Measures of Press Freedom and Media Contributions to Development: Evaluating the Evaluators
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New York: Peter Lang (2011), vi, 343 pp.
Series: Mass Communication and Journalism, 4
ISBN 9781433112904 (hbk); 9781433112898 (pbk)
Signature commbox: 10-Cooperation-E 2011
"Press freedom indices such as those administered by Freedom House, IREX, and Reporters Without Borders have emerged as crucial tools, not only for the general public, but also for donors, implementers, and academics in their attempts to understand the relationships among media assistance, democratization, and other forms of development. Bringing together a variety of viewpoints and perspectives on evaluating media assistance, Measures of Press Freedom and Media Contributions to Development offers a critical reflection on the theories and tools of measurements that are used by the academic, donor, and civil society communities. A variety of theoretical and geographic perspectives are drawn upon, offering a timely debate from both academics and practitioners." (Publisher description)
Press freedom measures: an introduction / Monroe Price, 1
PART 1. EXAMINING EXISTING MEASURES OF PRESS FREEDOM AND MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY: A CRITICAL LOOK AT INDICATORS AND METHODOLOGIES OF MEASUREMENT
1 The Conceptualization and Operationalization of Country-Level Measures of Media Freedom / Lee Becker and Tudor Vlad, 23
2 When theory meets practice: critical reflections from the field on press freedom indicators / Gerry Power, Anna Godfrey, and Patrick McCurdy, 47
3 Examining and critiquing existing measures of media development / Andrew Puddephatt, 67
4 What are we measuring? a critical review of media development assessment tools / Fackson Banda, 89
PART 2. QUESTIONING THE ASSUMPTIONS OF PRESS FREEDOM RANKINGS: REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES
5 Press freedom and transnational online activism in China / Guobin Yang, 111
6 Freedom of the press: is a worldwide comparison possible and what is it good for? / Christina Holtz-Bacha, 129
7 Post-Soviet perspective on censorship and freedom of the media / Andrei Richter, 145
8 Comparing Cybersieves / Derek Bambauer, 171
9 Towards a new approach to evaluation / Nicole Stremlau, 191
PART 3: FROM PRESS FREEDOM INDICES TO EVALUATING MEDIA DEVELOPMENT
10 What works? The problem of program evaluation / Craig LaMay, 213
11 Good but how good? monitoring and evaluation of media assistance projects / Andy Mosher, 239
12 Measuring the impact of media assistance programs: a road map for collaboration among media researchers and media development organizations / Susan Abbott and Maureen Taylor, 257
PART 4. MAKING THE CASE FOR HOW MEDIA MATTERS: LINKAGES BETWEEN MEDIA AND DEMOCRATIC AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
13 Measuring the Media: Examining the Interdisciplinary Approach / Shanthi Kalathil, 271
14 Indicators of citizen voice for assessing media development: a communicative action approach / Tom Jacobson, Lingling Pan, and Seung Joon Jun, 281
15 Beyond borders: is media freedom contagious? / Russell S. Sobel, Nabamita Dutta, and Sanjukta Roy, 307
16 The global promotion of media diversity: models and bureaucratic imperatives in international media assistance / Silvio Waisbord, 321
PART 1. EXAMINING EXISTING MEASURES OF PRESS FREEDOM AND MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY: A CRITICAL LOOK AT INDICATORS AND METHODOLOGIES OF MEASUREMENT
1 The Conceptualization and Operationalization of Country-Level Measures of Media Freedom / Lee Becker and Tudor Vlad, 23
2 When theory meets practice: critical reflections from the field on press freedom indicators / Gerry Power, Anna Godfrey, and Patrick McCurdy, 47
3 Examining and critiquing existing measures of media development / Andrew Puddephatt, 67
4 What are we measuring? a critical review of media development assessment tools / Fackson Banda, 89
PART 2. QUESTIONING THE ASSUMPTIONS OF PRESS FREEDOM RANKINGS: REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES
5 Press freedom and transnational online activism in China / Guobin Yang, 111
6 Freedom of the press: is a worldwide comparison possible and what is it good for? / Christina Holtz-Bacha, 129
7 Post-Soviet perspective on censorship and freedom of the media / Andrei Richter, 145
8 Comparing Cybersieves / Derek Bambauer, 171
9 Towards a new approach to evaluation / Nicole Stremlau, 191
PART 3: FROM PRESS FREEDOM INDICES TO EVALUATING MEDIA DEVELOPMENT
10 What works? The problem of program evaluation / Craig LaMay, 213
11 Good but how good? monitoring and evaluation of media assistance projects / Andy Mosher, 239
12 Measuring the impact of media assistance programs: a road map for collaboration among media researchers and media development organizations / Susan Abbott and Maureen Taylor, 257
PART 4. MAKING THE CASE FOR HOW MEDIA MATTERS: LINKAGES BETWEEN MEDIA AND DEMOCRATIC AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
13 Measuring the Media: Examining the Interdisciplinary Approach / Shanthi Kalathil, 271
14 Indicators of citizen voice for assessing media development: a communicative action approach / Tom Jacobson, Lingling Pan, and Seung Joon Jun, 281
15 Beyond borders: is media freedom contagious? / Russell S. Sobel, Nabamita Dutta, and Sanjukta Roy, 307
16 The global promotion of media diversity: models and bureaucratic imperatives in international media assistance / Silvio Waisbord, 321
