Introduction The field of media development has come a long way in the past 20 years, growing and maturing in an era of global political transformation since the early 1990s. But if this field of work–a cornerstone of building open societies and democratic pluralism–is to maintain its presence as an important development sector, it must demonstrate more effectively the positive results that come from building a culture of professionalism and independence in media.
Assessment of Ghana’s Media Landscape
The Global Forum for Media Development has contributed to efforts to increase the coordination of the players in the field; analyze the approaches, successes, and future of the sector; and develop more robust evidence of the impact of media development on the broader development agenda. One element of this effort is the GFMD toolkit for assessing media landscapes. The toolkit is designed to allow media development organizations to carry out their own assessments in order to identify areas for media development programs and to provide data to support their analysis. It draws upon the experience of initiatives and programs that highlight the need for improved evaluation of the results in the field of media development. The toolkit was developed by the GFMD in partnership with IREX in 2009-10. This pilot assessment, focused on Ghana, tests the toolkit’s ability to assess media landscapes. The goal of the assessment was not as much to provide a new assessment of the media sector in Ghana as it was to demonstrate the use of the toolkit. This was an opportunity to test the strengths and weaknesses of the toolkit, provide future users with pointers on how best to use it, and help users overcome likely challenges. The pilot study in Ghana was carried out in partnership with IREX and in collaboration with the Center for International Media Assistance. The aim is simple: to demonstrate more clearly how media development programs improve the media and how the development of a professional media sector supports the achievement of broader agenda for governance and economic and social development. Filling the Gap The GFMD toolkit tries to create a bridge between extensive and expensive research and an approach that relies largely on expert reviews. A variety of media sector assessments and analyses are widely used by the media development community with new tools regularly being created. The IREX Media Sustainability Index, Freedom House’s Freedom of the Press index, The African Media Barometer, and Reporters Without Borders’s Press Freedom Index are some of the
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Center for International Media Assistance