[FoME] Out now: "Comprehending Media Systems for Media Development" by Johanna Mack - Issue #4 of "Research Reviews for Development Practitioners"

[Ines Drefs]

Dear colleagues,

A new issue of our publication series “Research Reviews for Media Development Practitioners” is available! The reviews provide concise analyses of current research, both academic and non-academic, and discuss its practical relevance for international media assistance.

Out now: Comprehending Media Systems for Media Development
The fourth issue is authored by Johanna Mack, MEDAS 21 PhD student at the University Duisburg-Essen, and seeks to make media systems research more comprehensible for media development. Here are three key findings: 



* While much comparative research uses the nation state as a unit of comparison, there are strong grounds for criticising and questioning the existence of homogenous national media systems, including transnational dynamics that connect or merge media systems – international media development cooperation being one of them. This is in line with approaches that criticise Eurocentric tendencies in traditional media systems research and try to open up the geographical, theoretical, and methodological scope of the field.

*  There is a wealth of opportunity to intensify research on African media systems, although recent studies have explored the specific conditions of media in different regions and countries across the continent, pointing to the relevance of African perspectives on political, social, economic, cultural, and developmental entanglements. The particularities of media systems research on the African continent illustrate how the parallel existence of local, global, postcolonial, and transnational dynamics needs to be considered, offering a chance for new theory building.

* While literature focusing specifically on media development assistance as a variable in media systems research is still scarce, initial studies propose that international media development cooperation is an important factor influencing the development of media systems and their transnationalization.
More specialised research about development actors’ roles in and interactions with media systems could improve models of media systems and offer hints as to why they develop and function in certain ways, and what impact development work has on these developments and functionings.

The entire research review including conclusions for practitioners is available online and free of charge at:

https://fome.info/research-reviews

https://www.medas21.net/resources/#research-reviews


The publication series has been initiated by the German “Forum for Media and Development” fome<https://fome.info/> and the graduate program MEDAS 21<https://www.medas21.net/> with the aim to inform practitioners and researchers about key debates, evidence and emerging issues in international media development. It has received funding from VolkswagenStiftung<https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/en>.


Upcoming issue
Up next is:
* Constructing Peace through Media? A Literature Review on Public Communications in United Nations Peace Operations (by Roja Zaitoonie)


This review is currently being edited and will be released in the upcoming months. Stay tuned!

And then?
Further research institutions and individuals are invited to join the initiative to expand the series’ scope and reach! If you are interested in contributing as an author or reviewer, please contact ines.drefs at tu-dortmund.de<mailto:ines.drefs at tu-dortmund.de>

We hope you’ll enjoy the read!


Best wishes from the editorial team
Christoph Dietz, Ines Drefs, Sofie Jannusch, Guido Keel


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