Impact case study database

Impact of Sakr’s Input to the ‘Support to Media in Jordan’ Programme

The Danish NGO International Media Support (IMS), active in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) since 2004, has worked with Sakr since 2008. In 2014, having won a contract from UNESCO to implement an EU-funded programme called ‘Support to Media in Jordan’, IMS commissioned Sakr to write a report on Good Practice in EU Public Service Media and Contemporary Practice in Jordan [A]. The report’s purpose, combined with UNESCO’s Assessment of Media Development in Jordan report, was to inform Jordanian government decision-making vis-à-vis the provision of public service TV. UNESCO’s then Senior Project Manager for Support to Media in Jordan, writes in the report’s preface that Sakr’s research ‘contribute[s] to the on-going discussion on how to expand media freedom, independence and professionalism in Jordan’ and ’provides lessons learnt that could serve as an inspiration’ for Jordan’s ‘state broadcaster JRTV in its ambition to transform itself to a public service media company’ [A, p. 3]. In this connection, Prof Sakr was asked to present the report to Jordanian TV executives at a closed retreat in April 2015 [B, p.238].

Publication of the report in September 2015 was followed by plans for a new Jordan public service television channel, launched under the name Al-Mamlaka in July 2018. This reflected the report’s recommendations ‘in many respects’, according to the lead International Expert on the Assessment of Media Development in Jordan project [C], who writes in a corroborating letter that ‘the design and structure of the new station reflected the report’s recommendations for public service media provision’ [C]. He adds: ‘As such, I believe that Professor Sakr’s work as part of the Support to Media in Jordan Project contributed to the EU-UNESCO mandate to encourage development and reform of Jordan’s media landscape’ [C].

Mano’s Impact on Zimbabwean Media Reform

Having identified a 2013 amendment to the Zimbabwe constitution as an opening for media reform, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) commissioned Mano to lead a team of consultants to produce a document entitled Media Policy Framework for Zimbabwe: A Model By MISA-Zimbabwe [D]. This is an up-to-date policy framework that draws from the 2013 constitution and corresponds with regional and international standards on media freedom, access to information, freedom of expression, privacy and related rights. MISA states that ‘Dr Mano's insights […] directly influenced MISA's thinking on the key issues and had an impact on how the new media policy principles were operationalised for stakeholders in a language and format that was more acceptable to our stakeholders’ [E].

One such stakeholder is Radio Voice of the People (VOP), whose Executive Director is a trainer at the Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS), which lobbies for informed and participatory citizenry through the establishment of vibrant community radio stations. Mano’s contribution to strategy adjustments adopted by the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe, of which these organisations are members, was recognised after the elections of July 2018, when incoming information minister Monica Mutsvangwa invited media advocacy groups to put forward media reform policies. As a document that gives clear policy direction on the steps / measures that Zimbabwe should put in place in order to democratise its media space, the VOP’s director writes: ‘In our engagements with the Ministry of Information in Zimbabwe during discussions on media policy reforms we frequently consult Media Policy Framework for Zimbabwe: A Model By MISA-Zimbabwe as a key resource’ [F].

Mano’s Impact on Broader African Media Reform

Mano has contributed to initiatives such as the Pan-African Parliament, the legislative body of the African Union, who invited Mano to contribute as a Drafting Committee Member to the Midrand Call to Action: Media Freedom and Public Broadcasting in Africa. The Call to Action was issued by the December 2013 Continental Conference on Media Legislative Reforms and Transforming State Broadcasters into Public Broadcasters that was hosted by the Pan-African Parliament [G, H]. In a corroborating letter, the Chair of the Conference’s organising committee confirms: ‘Dr Mano’s insights, drawn from his academic research, helped create a Call to Action that demanded legislative reforms to transform state broadcasters into public broadcasters. Mano’s contributions, informed by his work on public service broadcasting, specifically helped draft the final Call to Action’ [H].

