1. The Classic: HDI…

2. Measuring MDGs

3. Measuring Media Development,  Dimensions of…

Which of the dimensions include/concern human rights? Increasingly, most.

4. Measuring Media Development –  Example of Press Freedom

(Which comes first, press freedom or development?)

Reporters Without Borders Map of 2015 – The Press Freedom Index:

Based on a questionnaire.   

4. Another Example: This is what the Map of Freedom looks like

The Freedom House index includes 10 political rights indicators and 15 civil liberties indicators. The political rights questions are grouped into three subcategories: Electoral Process (3 questions), Political Pluralism and Participation (4), and Functioning of Government (3). The civil liberties questions are grouped into four subcategories: Freedom of Expression and Belief (4 questions), Associational and Organizational Rights (3), Rule of Law (4), and Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights (4).

5. From another angle: the ITU IDI

More about measuring media, media freedom, and media and human rights:

• See W3 Reading by DW Akademie on analyzing Media Indices:

• Every year organizations such as Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House publish their respective press freedom rankings. They usually cause an outcry, especially from countries low on the list. While politicians hotly defend their media policies, opposition parties and NGOs seize the opportunity to criticize the government’s approach.

  Freedom of the press rankings are of global interest and spark international debates. They also play an important role in determining the amount of media development aid a country receives. However, it is not always clear what the strengths and weaknesses of the individual rankings are and how these rankings are conducted. (…)

• Each ranking has particular strong points and weak points and it’s important to know what these are, especially when using them to determine international media policies and the distribution of aid

• How to measure freedom of information and access to information if they become a Sustainable Development Goal?

How would YOU assess/benchmark/measure YOUR contribution to the Human Rights & Tech consultation, would it become a part of a directive?

Live notes by Rune:

• Pro state vs. private strategies to address surveillance — your responses to the assignment

• 2 arguments highlighted:
  • path dependency of political solutions – are we stuck with outdated principles
  • intersectionality – many rights intersect

FROM THEORY TO SOCIAL CHANGE
How to translate academic research into civil activism for the benefit of society (Minna)

• engaged scholarship is still a controversial choice
• monitoring and evaluation is where academics/scholars are usually called upon. We need to ask ourselves how do we measure the ideals that we engage
  • complex problems such as HR/comm have complex sets of stakeholders – from individuals to civil society, commercial interests, governments and of course international agreements and bodies.
  • indexing is a common way of measuring and evaluating complex problems – e.g. Human Development Index or Press Freedom Index
  • different dimensions can capture how indicators or goals impact social reality – e.g. media as institutions in a power structure, as connecting individuals, etc. etc.
  • compartmentalization into particular goals and indicators are the backbone of any evaluation/monitoring effort – the first step in getting from ideals to evaluation
  • Indicators and goals can be broken down into individual questions or individual measures that can be quantitative (e.g. how many reports of online harassment) or qualitative (e.g. questionnaire or evaluation of how does the state treat reports of online harassment)

Getting from idea to change: conceptual chain
theory – principles/assessments – goals – advocacy – monitoring/evaluation

Measuring Media and Human Rights
If the post-2015 development goals will include a right to communication how would this be measured? That is a debate that is hot at the moment and will be interesting to follow and possibly to influence