Over fifty media entities, media groups and press agencies from the Azores and the Azorean communities from the United States, Canada and Brazil expressed their wish to become members of the Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance (ADMA), a platform dedicated to exchanging ideas, cooperation and knowledge promoted by the Government of the Azores and managed by the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) of the California State University, in Fresno, USA.
There are already 52 media entities that expressed their intention to join the ADMA, share their mission and establish synergies and spaces of diffusion that promote a better knowledge of the Azores in the diaspora and vice-versa.
The memorandum of understanding for the constitution of this alliance, that is permanently open to all media organizations that wish to become a member, was formally signed last October, during the 2nd Meeting of Media Directors from the Azores and North America, promoted by the Government of the Azores, through the Regional Directorate for the Communities, in the cities of Fall River and New Bedford, state of Massachusetts.
On the last quarter of 2022, 16 media organizations from the Region have joined this project, namely Açoriano Oriental, Diário Insular, Azores TV, Antena 1 Açores, TSF Açores, Rádio Atlântida, Tribuna das Ilhas, Rádio Voz dos Açores, Diário da Lagoa, Rádio Ilhéu, IAIC – Cooperativa de Comunicação Social, Diário dos Açores, Correio dos Açores, Rádio Clube de Angra, Atlântico Expresso and Açorianíssima.
From the Unites States of America, other 16 subscribers become members of the ADMA, namely Portuguese Times, Feel Portugal in the USA, Rádio Portugal USA, O Jornal, Rádio Clube Português, Rádio Portugal, A Praça Magazine, Rádio WJFD, Rádio Voz do Emigrante, Diáspora Media Group, The Portuguese Channel, Televisão Portuguesa da Califórnia, SPTV, De Cá para Lá TV, PAMA Rádio and Rádio Lusalândia.
On this first stage, Canada is the mostly represented country in ADMA, with 19 entities participating: Portuguese in Manitoba, Rádio BC, Gente da Nossa TV, Festival Português TV, Revista Amar, Rádio Azores, Sons de Portugal, Luso Can TV, Milénio, Media Group Inc, Etc&Tal Magazine, Rádio Centre-Ville, CIRV FM, CKJS Multicultural, O Milhafre, Luso Life, Sol Português, Camões Rádio and Camões TV.
There is also one representation from South America in this organization, the Agência Incomparáveis, from Brazil.
ADMA aims to, amongst other goals, create network and debate spaces between the two sides of the Atlantic, promote a vast coverage of the Diaspora and bring to it the Azores of today, facilitate contacts and information sources between journalists and media entities and to enable the creation of spaces for internships in the area of journalism from the Azores to the USA and Canada and vice-versa.
To generate new contents targeting the Azorean descents that don’t communicate in Portuguese and to establish a contacts’ net between the Azorean and the Diaspora media entities and the American and Canadian academic community are another strategic goals of this new platform of transatlantic cooperation.
In the last two years, the Government of the Azores, through the Regional Directorate for the Communities, has developed efforts to promote the proximity and exchange between the media entities of the Azores and the American diaspora, through several initiatives and events, such as the Meetings of Media Directors from the Azores and North America that took place in May and October 2022, respectively on the Azorean cities of Ponta Delgada and Angra do Heroísmo and the North American cities of Fall River and New Bedford.