As MISA writes, ‘over 33 civil society organisations representing more than 200 advocacy, research, human rights, democracy and good governance networks in Africa have endorsed the Call’ [I, p.35], and the Chair of the Conference ‘believe[s] this adoption was of significant benefit to the agenda of reforming media legislation in Africa’ [H]. This belief is shared by PEN South Africa, who in 2017 referred to the Call to Action as a key action in the ‘growing movement in Africa towards the decriminalisation of defamation supported by associations of journalists and other media professionals, press freedom groups, human rights organisations and others’; such defamation or ‘insult laws’ are highlighted by PEN as a major constraint on press freedom [J, p.10].

The Chair of the Pan-African Conference’s organising committee adds that: ‘we believe the work of Dr Mano […] provided crucial expertise and knowledge to advance PanAfrican media reform initiatives. It has benefitted the Pan African Parliament, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa and other organisations involved in media reform. Such expertise is drawn upon for strategising around the democratisation of media in this region and devising initiatives aimed at meeting this goal’ [H].

Sakr’s Impact on Media Provision for Arab Children

During 2017 Sesame Workshop (SW), makers of the preschool show Sesame Street, and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) applied for $100m from the MacArthur Foundation to produce educational media for displaced children in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Following publication of her research in Children’s TV and Digital Media in the Arab World (output [3]), SW sought Sakr’s advice on networking with Arab broadcasters and regional contacts and solicited a letter from her in support of their semi-finalist application to the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change Prize; a prize for a proposal that ‘promises real and measurable progress in solving a critical problem of our time’. In December 2017, SW and IRC won this large prize that enables them to make a difference in the world. The heads of SW and IRC thanked Sakr ‘for lending your powerful voice through the letter you issued in support’ [K]. Among other things, SW and IRC are using the funding for addressing ‘toxic stress’ among 9 million children refugee children and their caregivers through culturally relevant multimedia content.

In 2017-18, Sakr used her research to enable Arab experts to share and refresh their practice vis-à-vis children’s screen media. As co-organiser of a series of AHRC-supported Arab-European dialogues in Manchester, Copenhagen, Munich and London in 2017-18 on the media needs of Arab children living in Europe through forced migration, Sakr steered industry discussions that challenged preconceptions about Arab childhoods and fostered deeper awareness of cultural sensitivities, as evidenced by participants from Egypt and the UAE [L].

For instance, Nathalie Habib, speaking for Blink Studios in the UAE, states that ‘collaboration’ with Prof. Sakr ‘caused Blink Studios to raise awareness in Dubai and Abu Dhabi of trends in children’s screen media in Europe with the aim of setting up further opportunities for Arab-European knowledge exchange in this specialised but crucial field’ [L1]. It also empowered her to challenge ‘issues of stereotyping and cultural misunderstanding’ beyond the dialogue workshops, for instance among attendees at the biennial Prix Jeunesse international children’s TV festival in Germany [L1].

The Egyptian Arts & Culture Programme Manager at the intergovernmental Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Initiative (DEDI), Cairo, whose activities include training creative practitioners, also attests to having benefitted from his participation in the project co-led by Professor Sakr [L1], because it helped him gain ‘a better understanding of production problems’, ‘enriched’ his ‘ability to recognise desirable and suitable qualities of children’s media’, and put him ‘in a better position to carry out projects with regards to optimising the design of our collaborations and selecting suitable partners’ [L2].

Prof Fuchs’ research has had a significant impact on the digital public sphere through the strengthening of its democratic character in respect to the two aforementioned challenges.

1. Advancing digital democracy: the Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy adopted Fuchs’ recommendations regarding public participation within the parliamentary process in the UK and the strategy of engaging citizens in parliamentary democracy through the digital technologies they use on a regular basis (e.g. non-governmental social media platforms).

2. Advancing a public service Internet: Fuchs has advised Austria’s public service broadcaster – the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) – on how to tax online advertising and develop a public service Internet.

1) Impact on the UK Parliament and the Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy:

In 2014, the then Speaker of the House of Commons, the Rt Hon John Bercow MP, founded the Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy. The Commission inquired into how digital media technologies could be harnessed to strengthen digital democracy and to open up the workings of parliament to citizens.

