"Despite the growing importance of media assistance, recent developments in this field have gone largely unnoticed by journalism and mass communication studies. Therefore, this paper will analyze the status quo of international media assistance and provide a literature review. Authors engage in theorybuilding by suggesting an economic theory of journalism to explain impact problems of media assistance projects, and they will present data from an empirical study currently being conducted. The study uses quantitative and qualitative methods to survey 600 media professionals from developing and transition countries, to provide first time data on the impact of media assistance programs on the attitudes and characteristics of journalists, the organizational influences of media assistance, and the function of journalism in societies of developing countries." (Abstract)