"This qualitative study of influences on a purposive sample of Afghan journalists was carried out in the year after the US military mission was declared over. After more than a hundred million dollars of Western government funding had been invested in development of liberal democratic journalism, th
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e study found the paradox of news media ‘capture’. We conceptualize this phenomenon further into political, bureaucratic, foreign-donor, and violent-actor capture. The study concludes that in countries with heavy foreign intervention, where imported journalism values are layered upon previous and continued institutional arrangements and where violence and instability continue unabated, news media work is prone to ‘capture’ by a variety of actors outside media organizations. We suggest that future research could refine a typology with six distinct forms of capture – economic, political, cultural, legal, bureaucratic, and societal." (Abstract)
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"Few aspects of Liberian society have suffered more under UNMIL than the media, which is critical for any young democracy but all the more so for one emerging from civil war. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.N. mission itself, and other donors have spent more than $10 mil
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lion since 2003 to develop a robust independent media market capable of holding Liberia’s leaders accountable — only to watch UNMIL turn around and build a media behemoth that monopolized the country’s talent, resources, and audience, making it impossible for smaller outlets to compete. UNMIL Radio, the U.N. mission’s flagship media outfit, has a budget of $1.4 million this year — more than the annual revenue of the country’s commercial media combined. We are not aware of a media market in any other democratic country where one player so dominates all others in terms of revenue and resources. And there’s a massive misrepresentation at the heart of UNMIL Radio’s presence in Liberia. Although it now masquerades as an independent media outlet, operating in the same radio space as other news providers and delivering a product that looks like that of other news providers, the U.N. shows little interest or aptitude for the hard, dirty work of independent journalism. It claims to set a standard for journalism in the country but then fails to deliver on the industry’s most important responsibility — holding leaders, not just Liberia’s but the U.N.’s own, to account." (Introduction)
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"This study has found that Uchaguzi represents a blended model incorporating both crowd-seeding (placing monitors on the ground to collect data) and crowd-sourcing (collecting information from the public). The success of crowd-seeding is a function of Uchaguzi’s partnerships with local and interna
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tional agencies. Overall, the blended model is quite remarkable in that it theoretically provides a robust monitoring mechanism incorporating feedback from both experts and ordinary citizens. Future projects in Kenya and other locations across the world should consider such a model." (Conclusion)
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"O fomento à produção cinematográfica em regime de coprodução tem sido uma saída para os países latinoamericanos que pressionados em sua cadeia produtiva pela hegemônica indústria cinematográfica norte americana têm dificuldades em desenvolver suas cinematografias. Desde da década de 19
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90, essa modalidade de realização fílmica tem sido sistematizada de forma mais consistente entre esses países, Portugal e Espanha através do Programa Ibermedia. Ao que pesem as controvérsias, este programa tem tentado cumprir o papel de promover um espaço de interação audiovisual na chamada Iberoamérica. Esse artigo tem por objetivo apresentar minha proposta de pesquisa de doutorado, que buscará avaliar a relação investimento/retorno das coproduções realizadas pelo Ibermedia nos seus últimos dez anos (2003-3013), tomando para estudo de caso 32 coproduções brasileiras realizadas com apoio do fundo, durante esse período." (Resumo)
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"Media and Information Literacy (MIL), defined as the ability to access, analyze, and create media, is a prerequisite for citizens to realize their rights to freedom of information and expression. A rights-based approach is pursued to define MIL in general, and Digital Media and Information Literacy
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(DMIL) in particular. Different projects initiated by DW Akademie are drawn on to show the importance of the aspects of creation and engagement. They illustrate that various stakeholders need to be involved so that citizens can critically access, use, and participate in the flow of information on a broad scale." (Page 1)
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"Freedom of expression and access to information inform every aspect of DW Akademie’s work in media development. Following on from this, our strategic model has human rights at its core, with our goal being to enable all people to freely inform and express themselves. The model provides a comprehe
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nsive framework for the planning and implementation of sustainable media development." (Page 1)
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"Evaluating the impact of media assistance is challenging for several reasons. Primary among them is that these kinds of initiatives operate in a complex political, social, and cultural environment. Although there has been increased attention to evaluation of media assistance, with a series of inter
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national conferences, funded research projects, and publications addressing this topic, it remains a problematic area of practice. This paper provides a survey of recent media assistance evaluation practices through an analysis of 47 evaluation documents of programs and projects from 2002-2012, identifying trends in methodology choices, and critiquing the quality of the evidence enabled through different evaluation approaches. It finds clear patterns in how, when and by whom evaluations are undertaken, but finds that these practices rarely generate useful, insightful evaluations." (Abstract)
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"This resource guide assesses the broad role of information and communication in disaster situations and complex emergencies. It highlights a number of distinct communication phases or cycles associated with emergency or crisis communication, as well as defining the broad range and diversity of init
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iatives associated with communication in such situations. The guide defines a number of frameworks for use in rapidly assessing a situation, the resultant information needs and the contextual constraints. It also defines a number of important principles associated with effective crisis communication and provides links to ‘best-practice’ resources that offer additional detail." (Conclusion, page 57)
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"In the next few decades, we face unprecedented challenges and tough choices about how to use Earth’s resources. Whether we thrive as a species will depend on our ability to think globally and creatively, and to work across borders to solve our common problems. News media worldwide should play a k
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ey role in helping us understand these problems, and in identifying and spreading the most effective solutions. The media development sector can also take a leadership role in this conversation. The sector can identify the most effective and engaging technologies and storytelling methods. It can channel resources into driving adoption of the pioneering work of environmental reporters, who are among the most innovative and collaborative practitioners of the journalism craft. The sector can partner with issue-based donors and perhaps even marketers to craft a compelling case for the importance of environmental news in regions where the topic is often neglected." (Page 6)
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"For this assessment more than 390 surveys were made in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey [...] In addition to the survey a further 150 in-depth interviews were held, complemented by a Focus Group in each country, which
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provided useful background and analytical information for the narrative parts of this report. The baseline assessment focused on the 4 objectives of the Guidelines: 1. Enabling environment and resulting responsibilities of main actors, 2. Advancing media to a modern level of internal governance, 3. Qualitative and trustworthy investigative journalism available to citizens and 4. Increasing capacity and representativeness of journalist professional organisations. In respect of the enabling environment the survey findings show that most countries have made reasonable or good progress in the field of establishing legislation and most have sufficient provisions to guarantee freedom of expression. However, there remains a serious problem in the proper implementation of the legislation ..." (Page 10)
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