Publication: The Right to Tell : The Role of Mass Media in Economic Development
Loading...
Other Files
355 downloads
Date
2002
ISSN
Published
2002
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
A free press is not a luxury. It is at the core of equitable development. The media can expose corruption. They can keep a check on public policy by throwing a spotlight on government action. They let people voice diverse opinions on governance and reform, and help build public consensus to bring about change. Such media help markets work better. They can facilitate trade, transmitting ideas and innovation across boundaries. The media are also important for human development, bringing health and education information to remote villages in countries from Uganda to Nicaragua. But as experience has shown, the independence of the media can be fragile and easily compromised. It is clear that to support development, media need the right environment-in terms of freedoms, capacities, and checks and balances. The World Development Report 2002, "Building Institutions for Markets (rep. no. 22825)," devoted a chapter to the role of the media in development. This volume is an extension of that work. It discusses how media affects development outcomes under different circumstances and presents evidence on what policy environment is needed to enable the media to support economic and political markets and to provide a voice for the disenfranchised. To this end, it draws together the views of academics as well as perspectives from those on the front line-journalists themselves.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2002. The Right to Tell : The Role of Mass Media in Economic Development. WBI Development Studies;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15212 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Who Owns the Media?(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2001-06)The authors examine patterns of media ownership in 97 countries around the world. They find that almost universally the largest media firms are controlled by the government or by private families. Government ownership is more pervasive in broadcasting than in the printed media. Government ownership is generally associated with less press freedom, fewer political and economic rights, inferior governance, and, most conspicuously, inferior social outcomes in education and health. The adverse effects of government ownership on political and economic freedom are stronger for newspapers than for television. The adverse effects of government ownership of the media do not appear to be restricted solely to instances of government monopoly. The authors present a range of evidence on the adverse consequences of state ownership of the media. State ownership of the media is often argued to be justified on behalf of the social needs of the disadvantaged. But if their findings are correct, increasing private ownership of the media--through privatization or by encouraging the entry of privately owned media--can advance a variety of political and economic goals, especially those of meeting the social needs of the poor.Publication Information and Public Choice : From Media Markets to Policy Making(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)Contents of the report are: Overview : from media markets to policy; by Roumeen Islam. The media's influence on public policy decisions; by David Stromberg, and James M. Snyder Jr. National media and local political participation : the case of the New York Times; by Lisa M. George, and Joel Waldfogel. Minority-targeted local media and voter turnout : a summary; by Joel Waldfogel. I'm news, are you? Newspaper coverage of elected vs. appointed officials; by Riccardo Puglisi, and James M. Snyder Jr. The political impact of media bias; by Stefano DellaVigna, and Ethan Kaplan. Market forces and news media in Muslim countries; Matthew Gentzkow, and Jesse M. Shapiro. Political economy of media capture; by Maria Petrova. Fostering an independent media with a diversity of views; by Joseph Stiglitz. Media regulation in the United States; by Jonathan Levy. Aspects of two media models : France and the United Kingdom and European Union (EU) media governance; by Pierre-Yves Andrau. Three countries : three stories; by Edetaen Ojo, Ziad Majed, and Bambang Harymurti.Publication The Media and Development : What's the Story?(World Bank, 2009)This paper assesses the impact the media have on the development process. Because the media can be used and delivered in so many ways, there is no single means of analyzing its contributions to development. Thus, the paper presents a range of storylines with the common thread being the media's role in development. The paper also discusses older and newer trends in the relationship between the media and development, and how they might impact developing countries.Publication Broadcasting and Development : Options for the World Bank(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003-09)Broadcasting can have a significant part to play in the fight to reduce global poverty. At least 77 percent of the world's population is estimated to be within easy access of broadcast technology (compared to perhaps 4 percent for the Internet), broadcast services are easily accessible by the illiterate and those that speak minority languages. Broadcast operations have been proven sustainable even in low income rural areas. They can play an important role in information transfer (conveying crop prices and employment opportunities, for example). They have played an important role in a range of development projects-including interactive radio instruction, where they have been found to be a highly cost effective intervention. Access to broadcast technologies also has been found to correlate with improved access to government services. Convergence of information and communications technologies (ICT) is allowing broadcast services to be provided over telecommunications networks and Internet services to use broadcast systems. Differentiating broadcast and telecommunications is becoming increasingly anachronistic, many countries are already moving towards a model of convergence regulation that encompasses both sub-sectors. For the World Bank Group to be involved in