In the early 1990s, I was on the Editorial Board of the leading newspaper of record in Lagos, Nigeria until I left for the UK. It was called The Guardian; and it is still there. I had been in the Nigerian media for a while and to be invited to join the Editorial Board of The Guardian in those days was regarded as an achievement. So I was pretty happy with myself. I later found out, though, that I had been hired more for my writing skills than my wisdom. That humbled me, believe me. And I was not alone in making that discovery. Most of the leader writers were in the same boat; they were mostly idealistic but gifted intellectual types.
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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.