On invitation of the Speaker, Prof Fuchs, together with Dr Anastasia Kavada (CAMRI) and in co-operation with colleagues from the University of Westminster’s Centre for the Study of Democracy, contributed to the inquiry by participating in a roundtable in Parliament [A1]. Fuchs also submitted written evidence that proposed an update to Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) that would strengthen digital democracy and further advance the digital public sphere itself. He stressed the importance of finding ways to ‘strengthen citizen participation in digital democracy’ and to ‘engage citizens in parliamentary democracy and parliamentary communication’ [A2].

The subsequent Open Up! Report of the Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy (2015), made 35 recommendations to the House of Commons and the UK Parliament that were grouped under five themes [A3]. The Report explicitly mentions and acknowledges the importance of Fuchs’ recommendation that Parliament should connect ‘with people in the digital spaces where they spend their time’ [A3, p. 27] and the recommendation that the House of Commons should use digital technologies to ‘experiment with new ways of enabling the public to put forward questions for ministers’ [A3, p. 46].

In a corroborating letter [A4], the former Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow confirms the vital impact of Prof Fuchs’ research on the Speakers’ Commission for Digital Democracy: ‘One of the themes of the roundtable and Prof Fuchs’ written evidence was the need for Parliament to get better at ‘going to where people are’ to engage with them, by connecting with people in the digital spaces where they spend their time and in the way they like to connect. This was adopted by the Commission as one of the key themes in its report. […] Prof Fuchs’ ideas for encouraging greater public involvement in the parliamentary process were also referenced in the report. […] I would like to acknowledge the important input that Prof Fuchs made to the Digital Democracy Commission, based on his research, which informed its work and its report’ [A4].

Most significantly, the Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) was launched in April 2015 in response to the Speaker’s Commissions Report [A5a, A5b]. PDS has combined the work of the Parliamentary Information Communication Technology (PICT) and the Web and Intranet Service (WIS) teams and is mandated with the ‘responsib[ility] for the strategic direction of Parliament’s digital offering and the delivery and management of parliamentary digital platforms, including the website’ [A5a].

Asked about the recommendations of the Speaker’s Digital Democracy Commission [DDC], in January 2016, a coordinator of PDS confirmed that ‘a strategy that we have [been] developing [has] a commitment to deliver a number of those actions. So we are leading that in so that the DDC recommendations become part of our digital strategy’ [A5c, p. 233]. Asked about the ways in which this strategy could improve democracy, the coordinator responded: ‘a big one is by transparency and opening up Parliament so it is visible and much easier to understand. And making people aware of how they can engage and giving them opportunities to do that. But doing it in a way that meets their need where they are’ [A5c, p. 234]. As such one of the 8 key principles of the strategy devised by PDS was, as recommended by Prof Fuchs, to ‘Be where people are’ [A6].

In this connection, and as explained in posts grouped under that specific principle, PDS created the ‘UK Parliament’s first ever Facebook strategy’ [A7], and a YouTube strategy that encompassed ‘ways to deepen engagement with our subscribers and viewers through comments, polls, and interactive live broadcasts’, which was enacted through YouTube’s ‘Community’ function [A7]. The success of this strategy is such that Parliamentary channels have successfully engaged social media users. Parliament’s Twitter-channel increased its number of followers from 404k on 1 January 2015 to 1.55mn on 29 June 2020 [A8], and also increased the number of ‘Likes’ of its Facebook channel from 116,396 on 1 January 2015 to 383,849 on 13 January 2020 [A9]. In early 2019, Parliament’s YouTube channel reached 100,000 followers and more than 20m total views, of which more than 6m occurred in 2018 [A10]. In 2016, Parliament launched an Instagram channel in order to further engage with the public; this channel has more than 130,000 followers as of 29 June 2020 [A11].

As such, this key aspect of the Parliamentary Digital Strategy, which followed Fuchs’ recommendations on engaging users within their preferred digital spaces, has achieved greater participation from citizens in UK democracy and parliamentary matters.

2) Impact on the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF):

Prof Fuchs’ research has also informed the policies of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) in regard to their idea of introducing a tax on online advertising and the idea to use this tax for funding public service Internet platforms.

ORF is Austria’s public service broadcaster and is committed to advancing the public value of public service media. In 2017, ORF commissioned Fuchs, Dr Josef Baum (University of Vienna), and Prof Clemens Thiele (University of Salzburg) to undertake a feasibility study on online advertising taxation in the context of Austria.

