Will multiple broadcast channels foster greater media diversity or prompt governments to constrain critical voices? The Center for International Media Assistance considers the issue in a new report:
Throwing the Switch: Challenges in the Conversion to Digital Broadcasting explores the consequences for democracy of the worldwide conversion from analog television broadcasting to digital. The report by John Burgess, a former Washington Post editor, technology writer and foreign correspondent, looks at whether the creation of multiple broadcast channels will provide more openness and diversity on the airwaves. Alternatively, he asks, could it result in governments clamping down on critical broadcasters or loss of service? Burgess explores how media development organizations, broadcasters, regulators, and civil society groups can ensure that decisions on airwave space are made in a fair and open manner.
Throwing the Switch: Challenges in the Conversion to Digital Broadcasting can be download,ed along with previous CIMA reports and videos of CIMA discussions and events, here. You will also find a comprehensive bibliographic database of media assistance resources with information on more than 800 reports, articles, books, and manuals related to media assistance. CIMA is an initiative of the National Endowment for Democracy.
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