A Quick Update from the Harvard Kennedy School/CommGAP Workshop

Greetings from Cambridge, Massachusetts!  The first day of the 2 ½ day workshop on the Roles of the News Media in the Governance Reform Agenda is wrapping up.  We are thrilled to report that we’ve had a series of rich and engaging discussions among some of the world’s best scholars and most seasoned practitioners.  So far, we have had debates, at times heated, but mostly civil, among practitioners, policymakers, and scholars on the normative underpinnings of the role of media in the governance agenda, the types of diagnostic media indicators available from around the world as well as performance metrics that have yet to be developed.  We delved into the need to clarify media assessment on multiple levels: theory, concept, method, practice, and policy.  We also talked about the roles of media in natural crises and disasters and discussed case studies from Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Arab States.  Please watch out for a complete update next week.   In the meantime, feel free to access the agenda and papers here.

Also, we know of at least two workshop participants who are blogging in real-time: Charlie Beckett, Director of POLIS at LSE (www.charliebeckett.com) and Persephone Miel, Fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society (www.mediarepublic.org).  Their views (and blogs) are highly recommended!

Photo credit: Johanna Martinson