specifically on the role of independent media as a critical driver of development, and examined new arguments for global media development and for building the most effective development agent available to international development work: an informed citizenry that can hold governments accountable and organize societies around the issues that matter most. Best practices among donors were discussed, as well as bridging the gap with the field of media development and the field of media for development.