Going digital: impact for development and media sectors Copy Copy

The turn of the digital era is rapidly transforming the world around us. The past few decades have seen a revolution in the ways in which people access, consume, and share information. The internet is now within the reach of approximately 4.66 billion people – 59.5 per cent of the global population. (Source) The rise of digital media has changed and expanded the ways in which we communicate, interact, learn, and behave in the world. This transformation has also impacted the resources and capacities that organizations need to manage. Both the development sector and the media world have been affected by it and thus, our work relies on understanding the potentials and risks of this digital era. 

For example, in the US, the internet crushes traditional media, the total estimated weekday circulation of U.S. daily newspapers was 55.8 million in 2000 and dropped to 24.2 million by 2020 (Editor & Publisher and the Pew Research Center). The same trend is happening everywhere. This is why a great number of traditional media have been adopting the ‘digital first’ or ‘digital only’ approaches to provide more digital products and services to their audience. On another hand, global NGOs/CSOS are increasingly using social networks, 93% of NGOs worldwide have a Facebook Page, 77% of nonprofits worldwide have a Twitter Profile and 50% of NGOs worldwide have an Instagram Profile (Global NGO Technology Report). 

Digital turn and development sector

The international development sector, that is; NGO (non-governmental organization), CSO (civil society organization), CBO (communities-based organization), and NPO (non-profit and not-for-profit organizations) (2), is adapting to this change by developing digital strategies and solutions, coming up with innovative digital interventions and researching ways to establish a stronger presence in the digital space. The world offers us another platform of action to engage in social change: the digital holds the potential for cooperation, dialogue, and community building beyond borders. 

Digital turn and the media sector 

For the media world, this change disrupted how information was produced and shared, opening spaces for content creation in a decentralized manner. It also provided a lot of information on how people behave digitally, from engagement to common practices. This flow of data has allowed the media to keep track, analyze, and develop strategies for their content and their audiences. For both worlds, this shift brings both risks and possibilities, especially within our efforts to heal social wounds, repair our structural conditions of inequality and ensure better futures for our communities.  

As we have seen in the last decade, social media platforms -like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Clubhouse-, have great potential to gather people and hold spaces for civic engagement, this, however, has not come without risk. The influence of power structures within media has made it imperative that we develop critical strategies to fact-check information, ensure inclusivity within media representation, and safeguard spaces for common decision-making. As the chief digital officer of UNDP Robert Opp said:

“it is clear now more than ever that digital has become a fundamental part of the development paradigm (…) building inclusive and ethical digital societies is not a choice, it is imperative”. 

Robert Opp

Common challenges and potentials

The media world and the international development sector (NGO&CSO), encounter similar challenges in the process of digital transformation such as the digital divide and privacy violations. One main challenge is the spread of propaganda, misinformation, and fake news, which can polarize public opinion, promote violent extremism and hate speech, and, ultimately, undermine democracies and reduce trust in the democratic processes. Both sectors need to learn from each other and tackle those issues in a collaborative manner.  The media world and the international development sector (NGO&CSO), encounter similar challenges in the process of digital transformation such as the digital divide and privacy violations. One main challenge is the spread of propaganda, misinformation, and fake news, which can polarize public opinion, promote violent extremism and hate speech, and, ultimately, undermine democracies and reduce trust in the democratic processes. Both sectors need to learn from each other and tackle those issues in a collaborative manner.  

This collaboration already takes place, especially in situations of conflict, humanitarian crises, and natural disasters. In the past two years alone, we experienced this on a global scale with the COVID-19 pandemic. Media initiatives that provide essential information to people in danger are often supported by NGO&CSOs, the same goes for initiatives that can help reduce conflict, build peace, and provide disaster relief. In recent years this symbiotic relationship has been scaled up to almost all public areas, like climate change, poverty reduction, and gender equality. From tips, logistics, analysis, and critical feedback, both the media and the development sector can tremendously benefit from this collaboration with all digital technologies available. On the media side, due to financial constraints and the levels of competition in the market, media outlets can benefit from NGO&CSOs in getting the powerful, fact-checked, and researched stories that will impact common discourse. It can also be beneficial to have development sector partners who can provide feedback and procedures for safety and security.  

Parallelly, the development sector is exponentially increasing the volume and voices of important topics via social media platforms, and it’s becoming apparent that the management of these platforms requires strategy and resources. This sector is also becoming more editorial, producing, and sharing more content, so developing digital communication strategies would provide a wider reach and more meaningful impact. Overall, digital media literacy skills are growing within this sector, and with it the potential for intervention and actions for social change.  

Let’s see some of the positive impacts the digital turn has had in both sectors

² In this document, we use the terms NGO & CSO to refer to all types of international, national, and grassroots non-profit and non-governmental organizations. Please be aware that non-profit media organizations can be both NGOs and CSOs and media.