Greetings from Cambridge, Massachusetts! The first day of the 2 ½ day workshop on the Roles of the News Media in the Governance Reform Agenda is wrapping up. We are thrilled to report that we’ve had a series of rich and engaging discussions among some of the world’s best scholars and most seasoned practitioners. So far, we have had debates, at times heated, but mostly civil, among practitioners, policymakers, and scholars on the normative underpinnings of the role of media in the governance agenda, the types of diagnostic media indicators available from around the world as well as performance metrics that have yet to be developed. We delved into the need to clarify media assessment on multiple levels: theory, concept, method, practice, and policy. We also talked about the roles of media in natural crises
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It often seems to me that in international development today a bifurcated reality exists when it comes to the potential or actual role of the news media in the governance agenda. For instance, in the great bilateral and multilateral agencies, many officials will, if asked, tell you that there is no doubt that the news media are a fundamental part of the architecture of good governance in their own countries. There is in these countries a tradition of thinking about the media as – collectively – the fourth estate of the realm, as co-participants in governance. But ask these same officials what role the news media can play, if supported and developed, in securing improved governance outcomes in developing countries and, suddenly, the conversation gets complicated. Why? Lots of reasons.
We welcome our newest guest blogger, Laura Neuman, the Assistant Director for the Americas Program at The Carter Center. 
Paolo Mefalopulos is a Senior Communication Officer in the Development Communication Division of the World Bank.
