Problematizing ‘media development’ as a bandwagon gets rolling

• Published in: The international communication gazette Vol. 72; no. 7; pp. 547 - 565
• Main Author: Berger, Guy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-11-2010; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Density; Donation; Foreign aid; Intervention; Mass Media; Mass Media Effects; Meaning; Media; Media studies; Mobilization; Programming (Broadcast); Terminology; UNESCO; media assistance; UNESCO; media and development; foreign aid; media sustainability; donors; media density; new media; media studies; media development; media and democracy
• ISSN: 1748-0485; 1748-0493
• DOI: 10.1177/1748048510378143

International initiatives have gained momentum around analysing ‘media development’ — a notion related to, but generally distinct from, media’s contribution to ‘development’. The focus on the ‘development’ of media is conventionally (although not logically) about international interventions in non-dense media environments. The conceptual and normative character around the terminology of ‘media development’ can be critically interrogated, and the meaning of the phrase revised with the aid of the concepts of ‘media mobilization’ and ‘media density’. The topic can also be contextualized against a historical backdrop, and questioned in terms of its assumptions about media effects. Critical theorization of ‘media’ also shows the need to go beyond the blinkers of ‘old’ media.