about mma
Welcome to Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), founded in 1993 and located in Johannesburg, South Africa. Our mission is to champion ethical journalism that upholds human rights, fostering an environment where both media and influential entities honour human rights while advancing democracy and the principles of justice and fairness. Leveraging technology, social media, and data tools, MMA implements effective media strategies for impactful change.
At MMA, our vision is to cultivate a media landscape characterized by freedom, fairness, ethics, and critical engagement, not only in South Africa but throughout the African continent.
To realize our vision, we concentrate on three pivotal areas guided by a human rights-centric approach:
- • Upholding media ethics
- • Enhancing media quality
- • Safeguarding media freedom
Aligned with these principles, our work unfolds across four key programme areas:
- Research, Monitoring, and Analysis
- Media and Public Skills Development
- Litigation, Advocacy, and Lobbying
- Community Development and Engagement
Our Values
Our Values
Our theory of change
Embedded within our strategy is the MMA Theory of Change, structured around the following goals and outcomes:
Goal: Cultivating a responsible, high-quality media sector that defends human rights, fortifies democracy, and fosters a just and equitable society.
Change one: Heightened awareness among policymakers, media professionals, and the public regarding information rights, cultivating a supportive community and public agenda for the advancement of these rights.
Change two: Empowerment through enhanced skills among media practitioners, youth, and the broader public within the modern information ecosystem.
Change three: Cultivating a diverse, ethical, and accountable information ecosystem, bolstered by media coverage of rights issues and increased public trust in media institutions.
Change four: Advocating for a media policy environment and legal framework conducive to media freedom, progressive digital and information rights, and an informed and empowered citizenry.
The problem we seek to address
We seek to address complex problems broadly in the media sector which require nuanced and strategic approaches to addressing them. The four problems we seek to address are:
- • Lack of accountability of media outlets to their audiences
- • Insufficient media quality and diversity
- • Threats to media freedom
- • Lack of effective audience engagement processes
The solution we offer
Our approach is to build on what works and find pragmatic solutions for what doesn’t. As such we offer the following tailored services to our partners.
- • Online tools for journalists and editors to do their work better
- • Research that helps media measure performance and also understand their audiences
- • Training and expert views to meet skills gaps and ethical practices in media
- • Policy submissions that help policymakers formulate policies that promote media freedom
- • Digital literacy as well as platforms for informed citizen engagement with media and the powerful
What we aim to achieve
- • 50% increase in the use of our tools by journalists and audiences
- • 50% increase in media mentions
- • 30% increase in social media engagement with MMA materials
- • Continued qualitative credibility of our work based on feedback with key stakeholders
Each of these indicators can be measured using data drawn from our tools, well as what our partners say about us.
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