"The media culture of Syrians is strongly dominated by satellite television which is the most widely accessible type of media for Syrians across the sample. Beyond satellite television, access to media is primarily dependent on location with people in government controlled areas enjoying the best ac ... cess and people in refugee camps in Turkey being the most badly serviced. Within Syria, especially access to newspapers is strongly location dependent with anti-regime controlled areas being almost completely cut off from distribution. Where media is less widely available people rely more heavily on personal sources of information such as oral communication, mobile phones and email. When access is not an issue, as given in government controlled areas, television and the internet are the most used types of media." (Page 2) more

"Improving state accountability is a central preoccupation of development efforts. How individuals and institutions can and do hold governments to account for their actions and decisions differs radically between societies. Furthermore, what accountability actually means can differ greatly from one ... context to another [...] This briefing introduces BBC Media Action’s approach to accountability, with particular focus on empowering individuals to play a role in holding those in power to account. It also describes the development of a framework for understanding and measuring such individual empowerment. The paper then draws on qualitative research conducted in Kenya by BBC Media Action to illustrate the application of this framework and to validate an approach to measuring impact through qualitative and quantitative cross-cultural research. This approach will be used across evaluation of accountability-focused projects." (Executive summary) more