Edited volume: this book focusses on the central question of acountability:  do the news media—especially if they are free, plural, and independent of government control—have an impact on the quality of governance?

It operationalises this by assessing three ‘Media Roles’: Media as Agenda Setters, Watchdogs, and Gatekeepers.

It looks at this from various angles, considering a breath of evidence:

• Chapters 3 and 4 look at the Media as Agenda Setters: Setting Priorities;
• Chapters 5 and 6 look into the role of Media as Watchdogs: Guarding Governance;
• Chapters 7, 8 and 9 look in to the role of Media as Gatekeepers to the public domain, ensuring or hindering the inclusion of various voices
• Chapters 10- 14 then each present a regional case study of these Media Roles

At the end, the authors weigh up the evidence for the various roles to assess the extent to which News Media act as these roles (chapter 15) and come with a set of Policy Recommendations (chapter 16).

Editor: Pippa Norris