Journalism is the first rough draft of history.
– Philip Graham, Publisher, Washington Post

Publications

CIMA commisions research reports on key topics in media develoment and also publishes reports on some of its events and working groups.

Continental Shift

Continental Shift: New Trends in Private U.S. Funding for Media Development

CIMA is pleased to release a new report, Continental Shift: New Trends in Private U.S. Funding for Media Development, by Anne Nelson, an international media consultant. This work is an update of the October 2009 CIMA report, Experimentation and Evolution in Private U.S. Funding of Media Development by the same author. This report describes and analyzes the evolving landscape of private donor support for media development.

Media Codes of Ethics

Media Codes of Ethics: The Difficulty of Defining Standards

Codes of Ethics incorporate best practices that may go beyond the laws of libel, defamation, and privacy. In the not-so-free world, these codes are not always the products of a self-regulating free press. They may represent a cultural and political compromise with a society or government that holds a more restrictive view of what journalists should and should not report. Media Codes of Ethics: The Difficulty of Defining Standards examines the different types of media codes of ethics and offers recommendations for making them more robust and useful in efforts to raise standards of journalism.

News on the Go

News on the Go: How Mobile Devices Are Changing the World's Information Ecosystem

Mobile devices now reach the farthest corners of the world. By the end of 2011, about 5 billion mobile phones will be in service in a world with 7 billion people. The implications–for politics, for education, for economies, for civil society, and for news and information–are profound. News on the Go: How Mobile Devices Are Changing the World's Information Ecosystem examines how a global information society might look with mobile media devices at its hub.

Matching the Market and the Model: The Business of Independent News Media

Matching the Market and the Model: The Business of Independent News Media, by Michelle J. Foster, a veteran international media management and marketing consultant. The report explains how lack of management skills and inexperience in developing effective business models poses a significant risk to the sustainability of independent news media. It explores a variety of different business models for media in several countries around the world and examines what lessons can be learned from those experiences.

Evaluating the Evaluators

Evaluating the Evaluators: Media Freedom Indexes and What They Measure

All over the world, studies that rank countries by media freedom figure prominently in civil liberties debates, aid programming, foreign policy decisions, and academic research. Evaluating the Evaluators: Media Freedom Indexes and What They Measure examines the strengths and shortcomings of existing media freedom indexes and offers recommendations to improve them.

Empowering Independent Media

Empowering Independent Media: U.S. Efforts to Foster Free and Independent News Around the World

CIMA’s 2008 Inaugural Report provides an in-depth assessment of U.S. international media development efforts, both public and private, and calls on future efforts to be more long-term, comprehensive, and need-driven. The U.S., through government and private sector initiatives, spends at least $142 million annually on media development efforts in countries around the world.

Under Attack: Practicing Journalism in a Dangerous World

Under Attack: Practicing Journalism in a Dangerous World

The report by Bill Ristow, a journalist and international journalism trainer based in Seattle, provides a clear look at the problem of violence against journalists and offers some potential solutions.

Continental Shift: New Trends in Private U.S. Funding for Media Development

CIMA is pleased to release a new report, Continental Shift: New Trends in Private U.S. Funding for Media Development, by Anne Nelson, an international media consultant. This work is an update of the October 2009 CIMA report, Experimentation and Evolution in Private U.S. Funding of Media Development by the same author. This report describes and analyzes the evolving landscape of private donor support for media development.

Media Codes of Ethics: The Difficulty of Defining Standards

Codes of Ethics incorporate best practices that may go beyond the laws of libel, defamation, and privacy. In the not-so-free world, these codes are not always the products of a self-regulating free press. They may represent a cultural and political compromise with a society or government that holds a more restrictive view of what journalists should and should not report. Media Codes of Ethics: The Difficulty of Defining Standards examines the different types of media codes of ethics and offers recommendations for making them more robust and useful in efforts to raise standards of journalism.

News on the Go: How Mobile Devices Are Changing the World's Information Ecosystem

Mobile devices now reach the farthest corners of the world. By the end of 2011, about 5 billion mobile phones will be in service in a world with 7 billion people. The implications–for politics, for education, for economies, for civil society, and for news and information–are profound. News on the Go: How Mobile Devices Are Changing the World's Information Ecosystem examines how a global information society might look with mobile media devices at its hub.

Challenges for Independent Media in a Post-Gaddafi Libya

This report is the result of a roundtable discussion hosted by CIMA on October 6, 2011.

The Legal Enabling Environment for Independent Media in Egypt and Tunisia

This report is the result of a roundtable discussion co-hosted by CIMA and Internews Network on September 1, 2011.

The Role of New Media in the 2009 Iranian Elections

This report is the result of a CIMA workshop held on July 7, 2009.