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Media Assistance Post the Taliban Regime and the Implications for Transforming the Afghan Social System

Noah W. Miller

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Master Thesis (2003), iii, 45 pp.

"In the case of media assistance in Afghanistan, financial and organizational resources originate almost exclusively from Western donors and INGOs, which largely bypass the Afghan Government. Organizations within the funding chain thus hold a functional form of power arising from the deployment of a ... llocative resources and it enables them to attempt an instigation of social change in Afghanistan. According to the notion of power associated with Talcott Parson, a functional form of power requires coordination and collaboration in order to achieve collective goals within a political process. However, conflicts may arise in Afghanistan if collective goals diverge among the various foreign and domestic participants involved in altering the media space. This could occur if the various participants do not envision the outcome of media assistance objectives as a zero-sum game. Additionally, Giddens asserts that Parson underestimates the contestation of the norms necessary to pursue collective goals in the first place. Even though the Afghan Government and international donors purportedly agree on the installation of a democracy with a free and independent media, they still need to overcome resistance from existing power holders or entrenched structural properties impeding such a development. In the context of Afghanistan, it is very conceivable that media assistance could prompt intentional or even unintentional consequences caused by social actors discontent with the normative values and goals promulgated by media assistance. Such unintentional conditions may render the desired outcomes of media assistance providers impossible and undermine the desired social transformation. It is erroneous, though, to apply a positivist view that judges the success or failure of media assistance according to the outcome of the flux between structure and interaction alluded to in chapter four. In fact, such a view would be contrary to the propositions of structuration theory that imply a lack of definable boundaries in which structure and interaction intermingles. Equally wrong is to evaluate the media assistance effort by funding amounts contributed by donors, even though financial resources are a pre-requisite for rebuilding the media infrastructure. Instead, media assistance can be conceived as a form of empowerment that imbues a target society with a collective consciousness concerning its ability to alter structural properties, which represent forms of power and domination according to Giddens. The success of media assistance therefore is to produce a collective awareness that individuals can influence the structural properties of a social system, regardless of the direction of change emanating from the mediation of structure and action. The process of change requires not only the acquisition of functional power through allocative resources, but also the acquisition of transformative power by means of controlling authoritative resources, which are involved in the coordination of a social system. Afghans need to control the actors or institutions that selectively filter information in order to reflexively “regulate the overall conditions of system reproduction either to keep things as they are or to change them” (Giddens, 1984, page 27). Yet, it remains unresolved to what extent media assistance has provided Afghans with transformative power and whether or not it allows them to influence the underlying forces that mediate the structural properties in society." (Conclusions, page 39-40) more

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International Assistance and the Development of Independent Mass Media in the Czech and Slovak Republics

Karen Ballentine

In: The Power and Limits of NGOs

Sarah Mendelson, John K. Glenn (eds.)

Columbia University Press (2002), pp. 91-125

"In order to promote a mass media that is both professional and supportive of democratic culture, funders should give special attention to distinguishing opposition media from independent media, integrating media support with other efforts at civil society and democratic development, and ensuring di ... more

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On the Road to a Free Press in Albania: Evaluating Outside Aid Efforts

Van Kornegay

Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia, James Cox Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research (1995), 21 pp.

"There are no neat prescriptions for nurturing a free press in a society that has little or no democratic legacy. Every step is a first step and there are no well-worn paths or time-honored institutions. There have been obvious successes in Albania. The technical and material aid to the newspapers h ... more