International Media Assistance and Aid Effectiveness: Conceptual Blindspots and Institutional Incentives

Abstract

The volume of international media assistance (IMA) has significantly grown during the past two decades. Major donors, including the United States’ government, have increased support for initiatives aimed at fostering freedom of expression, media independence, diversity of opinion, democratic press legislation, investigative journalism, and equal access to information technologies. Yet, despite this explosion, we still know very little about the link between aid interventions and media transformations? This article analyzes how selected programs articulate broad media objectives with program goals and apply indicators to determine impact with the goal of understanding how media assistance goals are operationalized and measured, and how program goals are linked to broad objectives. Guided by the notion that institutions and institutional incentives matter in international aid, it is proposed that IMA program goals should not only be the reflection of normative arguments about desirable media structures and practices, and models of development and change. They also need to be viewed as the expression of the dynamics and organizational goals of aid institutions.

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