Transcript Commercial Media as Development Institution

Media and Development
- New Approaches,
Changing Paradigms
Anupama Dokeniya
([email protected])
World Bank Institute
Overview

Objectives
• Understanding the role and challenges of the mass media
in furthering economic development

Traditional view of media and development
• Media as a tool of the ‘development project’
• Communicating development messages to people

New paradigm of media and development
• Enabling efficient functioning of markets by correcting
imperfect information (market information gap)
• Articulating citizen preferences and supporting better policy
outcomes (policy information gap)
• Improving institutional mechanisms for development

Challenges and Strategies for Improving
Capacity
• Capacity building, Regulatory reform
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Media & Development
- Traditional Paradigm
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Traditional paradigm – intended to support
the ‘development enterprise’
The media were communication
intermediaries – behavior change for
development effort
Communicating development messages and
policy decisions to people
Mirrored linear understanding of
development as a ‘modernization’ project
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Limitations of Traditional Paradigm

Top-down modernization paradigm
• Development as a function of people’s attitudes
and constraints – less emphasis on weak
institutions or policy failures
• One-way communications – more focus on
communicating development messages to
people than communicating citizen preferences
to governments
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Limitations of Traditional Paradigm

Separation between the economic and the
political
• Media freedom considered a political issue, and
media as watchdog of democracy did not have
impact on development per se
• Criticism could be considered being antidevelopment
• Many post-colonial developing states used this
as a means of subverting the media
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Towards a New Paradigm of Media &
Development

Role of Media in addressing underlying
constraints to development
• Market Efficiency

Imperfect Information
• Policy weaknesses
• Institutional Mechanisms
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Corruption
Inefficiency
Poor governance standards
Lack of participation
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Media and Development

Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen
• There has been no famine in a country
with a free press
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Besley et al (British economists)
have done research following on Sen
and supported these conclusions
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Media’s Role in Addressing
Market Efficiency
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Provide crucial information about the
functioning of the economy – prices, supply
information etc.
Hence enable markets to function effectively.
If media have low capacity, imperfect
information in the market, and will not
function well (prices – commodities, stocks,
business information)
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Media’s Role in Addressing
Market Efficiency: Challenges
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Media might have low capacity to report
on key economic issues
Improving skills and knowledge of
economic and business issues (eg: WBI’s
EBJ program)
Limited information availability in the
market (infrastructure, systems not well
developed)
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Media’s Role in Addressing
Policy Choices
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Media can force policy decisions that are responsive to
needs of majority because of voting pressures
Economics of the Media – because of economies of scale
and large audiences
The characteristics of commercial media determined by
logic of advertisers – the audiences that advertisers favor
etc.
Media production – economies of scale – the cost of
additional information not significantly high. Hence the
media aim for larger audiences
Media can also elicit cooperation and popular support for
good policies and reform programs
(Source: Stromberg, 2002)
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The ‘Dividend’ of Good Governance
Per Capita Income and
Regulatory Burden
Infant Mortality and Corruption
90
12,000
80
10,000
70
8,000
60
50
6,000
40
30
4,000
20
2,000
10
0
0
Weak
Average
Average
Good
Regulatory Burden
x
Control of Corruption
x
Weak
Good
Literacy and Rule of Law
Per Capita Income and
Voice and Accountability
100
10000
9000
75
8000
7000
6000
50
5000
4000
25
3000
2000
1000
0
0
Weak
x
Development
Dividend
Average
Rule of Law
Good
Weak
Average
Strong
Voice and Accountability
Note: The bars depict the simple correlation between good governance and development outcomes. The line depicts the
predicted value when taking into account the causality effects (“Development Dividend”) from improved governance to better
development outcomes. For data and methodological details visit http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance.
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Media Role in Governance & Institutional
Mechanisms
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Corruption
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Accountability
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Expose instances of corruption without fear of being penalized,
and thus can provide a check on corruption (has to be
supported by institutions of enforcement)
Hold governments accountable for the performance of their
services, for policy decisions and for public expenditures (eg:
citizen scorecards in Bangalore)
Enable citizen voice and participation – rather than behavior
change, channeling citizen voice in government
Efficiency
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Expose inefficiency in governments and public service and
force governments to become more effective
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Free Press is Correlated with Less
Corruption and Better Rule of Law
80
Percentile Rank
Rule of Law
Control of Corruption
40
0
Not Free
Average
Sources: Freedom House, 2002 and KK2002
Free
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Defining Media Independence
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Independence refers to ‘the media industry’s ability
to report information it receives without undue fear
of being penalized’ – media industry that is not
controlled by any pressure group but still has
access to necessary data. (Islam, 2002)
Press freedom is a closely related concept, and
emphasizes the media’s right to report and
comment on critical issues of public interest
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Global Snapshot of Press
Freedom
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Source: Privacy International
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Freedom House Press Freedom
Survey, 2005
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Free (Score 1-30)
• Western Europe, US (17), UK (18), Mali (23),
Ghana (26), South Africa (26), Namibia (29)
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Partly Free (Score 31-60)
• India (38), Burkina Faso (40), Lesotho (42),
Uganda (44), Tanzania (51), Nigeria (52),
Sierra Leone (59)
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Not Free (Score 61-100)
• Kenya (61), Singapore (66), Ethiopia (68),
Gambia (72), Guinea (73), China (82)
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Press Freedom: Comparing Europe
and Sub-Saharan Africa
(Press Freedom Survey, 2005, Freedom House)
Press Freedom in Western Europe
Press Freedom in Sub-Saharan Africa
2
8
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16
23
Free
Partly Free
Free
Partly Free
Not Free
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Countries Characterized as Not Free
(Press Freedom Survey, 2005, Freedom House)
Countries Characterized as 'Not Free'
0
4
10
24
16
15
Western Europe
Middle East & North Africa
Americas
Asia Pacific
Central & Eastern Europe
Sub-Saharan Africa
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Dimensions of Media Independence
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Roumeen Islam (2002):
•
•
•
•
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Ownership
Economic Structure and Financing
Legal Structure (regulatory environment)
Policies Relating to Media Industry
Press Freedom Survey:
• Economic Dimensions
• Political Dimensions
• Legal Dimensions
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Ownership Trends
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Media ownership tends to be very highly
concentrated
Global Survey (97 countries): State controls over 60
per cent of TV stations and 29 per cent of
newspapers
Global Survey: family-controlled newspapers are 57
per cent of total, and TV stations 34 per cent of total
In Africa, governments control 61 percent of the top
five newspapers, and reach 85 percent of the
audience for the top five television stations
State ownership of the media tends to be higher in
poorer countries
(Source: Djankov et al, 2002) WB research on ownership patterns)
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Ownership
(Implications of State Ownership)
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State ownership is adversely correlated with press
freedom
Negative impact on citizen’s rights and corruption
(government ownership restricts information flows
to citizens, and hence rights, also lowers
accountability)
Negative correlation with security of property
In countries with high state ownership of media,
poor health and education indicators
(Djankov et al, 2002, WB research on ownership patterns)
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Ownership
Corporate Ownership and Independence
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Restrictions of state ownership being replaced by
commercial considerations and dominance by large
corporate houses
Nexus between politicians, media owners
Commercial interests can drive media to manipulate
information – advertising revenues are important in
both developed and developing countries.
Large conglomerates – might be biased towards
other interest controlled by it
(Source, Islam, 2002, James Dean et al. Media & Empowerment in
Developing Countries)
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Political Environment
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Norms/traditions/political culture equally
important
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The BBC is state owned and accountable to the
government, but its charter gives in anonymity in
content and functioning
Even when privately owned, governments might
harrass media (in fact, harrassment might be a
substitute for ownership)
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Sources of Information

The Right to Tell, World Bank
Institute
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/righttotell.html

Press Freedom Index, Freedom
House
http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/pressur
vey.htm
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Thank You