Fuchs’ chapter of the study draws on his theory of digital labour [B1]. Given that the national location of users can be identified via their IP addresses every time they click on or view an online ad, it is possible to determine the value generated through online advertising in a specific national jurisdiction. This income can thus be taxed in the country where it was produced, and Fuchs’ theory of digital labour provides a legal basis for doing so. Given that Google and Facebook control more than two-thirds of the global online ad revenue, Fuchs points out that such a tax would help to create a fairer digital public sphere by which public service online media could compete with the online dominance of such corporations.

ORF’s Public Value Competence Centre also commissioned Prof Fuchs to contribute to their 2018 Public Value Study, which focused on democracy and public service media [B2]. Fuchs’ chapter in the 2018 ORF Public Value Study recommends not just the introduction of a digital services tax and a digital ad tax for funding alternative Internet platforms, but also advises that ORF is legally enabled to introduce public service Internet content platforms, for instance a public service version of YouTube and a digital version of the legendary ORF programme Club 2 [B2, B3]. The latter is a television show that ran between 1976 and 1995 and was characterised by uncensored, unlimited live-debate. After Dark was the British version of Club 2 (broadcast on Channel 4 and BBC) [B4]. Fuchs suggests it be renewed in an online participatory format in order to facilitate a healthy digital public sphere. On 16/1/2019, Fuchs’ ideas were presented at a public ORF event (‘Dialogue Forum’), which was broadcast on ORF television later that month [B5].

Prof Fuchs’ analysis had direct impact on ORF’s policymaking. His 2017 work informed ORF’s Theses on Austria’s Media Landscape , which was published at the end of that year . In this text, ORF Director General Alexander Wrabetz draws on the idea of the public service Internet, arguing that as a ‘correction to the algorithm-driven filter politics on Facebook, the ORF should, as counterpoise, again be allowed to organise (advertising-free) online debates’ [B6 p.11] and embrace the ‘new possibilities and platforms that are used on a massive scale’ [B6 p.13]. Committing to the position that public service media need to transform themselves from ‘broadcasters into content-platforms’ [B7], Wrabetz’s Theses were further developed into the ORF Strategy 2025 that, according to Wrabetz, has created the ‘foundations of the ORF’s successful development from a public service broadcaster to a public service platform’ [B8]. Launched in December 2020, Wrabetz characterises the development of ORF towards a public service Internet platform provider as an ‘important strategic direction for the ORF’s digital future’ [B8].

In the Theses, Wrabetz also argues for the ‘application of the advertising tax to online-advertising’ [B6 p.15]. The significant impact of Prof Fuchs’ 2018 research on this policy position is confirmed in a corroborating letter from ORF’s Directorate-General: ‘The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) acknowledges the vital and extremely valuable contribution that Prof Fuchs has made and that has informed the ORF’s understanding of the foundations of online advertising and helped to develop its own policy perspective in respect to the role that online advertising, Google and Facebook play in the digital economy. The ORF has in this context recently suggested that the Austrian advertising tax is extended to online advertising so that it would also affect Google and Facebook’ [B9].

While an EU-wide digital services tax failed to be agreed upon by member states, on September 20, 2019, the Austrian parliament uniformly agreed to introduce a five percent online advertising tax for large corporations such as Google and Facebook that came into effect on January 1, 2020 [B10a]. Operating as a foundation under public law and Austria’s pre-eminent media provider, ORF’s voice is heard in the policy discourse. The Austrian digital advertising tax is important because digital monopolies that are open to ideological bias due to their corporate nature, make much of their money from online advertising; their vast financial power means they are able to crowd out politically neutral / objective public service media, thus threating the democratic nature of political discourse. This tax goes some way towards facilitating the ability of publicly funded media to compete for the same audiences and to thus provide balanced political discourse.

