Media and Development - New Approaches, Changing Paradigms

1. Media and Development- New Approaches, Changing Paradigms Anupama Dokeniya (adokeniya@worldbank.org) World Bank Institute

2. 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

3. Media & Development - Traditional Paradigm • 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

4. 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

5. 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 anti-development • Many post-colonial developing states used this as a means of subverting the media

6. Towards a New Paradigm of Media & Development • Role of Media in addressing underlying constraints to development • Market Efficiency • Imperfect Information • Policy weaknesses • Institutional Mechanisms • Corruption • Inefficiency • Poor governance standards • Lack of participation

7. Media and Development • Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen • There has been no famine in a country with a free press • Besley et al (British economists) have done research following on Sen and supported these conclusions

8. Media’s Role in Addressing Market Efficiency • 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)

9. Media’s Role in Addressing Market Efficiency: Challenges • 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)

10. Media’s Role in Addressing Policy Choices • 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)

11. Per Capita Income and Infant Mortality and Corruption Regulatory Burden 12,000 90 80 10,000 70 8,000 60 50 6,000 40 4,000 30 20 2,000 10 0 0 Weak Average Good Weak Average Good Regulatory Burden Control of Corruption x x Literacy and Rule of Law Per Capita Income and Voice and Accountability 100 10000 9000 8000 75 7000 6000 50 5000 4000 3000 25 2000 1000 0 0 Weak Average Good Weak Average Strong Development Rule of Law x Voice and Accountability Dividend The ‘Dividend’ of Good Governance 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.

12. Media Role in Governance & Institutional Mechanisms • Corruption • 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) • Accountability • 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 • Expose inefficiency in governments and public service and force governments to become more effective

13. Free Press is Correlated with Less Corruption and Better Rule of Law Sources: Freedom House, 2002 and KK2002

14. Defining Media Independence • 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

15. Global Snapshot of Press Freedom

16. Source: Privacy International

17. Freedom House Press Freedom Survey, 2005 • Free (Score 1-30) • Western Europe, US (17), UK (18), Mali (23), Ghana (26), South Africa (26), Namibia (29) • Partly Free (Score 31-60) • India (38), Burkina Faso (40), Lesotho (42), Uganda (44), Tanzania (51), Nigeria (52), Sierra Leone (59) • Not Free (Score 61-100) • Kenya (61), Singapore (66), Ethiopia (68), Gambia (72), Guinea (73), China (82)

18. Press Freedom: Comparing Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa(Press Freedom Survey, 2005, Freedom House)

19. Countries Characterized as Not Free(Press Freedom Survey, 2005, Freedom House)

20. Dimensions of Media Independence • Roumeen Islam (2002): • Ownership • Economic Structure and Financing • Legal Structure (regulatory environment) • Policies Relating to Media Industry • Press Freedom Survey: • Economic Dimensions • Political Dimensions • Legal Dimensions

21. Ownership Trends • 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)

22. Ownership (Implications of State Ownership) • 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)

23. Ownership Corporate Ownership and Independence • 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)

24. Political Environment • Norms/traditions/political culture equally important • 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)

25. 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/pressurvey.htm

26. Thank You