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Public Sentinel: News Media & Governance Reform, Pippa Norris, editor |
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Is it true that the news media - when free, plural and independent - promote effective, responsive and accountable governance? Working with 
If one were to believe all these surveys that ask people about their media use, then people who are found to be “in the know” regarding public affairs are usually those who read newspapers and, to a lesser degree, watch the news. People who primarily consume or self-report a preference for entertainment usually score lower on these political knowledge questions (themselves controversial) than news junkies.
Watching the news coverage of Hurricane Gustav yesterday, I was transfixed by images of trees violently swaying and water topping over concrete barriers meant to protect people and property from natural calamities. Having grown up in a developing country with a tropical climate, I am no stranger to the fury of cyclones and some of their most devastating effects – the grievous loss of life and sense of community, the tragic separation of friends and families, and the seemingly senseless destruction of private and public goods and infrastructure. As the U.S. news media fixated on Gustav, my mind's eye juxtaposed media coverage of typhoon after typhoon, too many to mention by name, that wreaked havoc in Southeast Asia.
In the early 1990s, I was on the Editorial Board of the leading newspaper of record in Lagos, Nigeria until I left for the UK. It was called 
It often seems to me that in international development today a bifurcated reality exists when it comes to the potential or actual role of the news media in the governance agenda. For instance, in the great bilateral and multilateral agencies, many officials will, if asked, tell you that there is no doubt that the news media are a fundamental part of the architecture of good governance in their own countries. There is in these countries a tradition of thinking about the media as – collectively – the fourth estate of the realm, as co-participants in governance. But ask these same officials what role the news media can play, if supported and developed, in securing improved governance outcomes in developing countries and, suddenly, the conversation gets complicated. Why? Lots of reasons.
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