(1a) Prof Barnett’s Impact on UK Policy regarding Public Service Broadcasting (PSB)

Barnett made significant research-based contributions and recommendations to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Select Committee’s Future of the BBC (2015) report, which set out recommendations for the undertaking of the 2016 BBC Charter Review [A, B]. Barnett was one of the top 5 most cited witnesses (out of a total of 49), with appearances in six distinct paragraphs, as well as two further unique citations to his written evidence. The CMS report acknowledges Barnett’s identification of the dangers implicit in non-public mechanisms of BBC funding [B, p. 72] and his recommendation to avoid the adoption of a ‘market gap’ approach when assessing the BBC’s future [B, p. 19]. Further, Barnett’s suggestion that licence fee revenue should not be treated as a communal source of public income available for raiding by other government-promoted schemes [B, p. 89] was reflected in the report’s conclusions: ‘we find the case for the licence fee as a source of funding for rural broadband and BBC Monitoring unconvincing’ [B, p. 124]. Barnett’s argument against top-slicing also featured in a 2014 House of Lord’s report on media plurality [C, p. 26]. Such policy ideas were influential in the UK government agreeing, as part of their 2015 financial settlement with the BBC, ‘to end the top slice of the licence fee that has been used in recent years to fund broadband rollout, resulting in the restoration of £150m p.a. of licence fee revenue to the BBC by 2020/21’ [D, p. 2].

Prof Barnett has also played a direct role in the shaping of the PSB policy debate through his appointment as the specialist adviser to The House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee. Barnett was appointed in March 2019 to assist its inquiry on the regulation of the Internet and, as confirmed by the Clerk to the Committee, was chosen due to ‘his deep understanding of the history of public service broadcasting and the regulatory structures that underpin it’ [E]. The Clerk confirms Barnett ‘helped inform the direction of the inquiry’ through his advice ‘on setting its parameters and appropriate questions to explore’ and continued to make ‘an invaluable contribution’ by recommending witnesses, preparing oral questions, and ‘ensuring that I did not overlook key technical aspects of the relevant regulation’ [E]. Barnett ‘scrutinised all the drafts of the report and helped by drafting additional text’, thus ‘ensur[ing] that the committee’s final report is rigorous and stands up to scrutiny’ [E]. The final report, Public Service Broadcasting: As Vital as Ever [F], was published on 5 November 2019 and received a formal Government response in February 2020, with further debates on its recommendations due to occur at the House of Lords [E].

(1b) Dr Michalis’ Impact on Citizen and Consumer Lobbying: Euralva and VLV

In 2014, Dr Michalis was appointed by the European Alliance of Listeners' and Viewers' Associations (Euralva) as their adviser on European audio-visual policy. In response to EU communication policy consultations, Michalis wrote two submissions on Euralva’s behalf arguing for the safeguarding of the digital terrestrial television (DTT) spectrum [G, H]. These submissions strongly opposed the reallocation of spectrum (frequency bands) to commercial providers of broadband and mobile telephony and supported the position by emphasising the role of the DTT platform in promoting vital public policy goals such as European cultural diversity and creative innovation [G, §§2.9. & 2.2.]. Euralva is an independent alliance of national associations representing the interest of listeners and viewers of broadcasting and new media services. Michalis’ research knowledge enabled this network to communicate their positions to the EU in a rigorous and effective manner, which they were previously unable to do. Euralva’s President confirms that Michalis ‘has made an extremely valuable contribution to our work, voice and presence in European policy circles […] We’d like to believe that our voice, based on Michalis’ valuable work on the submissions, contributed to the EU negotiating position and the outcome […] where it was agreed that DTT broadcasters would keep exclusivity of the sub-700MHz band till 2023’ [I].

Michalis applies the same knowledge and research expertise to her work with the Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV) – an independent, non-profit-making membership association working for quality and diversity in British TV and radio content – whose Board of Trustees she was invited to join in 2017 . The VLV Chairman states that since joining the VLV Board: ‘Michalis has contributed to the 20 VLV submissions to consultations’ and her ‘contributions have been particularly valuable in helping VLV place its work within the wider European policy context and improving VLV understanding of regulatory issues, in particular how these might relate to online media regulation’ [J]. The Chairman highlights as especially useful, how, ‘based on Michalis’ intervention, VLV was able to raise specific issues regarding personal data protection’ in their submission to the BBC’s March 2018 distribution policy consultation, and her drafting of a segment on ‘regulation of on-demand services and respective provisions in EU legislation and practice’ for the April 2018 House of Lords Communications Committee inquiry into ‘Public Service Broadcasting in the Age of Video on Demand’ [J].

