Research

The Women in Community Publishing Forum Conference was held in 2017 and was attended by 44 of AIP’s female publishers to discuss their experiences and needs as women in newsrooms and in leadership more generally.

This report summarises key themes from the discussions and outlines recommendations for addressing gender inequality in the independent publishing sector.

In parallel to the 2017 gathering of AIP’s Women in Community Publishing Forum, the Writing Gender conference was attended by approximately forty of the AIP’s male publishers to discuss core issues that have a direct impact on women’s lives – stories that need to be told by men.

This brief conference report outlines some of the key discussions from the conference.

This 2014 research on approaches to media diversity policy in West Africa, South America, and Scandinavia aimed to develop thinking in the community and independent press in South Africa about what needs to be done to promote media diversity, and use that as a basis for advocacy in various policy and legislative forums.

For a democracy to be fully functional, transparent communication between government and its citizens is a prerequisite.

The local independent media, composed of community radio stations and newspapers, play a critical role at grassroots level. However, the local independent media sector struggles with financial sustainability and staff shortages which can negatively impact on maintaining standards

This 2013 report summarises research by the Eastern Cape Communication Forum (ECCF) and the AIP on the extent of investigative journalism in select local independent newspapers in Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, to ascertain whether government and private sector players were being held accountable through these outlets, and assess how additional training and support could strengthen investigative practices in these contexts.