Beyond clickbait and commerce
v13n2-3
v13n2-3
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Clare Cook<br />
Findings<br />
Grant income <strong>and</strong> donations a necessity<br />
Of the 23 cases included here, grants were substantial revenue or<br />
a way of launching in all cases. This is unsurprising given the sheer<br />
scale of media assistance funding historically. Grant income was seen<br />
as necessary where other revenue streams were impractical. Many<br />
in-country advertisers (advertisers who are based in the country<br />
where content is being served) will not advertise on oppositional<br />
sites for fear of repercussions <strong>and</strong> there are few opportunities for<br />
out-of-country adverts (such as banks or universities represent a<br />
product or service available beyond the country). One broadcaster<br />
covering Azerbaijan said: ‘We are trying to plant a tree in a desert.’<br />
Sponsorship <strong>and</strong> sales are rarely appropriate, particularly for an outlet<br />
covering Turkmenistan: ‘Selling merch<strong>and</strong>ise would be ridiculous.<br />
People are not going to wear a T-shirt in the country where even<br />
the website is locked <strong>and</strong> you have to use a proxy service to read<br />
it.’ Where content is particularly traumatic, advertisers do not want<br />
to be associated. ‘One early decision was to get advertisers but<br />
we got no one because they said it would reflect badly on them<br />
because of the content.’ A site covering the Caucasus said: ‘We<br />
write about disappearances, tortures, the hardest stories on human<br />
rights violation, <strong>and</strong> advertisers do not want to be associated with<br />
that.’<br />
Private donations (via microdonations or a fundraising campaign<br />
supported by individuals) presented complex operational challenges<br />
based on safety <strong>and</strong> infrastructure. Most of the cases made very<br />
little from user donations. They considered it impractical to ask<br />
for donations from readers. One Sri Lankan outlet said alternative<br />
secure payment systems would be needed: ‘Everyone lives in fear.<br />
I got a few messages that someone wanted to send money to me<br />
directly but I was afraid as [the government] will see their official<br />
data.’ More generally, banking was problematic for underground<br />
organisations. A Zimbabwean site said: ‘We would have to move<br />
into mobile payment more seriously, for example using EcoCash<br />
(a Zimbabwean mobile payment solution). However, it is quite<br />
onerous to get an account. You need to be selling things as an<br />
individual or company.’<br />
Even the most advanced editorially led initiatives typically generated<br />
only a fraction of the overall budget from donations. One site said:<br />
‘The Syrian diaspora is exhausted financially but they would not<br />
support the media when people are dying from hunger. Fundraising<br />
does not make sense at this time.’ Another in Asia said apathy was<br />
a major obstacle: ‘We are the only website like us but there is a<br />
very passive attitude. [They are] not very politically active <strong>and</strong> not<br />
conscious <strong>and</strong> take everything for granted.’ In-country audiences<br />
also have far more pressing concerns. They are poor <strong>and</strong> spend<br />
all their resources sending money home for people to survive so it<br />
72 Copyright 2016-2/3. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. All rights reserved. Vol 13, No 2/3 2016
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