(2a) Prof Barnett’s Impact on Policymaking Concerning Media Plurality

Prof Barnett’s research-based advice has enabled various policymakers to create informed decisions on media plurality from the perspective of public interest. For instance, Barnett’s oral evidence is quoted ten times in the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications’ Media Plurality (2014) report, which evaluated the different proposals put forward to them via consultation, gave consideration to their merits and demerits, and arrived at ‘a clear set of principles which we believe any reform to plurality policy should respect’ [C, p. 5]. Barnett’s contributions are quoted and discussed as part of this consideration process, providing explanatory context in some cases (for instance, providing their understanding of a hybrid approach to media revenue caps [C, p. 35]) and expressing positions / recommendations in others. In regard to the latter, the Select Committee expresses agreement with Barnett in their conclusions on the need for the scope of any plurality policy to encompass both local and regional media in order to address a local democratic deficit [C, pp. 16-17].

Ofcom’s 2017 report [K] on the public interest test for the proposed acquisition of Sky plc by 21^st Century Fox cites Barnett’s published research, as well as his consultation submission, 15 times, demonstrating its significance to Ofcom’s advice to government on this controversial merger. Notably, it dedicates 10 paragraphs [K, pp. 70, 83, 124-5] to Barnett’s criticism of, and proposed alternatives to, Ofcom’s measurement framework for media plurality (see also [L, p- 17 and 19]), in order to contextualise the complexity of measuring the impact, particularly on those with political power, of agenda setting by media corporations. The Ofcom report further quotes Barnett’s evidence of a history of editorial interference by the Murdoch family, on all genres of programming, and his conclusion that Sky / Fox owner Rupert Murdoch has ‘ demonstrated that he cannot be trusted to uphold the standards of impartiality and accuracy which are integral to the 2003 communications act and that the transaction by giving full unqualified control will not serve the public interest’ [K, p. 128 and 131, italics in the original]. Barnett’s assessment of the negative implications of this acquisition for media plurality was clearly reflected in Ofcom’s advice to government: ‘The transaction raises public interest concerns as a result of the risk of increased influence by members of the Murdoch Family Trust over the UK news agenda and the political process’ [K, p. 4].

(2b) Dr. Michalis’ Impact on Advancing Plurality in Communication Networks

As part of her participation in the EU H2020 netCommons project, Michalis presented her findings and recommendations on EU telecommunications policy and community networks at two workshops at the European Parliament (October 2017 and May 2018). This engagement took place in the context of the revision of the new European Electronic Communication Code.

In January 2018, Michalis and two netCommons colleagues made a presentation to UNESCO concerning the role of community networks within the EU telecommunications policy framework. Aiming to effectively address Internet freedom and to optimise its beneficial potentials, UNESCO subsequently invited Michalis and her colleagues to contribute to a consultation on draft indicators for Internet universality [M]. This resulted in the incorporation of a new indicator explicitly referring to community networks in UNESCO’s final draft (Nov 2018) of their policy document Internet Universality Indicators: A Framework for Assessing Internet Development. The indicator reads as follows: ‘C.6. Are communities able to establish their own networks to provide Internet access? Indicator: Legal framework enabling establishment of community networks’ [M, p. 39]. These indicators will be used by UNESCO and other international bodies as the base criteria to evaluate national policies regarding Internet connectivity and their impact on human rights. As such, the organisation’s request that its member states have a legal framework in place that enables community networks to be established – effectively a safeguard against any potential media homogeny by large corporations – is a major impact on the advancement of media plurality.

A member of the UNESCO team confirms that ‘Dr Maria Michalis’ research expertise on Internet community networks provided a significant source of knowledge that impacted upon the development of these indicators – and, in particular, a new indicator […] The insights provided by Dr Michalis helped us to recognise the importance of community based Internet networks and the need to ensure their viability within a field that is dominated by corporations’ [N].