Rural Media Support Programme

Pakistan Press Foundation invites you to apply for its Rural Media Support Programme, a unique two-year programme designed to strengthen your internal capacities, enhance your content production, and foster joint advocacy and collaboration with fellow rural media outlets.

Programme benefits

By participating in the Rural Media Support Programme, media outlets will be able to:

• Strengthen their internal capacities in order to operate in a safer, more inclusive, and resilient manner.
• Elevate their content production skills and amplify the representation of rural voices in media.
• Connect with fellow independent rural media outlets for cross-regional learning and advocacy.

Programme Structure

Coaching Sessions

Throughout the programme, selected media outlets will participate in a series of coaching sessions designed to strengthen their internal capacities in the following areas:

• Gender and inclusion.
• (Digital) safety
• Internal governance and organisational procedures.
• Audience engagement
• Alternative production models and SWOT analyses.

Fellowships

Selected media outlets and their respective pools of (freelance) journalists will also participate in four rounds of six-month fellowships designed to enhance content production skills and amplify rural voices in Pakistani media.

Media outlets will elevate their content production skills through a series of workshops facilitated by experts. These will focus on the following topics:

• Digital storytelling, audience engagement, and alternative production/business models, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Ethical journalism, fact-checking, and pre/debunking mis/disinformation
• Inclusive reporting.

Advocacy

Selected media outlets will also have the opportunity to engage, exchange, and connect with fellow rural media outlets through the creation of a dedicated network. As part of this initiative, three coalition-building workshops will be organised to foster collaboration and stimulate joint advocacy on the following thematic challenges:

• Press freedom and journalists’ physical safety.
• Gender, diversity, and inclusion in the media sector.
• The influence of emerging technologies on media.
• Financial sustainability.

Application guidelines

The deadline for applications is September 15, 2024. For more information about this opportunity and to apply, please click here.