How to Assess Your Media Landscape

"It is clear that assessing media development is much more than just a research activity; it is a conceptually-informed process of enquiry and a conscious act of intervention in remedying the problems brought to light as a result of the assessment exercise."

Commissioned by the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), this report surveys some of the instruments available for assessing media development. It sets out advice around clarifying the purpose and focus of assessment, and how this impacts upon the issues around choosing, creating, and using tools for assessing some aspect of the media landscape.

The report first lists several "models" of media development assessment tools. These include:

• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) indicators of media development
• The Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
• The African Media Barometer
• The African Media Development Initiative (AMDI), "Strengthening African Media" (STREAM), and African Media Initiative (AMI) processes
• The comparative legal survey of African media legislation
• The UNESCO Criteria for excellence in African journalism education
• The AfriMAP Survey on Public Broadcasting.

Each of these tools has specified criteria and indicators for "measuring" media development. According to the authors, in many cases the focus has tended to be on assessing particular dimensions across the totality of the cultural circuitry of media production, representation, consumption, and regulation. Thus, "[a]spects may be relevant to your own particular purpose."

The report recommends the need for the following: a clear decision about the scope of the assessment; a consciousness of normative value positions; clarity about the cause-effect aspects of the assessment; clarification of utilitarian concerns; development of discrete indicators of measurement; practicality of the assessment tool; and longevity of timeframe.

Second, the report addresses the question of how to implement an assessment exercise. Although most media development assessments tend towards the qualitative approach, this study calls for a purposive triangulation that incorporates aspects of methodological, ethnographical, geographical, and gender "triangulation". This is aimed at enhancing the assessment tool's representativeness, credibility, dependability, and conformability.

Third, as a way of further enhancing data quality assurance, the report stresses the importance of an "ethnographic" data interpretation and report-writing process that helps ensure ownership of the final assessment product by various stakeholders. The authors also highlight the need to develop and elaborate clear post-publication publicity and advocacy plans and activities - "an organic part of validating the findings of the assessment exercise."