The Drum Beat 478 - Blogging on Development Policy
This issue of The Drum Beat alerts you to new and recently posted blogs addressing: a research agenda for media and democracy; public interest media; long-term sustainable change; working within disaster-affected communities; the "fairness doctrine"; and media development trends of 2009. Please read the full blogs and add your comments to them. And let us know if you want to become a CI blogger!
- An invitation to BECOME A CI BLOGGER.
- New blog on a RESEARCH AGENDA FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY.
- New blog on SUBSIDISING INDEPENDENT PUBLIC INTEREST MEDIA.
- New POLL on key new media trends.
- Recent blogs added to the DEVELOPMENT POLICY SITE.
- An invitation to INTERACT WITH CI BLOGGERS.
- New blog on SOCRATES AND LONG-TERM SUSTAINABLE CHANGE.
Do you have experience in development policy issues and challenges? Do you have ideas you want to float past a large group of your peers? Become a CI Blogger.
Contact Warren Feek at wfeek@comminit.com
NEW BLOG: RESEARCH AGENDA FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY
PLEASE READ AND COMMENT ON THE BLOG EXCERPTED BELOW (full text click here)
1. Media and democracy in fragile states: the promises and problems of policy relevant research
by James Deane
"Earlier this month, we worked with the Institute of Development Studies in the UK to organize a research symposium on media and democracy in fragile states. The idea was to bring a small group of serious development thinkers and thinktanks from different disciplines together with some renowned media researchers - and practitioners like ourselves. Our aim was to discuss what a more serious and robust research agenda on media and democracy might look like. The focus was especially on developing countries where democracy and governance is fragile.
We called it a "research dialogue across disciplines" and it was conceived as a way of bringing together economists, governance researchers, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists as well as media researchers to identify different perceptions and shared interests of this issue. We were somewhat blighted by illness but still had excellent participants including from the London School of Economics, Overseas Development Institute, IDS and the Department for International Development.
One reason for organizing the meeting with IDS was to test some perceptions we at the BBC World Service Trust had about the state of research about media in fragile states. We didn’t know whether these were fair or not and wanted to find out..."
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NEW BLOG: SUBSIDISING INDEPENDENT PUBLIC INTEREST MEDIA
PLEASE READ AND COMMENT ON THE BLOG EXCERPTED BELOW (full text click here)
by James Deane
"One of the pleasures of coming from and living in the UK is how many people say nice things about our media. They say terrible things too, but especially if you work for an organisation which carries the BBC brand, by and large you get a feeling that public interest media is one thing the country does well. It is often held up by others as a good model to follow.
The British model, particularly with regard to public service broadcasting, has in fact very rarely worked elsewhere. Examples where former monopoly state broadcasters have been successfully transformed into financially sustainable and politically independent public service media have proved sparse.
The question being asked now in the UK is whether the model is working here anymore either. There are multiple reviews of public service broadcasting and public service media being published, the most recent of which from the regulator, Ofcom, came out this week. They tend to point in different directions but all of them agree that big changes are on their way. Decisions by governments and regulators that will fundamentally reshape the future of public interest media in the country are close at hand..."
COMMENT ON THIS BLOG:
Read the Blog and post a comment or question click here.
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VOTE in our NEW MEDIA DEVELOPMENT POLL:
Of the following media trends, which do you consider the most key for media development in 2009? [Choose as many as you wish; add your own in the "Comments" box. Click here for more insight on these trends.]
- There is a decreasing difference between a journalist and a citizen reporting events.
- There is increasing interactivity between media and its public.
- News aggregation processes are becoming more prominent than single news brands.
- Free and independent media processes are being replaced by an increasing number of varied media outlets.
- The traditional media (i.e., television, radio, newspapers) are decreasingly important media "players".
VOTE and COMMENT click here.
RECENT BLOGS added to the Development Policy website
by Imogen Wall
"In the days after Cyclone Nargis in Burma, survivor Kyaw Kyaw was desperate. His house had survived the cyclone - just. But what if more was coming? Kyaw needed to know. Desperately poor though he was, he and two other families scraped together US$5 - enough to purchase something they saw as vital after the disaster: a small transistor radio. "We don't spend a single day without listening to the weather report", he says. In these days of saturation coverage when a major disaster hits, we are all familiar with what devastated populations need. Or rather, we think we are..."
Read More OR Post a Comment or Question click here.
4. Winds of Change - Media Development Trends and Questions
by Warren Feek
"This blog is based on a presentation from the Athens Global Forum for Media Development Conference, December 8 2008. Responses to the presentation were collected at the Conference and were posted below. Please add your comments as well. Let me start with the Core Question: If the Media Development field and community (however you define it) is to further grow and develop, what significant trends will it need to address and/or take advantage of? Five "starter" answers from my perspective follow..."
Read More OR Post a Comment or Question click here.
by James Deane
"Rush Limbaugh, the right wing US radio talk show host, argues that one of the priorities of the new Democratic Congress will be the reintroduction of the "Fairness Doctrine". This doctrine - implemented and overseen by the US Federal Communication Commission until 1987 - held that holders of broadcast licenses issued in the US had to present news and other public interest coverage in ways that were honest, balanced and equitable. It was designed to ensure that the public had access to a range of political perspectives, analysis and information..."
Read More OR Post a Comment or Question click here.
Have you read a blog through The Drum Beat that you agreed or disagreed with? Let the blogger know! Go to the Development Policy website - click here and click on "Post a Comment or Question" below any of the blogs.
NEW BLOG: SOCRATES AND LONG-TERM SUSTAINABLE CHANGE
PLEASE READ AND COMMENT ON THE BLOG EXCERPTED BELOW (full text click here)
6. The Athenian Way!...or should that be "Why?"
by Warren Feek
"A combination of 5,000 years of history, great political thought, riots in the streets and tobacco smoke in bars, restaurants, homes, and just about every other place can either sharpen or deaden the development mind. Welcome to Athens, last week. We were warned not to leave the hotel, but of course we all did. And the Greek salad of history, thought, riots, and tobacco smoke proved tasty for the development palate.
5,000 years of history should teach us that we need long-term time horizons for the kind of substantive development changes we are seeking. Of course there can be short term "victories", but those can quickly ebb away if they are not solidly grounded. We have seen this with journalists and media rights in Russia; democratic reforms in Thailand; and political processes in South Africa. These are long processes. They have no single solution. People themselves in these contexts will drive [and resist] these changes. Backward steps will happen. Too much development thinking and action is far too short-sighted. This particularly applies to the programme support. OK - the MDGs are to 2015 but most programme support remains 1, 2 or 3 years in length - far too short?
Of course 5,000 years is just a little excessive. We do not live now in the historically comparable era of the Epidavrus theatre. But the point still stands. Long-term sustainable change takes time - lots of time. We can [and should] all accelerate the pace and strive for quick results. But if that means short-cuts in building the essential foundations for change such as the inclusion of different population groups, full consideration from different perspectives of the options available, open and transparent decision making processes, then the short-cuts will be rendered, at best, useless and maybe counter-productive..."
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