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41. Challenges to U.S. Government Support for Media Development

Author:
Andrew Green
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
Media play a pivotal role in U.S. foreign policy, but the two U.S. government bodies most directly involved in media development assistance—the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—face significant resource shortfalls in this area. This weakness has a direct impact on the U.S. government's ability to support media development around the world. Several units within the State Department are engaged with media efforts. Those that work in media development usually do so in cooperation with or through USAID and its media experts.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Democratization, Mass Media, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
United States

42. Print and Broadcast Media Freedom: Disparities and Openings

Author:
Karin Deutsch Karlekar
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
Broadcast media have long been subject to greater government control than print media-from outright restrictions on private ownership to licensing and other regulations that maintain state control or influence content. Using historical data from Freedom House's Freedom of the Press index, which has been conducted since 1980, this report assesses regional trends regarding differing levels of print and broadcast media freedom. While an initial set of data covering 1980-88 shows a clear pattern of print media ranked as freer than broadcast media in every country studied, a later data set covering 1994-2001 shows that while print media outlets faced fewer direct government controls, they were targeted more often by governments in terms of legal harassment and physical attacks on journalists and their facilities.
Topic:
Democratization, Government, Mass Media, and Foreign Aid

43. Digital Media in Conflict-Prone Societies

Author:
Ivan Sigal
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
The complex relationship between media and conflict is longstanding. Traditional mass media have been used to amplify and extend viewpoints and ideologies, to persuade audiences at home, and to influence opposing sides in conflict. However, both media and conflict have changed markedly in recent years. Many 21st-century wars are not only about holding territory, but about gaining public support and achieving legal status in the international arena. Governments seek to hold onto power through persuasion as much as through force. Media are increasingly essential elements of conflict, rather than just functional tools for those fighting. At the same time, newer media technologies have increased communication and information dissemination in the context of conflict. In particular, the growth of citizen media has changed the information space around conflict, providing more people with the tools to record and share their experiences with the rest of the world.
Topic:
Peace Studies, Science and Technology, War, International Affairs, and Mass Media

44. Throwing the Switch: Challenges in the Conversion to Digital Broadcasting

Author:
John Burgess
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
Broadcast television has begun the most important technological shift since its birth in the 1920s. The analog designs that from the start underlay “terrestrial” TV—over-the-air broadcasts from transmitter towers, the medium's traditional form—are giving way to the digital technology of computers. The shift has the potential to greatly expand the diversity of voices on the airwaves because digital stations, by making efficient use of the increasingly crowded airwaves, can broadcast multiple new channels. With broadcasting highly centralized in many countries today, notes Patricio Navia, a professor of global studies at New York University, “digital television might provide the opportunity to open the market to competition.”1 Digital technology can also send programming to the tiny screens of cellphones and bring interactive services to areas that have no Internet connections.
Topic:
Democratization and Mass Media

45. Experimentation and Evolution in Private U.S. Funding of Media Development

Author:
Anne Nelson
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
U.S. foundations have long funded programs in both “media development” and “media for development,” but recent political and economic trends have shifted the balance between the two fields. No one disputes the value of media development, which promotes independent news media. Nor do they doubt the importance of media for development, which emphasizes the communication of critical information to vulnerable populations, whether or not the information or the media involved meet the definition of “news.” But as U.S. journalism has entered a period of crisis, along with its philanthropies, these institutions, which have historically funded media development, have retrenched. With the U.S. advertising-based business model in peril, new avenues and approaches are being explored, with a greater emphasis on addressing the domestic model before trying to apply it abroad.
Topic:
Mass Media and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
United States

46. Funding for Media Development by Major Donors Outside the United States: A Report to the Center for International Media Assistance

Author:
Mary Myers
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
The main guiding questions for this research are: How much are European and other governments and donors spending on international media development? Where is the money going, for what sort of development (training, capacity building, infrastructure, legal or physical safety, etc.) and what are the trends in terms of donor priorities and approaches? The present study is an update of one produced for the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) by the author, with Emma Grant, in 2007 (see Grant and Myers in References). That study was, in one way, more limited in that it dealt only with media support when used by donors to enhance access to information and promote governmental accountability in developing countries. In another way it was broader in that it made recommendations about “what works” and “what are the gaps” in media support in order to guide DFID policy. The present study is less of a discussion document and more of a straight survey.
Topic:
Development, Mass Media, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
United States, United Kingdom, and Europe

47. Experimentation and Evolution in Private U.S. Funding of Media Development

Author:
Anne Nelson
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
U.S. foundations have long funded programs in both “media development” and “media for development,” but recent political and economic trends have shifted the balance between the two fields.
Topic:
Mass Media and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
United States

48. Under Attack: Practicing Journalism in a Dangerous World

Author:
Bill Ristow
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
Scores of journalists are killed every year around the world, many of them murdered for doing their jobs, and hundreds or even thousands of others face physical threats ranging from criminal beatings to kidnapping. Indeed, 30 journalists in the Philippines were killed in a single incident in late November of 2009, the worst such tragedy ever recorded.
Topic:
Political Violence, Crime, and Mass Media

49. Empowering Independent Media: U.S. Efforts to Foster Free and Independent News Around the World

Author:
Marguerite H. Sullivan
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
In the last two decades, independent media assistance has become a significant aspect of the development field, helping countries to make democratic transitions, spur economic growth, conduct public health campaigns, and improve government accountability. Efforts to spread a free press have resulted in the professional development of tens of thousands of journalists and the founding of hundreds of new media enterprises.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, International Cooperation, International Affairs, and Mass Media
Political Geography:
United States

50. The Role of Media-support Organizations and Public Literacy in Strengthening Independent Media Worldwide

Author:
Ann Olson
Publication Date:
02-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
Building independent media in developing countries requires more than freedom of speech, skilled journalists, or strong business management skills. Enabling independent media to perform the crucial roles of being a watchdog over government and educating people about the issues that affect their lives also requires supporting organizations such as trade unions and professional associations for journalists, and a public educated about these roles and responsibilities of media and their function in a democratic and open society.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, Development, Third World, and Mass Media
Political Geography:
United States