• Give us a brief indication of the geography on a world or regional map to show where the country is.
• Give us some basic information about the country. This kind of information make it possible to discuss and intelligibly assess a media system:
o What is the population?
o What is the racial and/or ethnic composition?
o What is the capital?
o What languages are spoken?
o What is the rate of urbanization?
o What is the rate of literacy?
o What kind of government or political system do they have?
§ Is it a democracy?
o What other information is relevant to the specific country you are
covering?
Once you have established these, you need to address the media system:
• Are their media privately owned?
• Or does the government own them?
• Or is it a mixed system?
• Do they have a broadcasting system? How many television channels do they
have? How many radio stations?
• How many newspapers do they have?
• What is the status of telecommunication? Do they have cellular phones?
o What is the penetration rate (how many people own them)?
• What is the status of Internet?
o What is the penetration rate (what percentage of the country or the population has access to the Internet)?
• What are other important factors or observations do you have about this country and its media?
In this section, you need to address important questions that address some of the major concerns we have addressed in this class regarding media:
• What is status of press freedom in that country?
• How can we characterize the relationship between the press/media and the
government?
• How does their media system compare to ours in the U.S.?
• What are some of your conclusions or lessons from this research?
2
• What is the status of journalism education?
• What is the status or degree of journalism professionalization?
• What other interesting factors, information or observations can you offer about
this country and their media system?