contributed to the development of the field of media assistance and hopefully sharpened programs on the ground, the key questions posed in the USAID strategic framework in 1999 remain relevant. The broader context within which the original framework was crafted, however, has changed dramatically. There are three fundamental and significant ways in which the overall context for providing media sector support has shifted. First, the democracy and governance field has matured, and promoting media sector development has emerged as a category of assistance in its own right. Media assistance has come of age and is no longer seen solely as a sub-set or on the sidelines of a civil society support program or advocacy efforts. A vibrant and healthy media sector supports broader good governance goals including free and fair elections, anti-corruption and even economic development. There is now a momentum to media sector assistance as evidenced by the convening of the 3 Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD). Second, and perhaps related, as the democracy and governance field has become more established, more has been asked of the work carried out. Following the events of 9/11, the democracy and governance field has been seen increasingly as a counterbalance to terrorism. Now more than ever, democracy and governance assistance rests on the assumption that promoting democracy abroad is crucial to ensuring security interests at home.
Third, new and emerging technologies break the boundaries of traditional media sectors and challenge the preeminence of traditional outlets as instruments of democratic development. For example, since early 2001 blogging has become a popular and influential means of shaping public opinion and they have forced mass media to consider its own role and operations. Dan Rather discovered the power of blogs when he presented documents on 60 Minutes that called into question President Bush’s military service. Conservative bloggers, however, produced evidence and arguments that the documents were forgeries and CBS was forced to apologize for inadequate reporting. This scandal marked a turning point for blogs’ role alongside the mainstream media and their potential ability to report news and exert political pressure. In the wake of 9/11, and in the face of concentration of media ownership and insidious controls of media by governments - some authoritarian, others supposedly democratic - outlets for people’s non - violent expression are essential for stability and the overall health of existing democracies.
3 Some of the most important contributions include Chapter 10 of the World Development Report 2002, “Building Institutions for Markets” and the subsequent book based on that material entitled The Right to Tell: The Role of Mass Media in Economic Development, edited by Roumeen Islam and published by the World Bank in 2002.
But "citizen journalists" as bloggers have been called, will not replace the mainstream media, even if they have challenged or even changed the way it operates. Blogs may be more democratic in that they invite fluid and open communication, but not all are responsible, reliable sources of information, or serving the public interest. The sheer numbers of blogs creates a glut of information that may discourage people from trawling through to find what is relevant to them. Bloggers are not connected to one another, so their ability to usher in an information revolution may be limited by their fragmentation. By contrast mainstream media as a whole tends to represent a broader viewpoint. A recent article in the Financial Times suggested that blogs might be more powerful in restricted societies such
MEDIA MATTERS SECTION 3: Challenges in Media Matters: Practitioner Experiences
The danger though, is that media assistance will focus on the media as a tool for governments’ public diplomacy, rather than an independent institution. In such an environment, global security concerns may trump free expression and provide political cover for further restrictions on both access to information and civil liberties. These more recent developments create new challenges for the media and for media sector support.
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