Beyond clickbait and commerce

While there is no universally accepted definition of media
development, media for development, media assistance nor
independent media, the normative assumption is that activity
should support media systems that promote freedom of
expression, plurality and diversity, strengthened media capacity,
and professional training and skills development (GFMD 2008).
The logic has been creating external pluralism through different
media companies operating in one country to build democracy,
assure access and voice to citizens. Scholars have explored how
media can raise awareness and affect accountability (Bratic 2006;
Becker 2011), and freedom of the media is highly correlated with
broader political freedoms (Karlekar and Becker 2014). Although
the effect is arguable, reductions in restrictions on journalists can
have a positive impact on corruption (Brunetti and Weder 2003;
Chowdhury 2004). On the face of it, media development responds
to challenges through an integrated model of support to tackle a
deficiency of business skills, lack of market data and increasingly
audience research (Foster 2014).
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Which media funding models are most appropriate, however, is
much contested. Promoting external pluralism via private media,
funded by traditional choice-driven advertising and sales revenues,
is questionable, given the current flaws and crisis in the ‘free
market’ model (Peters 2010; Higgins 2014). Instead, low- or nointerest
loans, public funding or subsidies are more likely to support
quality, transparent media systems. Research in emerging markets
suggests ‘high levels of competition in markets with limited
advertising revenues may lead to poor journalistic performance’
(Becker et al. 2009). Rather, if it is accepted that media play a role
in democratic society – and a policy briefing by the BBC Media
Action highlights the ‘urgent relevance’ of public service media in
fragile states (Harding 2015) – it could follow that this public good
should receive public support or some form of subsidy or funding
intervention. But donor funding can create a cycle of dependency
undermining efforts to earn revenues. Reviewing the impact of
donor media assistance in sub-Saharan Africa, Myers (2014) finds
that it has, discouraging movement towards advertiser-funded highaudience
content. Either way, according to Berger (2010) ‘there
seems to be an underplaying of business aspects and sustainability
issues as a necessary feature for rendering a particular mediascape
“developed”’.
Most recently, grant organisations have moved away from funding
media directly in favour of tiered support across development stages,
projects or initiatives. According to media NGO International Press
Centre: ‘Media centres will have to creatively think of rendering
services for which they could receive payment so as to be able
to meet aspects of their operational costs’ (CIMA 2007). Equally,
members of IFEX, the global freedom of expression network,
reported it had become ‘strikingly more difficult to obtain funding
Copyright 2016-2/3. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. All rights reserved. Vol 13, No 2/3 2016 69