telecommunications while eschewing broadcast will frequently involve forcing our client countries into suboptimal policy and regulatory solutions. Further, the use of broadcast to provide Internet services is a potential development opportunity that should not be ignored by the Bank in its operations.Publication Generating Genuine Demand for Accountability through Communication : Trainer's Guide(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011)The trainer s guide starts with an introduction into the conceptual framework of accountability and communication. Theoretical basics are illustrated by relevant case studies, mostly taken from CommGAP s volume accountability through public opinion. This conceptual narrative is designed to familiarize trainers with the issue and its foundations, and is followed by a suggested training structure that includes learning objectives, presentation slides and key points to be communicated to an audience of a capacity building effort. The second part of this manual contains case studies that display communication for accountability in action in developing countries. These case studies and a related exercise may be used by trainers to demonstrate and exemplify how communication can be used in order to empower citizens to hold their governments accountable. In addition to the conceptual introduction and case studies, this manual provides a brief for trainers suggesting a structure for a course on generating genuine demand for accountability through communication. Presentation slides and core lessons are proposed to enable development practitioners to launch a training session of approximately one day.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2017(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30)Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-01-09)Note: Chart 1.2.B has been updated on January 18, 2024. Chart 2.2.3 B has been updated on January 14, 2024. Global growth is expected to slow further this year, reflecting the lagged and ongoing effects of tight monetary policy to rein in inflation, restrictive credit conditions, and anemic global trade and investment. Downside risks include an escalation of the recent conflict in the Middle East, financial stress, persistent inflation, weaker-than-expected activity in China, trade fragmentation, and climate-related disasters. Against this backdrop, policy makers face enormous challenges. In emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), commodity exporters face the enduring challenges posed by fiscal policy procyclicality and volatility, which highlight the need for robust fiscal frameworks. Across EMDEs, previous episodes of investment growth acceleration underscore the critical importance of macroeconomic and structural policies and an enabling institutional environment in bolstering investment and long-term growth. At the global level, cooperation needs to be strengthened to provide debt relief, facilitate trade integration, tackle climate change, and alleviate food insecurity.Publication The Role of Desalination in an Increasingly Water-Scarce World(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-03)The cost of desalination has been plummeting over the years. As a result, desalination has become a viable option for certain strategic uses. Today, over 20,000 desalination plants in more than 150 countries supply about 300 million people with freshwater every day. Initially a niche product for energy rich and water scarce cities, particularly in the Middle East, the continued decrease in cost and environmental viability of desalination has the potential to significantly expand its use - particularly for rapidly growing water scarce coastal cities. Desalination can be seen as one option in a portfolio water supply sources, including traditional surface water and groundwater sources as well as wastewater reuse, to meet growing water demand gap. Although still relatively expensive, desalination offers the potential to enhance system reliability. As renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar expand, and as advances in concentrate management techniques make discharges from desalination plants much cheaper and safer, the prospect of producing freshwater from the sea without increasing greenhouse gases and without significant damages to the local environment become more promising.Publication Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.Publication World Development Report 2018(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018)Every year, the World Bank's World Development Report takes on a topic of central importance to global development. The 2018 Report, Learning to Realize Education's Promise, is the first ever devoted entirely to education. Now is an excellent time for it: education has long been critical for human welfare, but is even more so in a time of rapid economic change. The Report explores four main themes. First, education's promise: Education is a powerful instrument for eradicating poverty and promoting shared prosperity, but fulfilling its potential requires better policies - both within and outside the education system. Second, the learning crisis: Despite gains in education access, recent learning assessments show that many young people around the world, especially from poor families, are leaving school unequipped with even the most foundational skills they need for life. At the same time, internationally comparable learning assessments show that skills in many middle-income countries lag far behind what those countries aspire to. Third, promising interventions to improve learning: Research from areas such as brain science, pedagogical innovations, or school management have identified interventions that promote learning by ensuring that learners are prepared, that teachers are skilled as well as motivated, and that other inputs support the teacher-learner relationship. Fourth, learning at scale: Achieving learning throughout an education system will require more than just scaling up effective interventions. Change requires overcoming technical and political barriers by deploying salient metrics for mobilizing actors and tracking progress, building coalitions for learning, and being adaptive when implementing programs.