Lies, damned lies and media development
False facts are a problem everywhere; In developing countries, they’re devastating Accusations of inaccuracies in the news media are nothing new. After all, American journalism went through its infamous “yellow” period at the end of the 19th century when invented stories helped drive the US to... |
The Free Press—Prosperity Link: Time to Reexa...
Guest post by Richard Winfield of the International Senior Lawyers Project One of the classic arguments for a free and independent press is the economic one: where the press is free and independent, robust economies are likely to flourish; where the press is government owned and unfree, economic ... |
Report: Journalism Training in the Digital Era
Thoughts from leaders in media development CIMA’s latest report, Journalism Training in the Digital Era: Views from the Field, remarks upon the digital revolution for media development. Practitioners are hard pressed to find a request for proposal that doesn’t incorporate some new media ... |
Myopia and Misallocation in Media Development
Guest post by Richard Winfield of the International Senior Lawyers Project Two years ago, my friends at CIMA revealed that of all federal foreign aid dollars, only 4/10s of one percent is aimed at assisting the development of free and independent media. The CIMA study reported that only $222 million... |
Is the Private Sector the Key to Reversing Inter...
Guest post by John Sinden of American University SIS International Relations Online Turkey, heralded as a modern secular republic, has been increasingly plagued by political polarization, authoritarian policies, and massive protests. During times of protest, Turkish citizens are finding themselves ... |
Citizen Participation and Technology: An NDI Stu...
After the Arab Spring, technology became the panacea for democratic development issues. Many programs focus on using technology to engage citizens and to spread information, but how effective are these tools at promoting democracy? Representatives from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) visited... |
Yes, media freedoms can be measured
The real question is who holds the yardstick If you hang around the halls of United Nations and World Bank long enough, you’re sure to encounter the old saw that goes something like this: “We have nothing against setting targets, but things like governance and press freedom just can’t be measu... |
Sunlight on Soft Censorship: A Global Review
Guest post by CIMA editorial consultant Thomas R. Lansner, writer/editor of Soft Censorship, Hard Impact. Writing about “soft censorship” can be hard. Hard because the definition and even the concept is relatively new and still open to debate. Hard too because soft censorship is by intent elusiv... |
Metrics in Journalism Evaluation: Can they benef...
Guest post by Amanda Wilson of UPI Next There are some basic journalism standards – accuracy, balance, good storytelling – that are sacrosanct to journalists across the world. That is the idea behind diverse attempts to create tools for evaluating journalism content produced in newsrooms or ... |
Understanding Data: Can News Media Rise to the C...
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” –Attributed by Mark Twain to Benjamin Disraeli I once heard a reporter just back from a foreign assignment grumble as she puzzled over exchange rates for her travel expense report: “I went into journalism because I was t... |