Governance and the Media - A Survey of Policy Opinion

According to the Introduction to this BBC World Service Trust-commissioned survey on the role of media in governance:
"This report sets out to provide a fresh analysis of current thinking and practice about the role of media in relation to governance outcomes. Specifically, the aim was to discover from first principles - and without attempting to prove any particular thesis - what current thinking about media and governance is among a number of high level thinkers and policy makers from the governance, media and development communities. How important is media considered to be to governance and is it thought to be receiving the appropriate level of attention? Has the level of attention changed, and if so, are there any indicators which illustrate the shift? Or is there a gap between the importance ascribed to media in relation to governance and its reflection in policy, research or programmatic action?"

The report is based on 23 in-depth interviews with policy makers, academics, and practitioners from a mix of different parts of the development and media communities, from different organisations, and from those based in different geographic locations. "Part I examines how important support for media in relation to governance outcomes is thought to be and what degree of priority it currently has for the development community....Part II focuses on the reasons there might be for this gap....Part III addresses research in the field. The focus here was to understand how this particular audience views the status of research on governance and media....Part IV identifies some activities for engagement which this analysis suggests."

The findings are divided into the following categories:

• Perceptions of Importance – Media and Governance - "Media as an aspect of governance is increasingly recognised as important by those in the development policy community. A small minority tend to question the emphasis on good governance itself in the development agenda."

• The Engagement Gap - "There are some indicators that progress has been made in regard to strategic engagement by development actors; in particular, media is starting to be recognised at policy level. Despite this, strategic engagement falls far short of what is considered appropriate considering media’s importance to governance - representing a significant engagement gap." The interview respondents suggest that the role of media is especially poorly understood in the area of development strategy.  "At the heart of the matter lies the evident challenge of defining media, particularly in relation to governance - a conceptual difficulty. This affects not only how media is handled within development agencies - its place on the agenda and its institutional location - but impacts on how and whether institutions conceive that it is part of their mandate in the first place."

• The State of Research - "Research on media in relation to governance has increased, but there is room for more serious and strategic research both at the academic level and in terms of field studies, to underpin policy and to disseminate information about how interventions have worked."

• Activities for Engagement - "Perhaps more challenging are issues of aid architecture; the problem of mainstreaming media within governance programmes is clearly a complex one when aid is channelled via governments. Specialist agencies or foundations may not have this problem but may run the risk of being sidelined."
  

The report, though focused on perceptions, gleaned some of the following actions that interviewees think could make a difference in terms of the focus media receives in the future across three areas: Theory and Policy, Programmatic Support and Delivery, and Research and Shared Learnings. Among these are the following:

1. Dialogue is needed - "media practitioners [need] to engage with policy makers more directly; media leaders in developing countries should increasingly be involved in debate with policy makers in order to influence the debate and shape the agenda. Policy makers need to bring media onto the agenda in their dialogues with governments."
2. Debate on what is encompassed by media in relation to governance is needed. "This debate will influence the agenda from policy level downwards....Top‐down support is thought to have the potential to galvanise change at an institutional level more effectively than any other initiative."
3. The role of the non‐state actor within the governance agenda needs clarification.
4. "The Communications for Governance and Accountability Program (CommGAP) has identified that governance officers in the field may not have the knowledge and skills to understand media needs and is preparing a toolkit for use in the field which will distil knowledge from a range of practitioners in media support in a way which is usable by those in the field. This will be a key step towards closing the engagement gap."
5. "A bottom‐up push needs to be applied to any programme of institutional media strengthening. This involves strengthening coalitions among media players in countries to ensure support for initiatives at the ground level."
6. "Mapping of media‐related initiatives should be a part of the broader audit. In this respect, the European Commission has already taken a useful first step with its plans to audit activities and programmes fielded by member states, although this is limited to European activities. Building on this to include US [United States]‐fielded programmes would be useful. In the US, the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) is seen to be performing a useful role in bringing together different aspects of information about the sector."
7. "At university and graduate level, interest in media development issues and their contribution to governance needs to be fostered by input from academics and specific funding made available for researchers who want to work in this area....[with] [m]ore multi-donor funding of research projects, and the involvement of more researchers from developing countries."
8. "There is a perceived need for research in a number of areas:
   

     •    serious academic research or analysis which takes a broader or longitudinal view of media development across countries and its impact on development and governance outcomes;
     •    research which demonstrates the effectiveness of particular interventions, with a comparative element if possible in order to increase the learning application to other environments;
     •    research demonstrating the value of independent and community radio and TV;
     •    more content analysis; and
     •    the extension of the IREX [The International Research & Exchanges Board] Sustainability Index would be valued."

The author concludes that "the importance of supporting free and pluralistic media in relation to governance - and development outcomes - is thought to be increasingly recognised by a wide range of policy makers, academics and practitioners." Despite this, "there is an 'engagement gap' between the value assigned to its role… and the practical provision made for it in development planning, thinking and spending."