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Is There a Link Between Media and Good Governance? What the Academics Say

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2012), 45 pp.

Contains bibliogr. pp. 36-38

"From this short survey of some key thinkers, can we conclude that there is a causal link between media and good governance? Does the existence of a free media increase accountability and reduce corruption? Do media influence society in positive ways and liberate the individual? As one would expect, the short answer is “it depends.” There is no consensus or easy, single answer to these questions. Neither is there a set of recommendations in a report such as this one, apart from common-sense recommendations to those donors and policy-makers who may be reading, to thoroughly understand media and politics in a given country before intervening, as well as the caution to do no harm. It is hoped that this report has introduced and shone a light on academic research related to subject of media and democracy. There are obvious differences between the media environments that are studied by the scholars profiled above: established democracies (in the case of Norris), developing countries (Nyamnjoh, Berger, Sen, Reinikka and Svensson, Besley and Burgess), and fragile/post-conflict states (Allen, Putzel, and Stremlau), which show the importance of, above all, context." (Conclusion, page 34)