[FoME] GTZ: Mass media in local economic development

[Christoph Dietz]

Véronique Stolz, Tobias Stolz:
The Role of Mass Media in Local and Regional Economic Development
(LRED). Working Paper
Abuja (Nigeria): GTZ, Employment-oriented Private Sector Development
Programme, April 2008, 22 p.

Download: http://www2.gtz.de/wbf/doc/Mass_Media_in_LRED.pdf  [595 KB]

Across much of Africa, mass media industries have been liberalized. The
state controlled media monopolies that once dominated have been largely
replaced by diverse and predominantly private and commercially oriented
media companies. This liberalization is an ongoing process and its stage
of development differs between African countries. This is particularly
true at sub-national level media (regional and local) where development
is a result of regulatory, social, language and local economic factors.
The approach to integrating mass media in LRED processes therefore has
to be contextualized to specific national and local contexts.

This paper has been prepared by GTZ’s Employment-oriented Private
Sector Development Programme (EoPSD) in Abuja Nigeria as a result of
work that it has embarked on in media development and local economic
development. This work has built on similar work in other parts of
Africa and focuses on developing radio programmes on business and local
economic issues. EoPSD has supported the launch of two local programmes
focused on the local economic issues of two northern states in Nigeria
(Nasarawa and Niger States) and is in the process of supporting a third
station to develop business programming. This has provided EoPSD with a
working insight into the potential role of mass media in supporting
local economic development initiatives. 

This paper is split into four main sections. The first provides an
introduction to the role of mass media in the development context and as
such provides the basis for further analysis. The second explores the
role of mass media in the conceptual framework and core activities of
LRED. The third section presents the key suggested focal areas where
media can be integrated into the activities of LRED. The final section
then explores the ‘how to’ and details tools and approaches that can
be applied to make media work for local economic development.