Locally led. Accessible. Designed for newsrooms. Why ABCID’s Foundations of Journalism has been recognised with a Gold Award for Service Design.
How do you design a journalism training programme that works across multiple countries, languages and newsrooms, in places where access to formal training is often limited?
For ABC International Development, the answer lay in carefully listening to media partners and designing a solution shaped by their realities.
That approach resulted in Foundations of Journalism – ABC International Development’s flagship journalism training program – which was recently awarded a Gold Award in Service Design at the Australian Good Design Awards.
“Foundations of Journalism was created in direct response to what media leaders across the Indo-Pacific described as their biggest challenge: finding time and capacity to train journalists on the job, while running busy newsrooms, often with a high turnover of staff and limited resources,” says Peta Bulsara, Co-Designer and Project Manager for Foundations of Journalism.
The small but mighty media sector in Palau is an example of where the program has been vital.
“With small communities and small newsrooms, experience tells us that high turnover in media personnel will continue to be our major challenge,” says Leilani Reklai, publisher of Island Times newspaper and President of the country’s Media Council.
“I’ve taken journalism courses over the years, and the Foundations of Journalism is the most practical, easy to learn, and fits perfectly with many of our journalists who don’t have a full journalism background, but [have] a desire to tell stories that make a difference in their communities,” she says.
“The programme immediately improves output from the journalists, especially in conducting better interviews, seeing what inclusion really means in their stories, and taking right photos that brings colour to their stories. …It’s helping us mature as reporters and greatly improving the quality of content we put out.
From little things, big things grow
Yet Foundations of Journalism needed to walk, before it could run. It began with a research phase, which included observing a four-month journalism fundamentals pilot in 2022 – from which 75 percent of participants gained full-time work — the design team identified a clear opportunity.
They realised that while a four-month programme would be a stretch for most newsrooms, they could put the journalism theory online, so the bulk of the theory-based learning could happen anytime – alongside on-the-job learning – shrinking the time impact on trainers and pair it with locally-led facilitation.
“This meant that newsroom trainers could focus on what they do best: sharing their experience and knowledge of local context, because the theory doesn’t change but the context does,” says Peta.
“And that’s how Foundations of Journalism began: by making high-quality journalism training more accessible, sustainable and locally led across the Indo-Pacific.”
“The fact that it is backed by a trusted name in the region like the ABC; it has given media leaders – and participants – great confidence in the content.”
Award-winning design, global impact
The resulting Foundations of Journalism program, includes 29 self-paced online learning modules, written and edited by some of the region’s best journalists and experts, and hosted on a purpose-built platform with online and offline access; an element particularly critical in locations across the region where access to internet can be limited or cost prohibitive. The modules are delivered in five themes, with each theme building on the other, laying a strong foundation for journalists and creating a baseline for skills.
So far, the programme has been rolled out in seven countries – Fiji, Palau, Tonga, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Timor-Leste – in partnership with 13 media organisations. The online components are already available in English, Tetun, Tongan, Solomon Islands Pijin, Bahasa Indonesian and Samoan, with more languages planned.
In awarding the program Gold for its inclusive design, the Australian Good Design Award judges said that “Foundations of Journalism sets a benchmark in its field and is a powerful model for respectful, high-impact international development.”
“Designing a training program to uplift quality in remote areas is great – to make it accessible and not reliant on constant in-person travel makes it even better.
“Strengthening regional journalism should be applauded by the ABC. This project truly sets a new benchmark for Service Design. Well done to the Design Team.”
Hitting the right notes
Despite the kudos of the Award, Peta and co-designer Rita Narayan say the active take up of the program by newsrooms has brought the biggest sense of achievement.
One example is Papua New Guinea’s TVWAN, whose Chief Editor Salome Alman, says that the program provided her team with an important ‘reset’ to adapt and thrive in the age of news on social media.
“The lessons we went through not only reset our skills and knowledge on how to be effective communicators,” she says. “[And] it was a reality check for most, having to deal with the impact of social media. It snapped us back to reality that the traditional way of mainstream communication is being challenged on a whole new level.”
“The lessons we have learnt and re-learnt, are rubbing off on other production staff. We teach as we go, and so I’ve noticed that production staff like video editors and directors now have the same understanding as the newsroom, because we’ve improved our way of delivering stories.”
In Fiji, Caroline Delaivoni–Ratucadra from the Fiji Sun notes that the Foundations of Journalism has helped improve how her team write stories and make ethical decisions, with reporters’ confidence lifting.
“We’ve seen real changes with our reporters,” reflects Caroline. “They now have better story structure, stronger fact-checking, and a more professional newsroom.”
“The programme worked well because it was practical, easy to use, and suited to our local context with its focus on real-world journalism. It provides tools to handle tough situations, verify facts, and tell important stories. …It has helped us build a more resilient and principled newsroom.”
A win for Indo-Pacific journalists
Foundations of Journalism Co-designer, Rita Narayan, looks back with quiet satisfaction on the journey of the programme.
“As someone who was a part of the design phase, it’s heartwarming and humbling to listen to stories of how journalists in different countries have embraced the lessons and are applying their learnings in their daily work,” says Rita.
On the Good Design Award, she adds: “This win is for all the young journalists who are new to the media industry, as well as for those mid-career journalists across the region who have stepped out of their comfort zones to refresh their journalism skills and learn new tools.”
“This award is not just for us; it belongs equally to the media organisations and associations across the Indo-Pacific – our partners – who have brought this programme to life in their organisations.”
The Foundations of Journalism programme was created through the support of ABC ID’s Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS), the Papua New Guinea Media Development Initiative (MDI) and the Media Education for Development and Information Access (MEDIA) platform, which is funded under the Australian Government’s Indo-Pacific Broadcasting Strategy.
