If the media / tech will be past of the post-2015 goals, how do we assess challenges and successes? How do countries fare in terms of ‘media development’?

This is a tricky question as the whole idea of ‘media development is a contested one, so finding data involves assessing the different approaches to media development, perhaps more so than ranking them in terms of usefulness.

Below are some sources that are truly global, and not commercial.

The list is constantly updated.

• UNESCO World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development 2014 (overview, regional reports, general) (…And other related, short summary reports… UNESCO’s Media Development Indicators are a set  so complicated that only a handful of countries have been reported upon. Yet, the concept is interesting and would relate to the story.)
• ITU ICT Development Index (ICT penetration and use, UN organization).
• Freedom House Freedom of the Press (established index, by an NGO, approach: in terms of political freedom).
• Freedom House Internet Freedom Report (ditto, but re: the Internet as a medium).
• RwB Press Freedom Index (established index by a well-known NGO, focusing on the safety of the journalists).
• Global Info Society Watch Reports (following up WSIS agenda, by a coalition of NGOs, some specific foci, e.g., gender).
• Global Media Monitoring Project (gender in the news, legacy media & online, coordinated by WACC).
• Mapping Digital Media (56 country reports on digital switch-over, by Open Society Foundations).
• Ranking Digital Rights (by a set of university partners around the world).
• opennet.net initiative (supported by MacArthur and other foundations, mapping Internet filtering):
• Internet World Stats ( International website that features up to date world Internet Usage, Population Statistics, Travel Stats and Internet Market Research Data, for over 233 individual countries and world regions. Independent — hard to know who collects the data).
• DW Akademie – Analyzing media Freedom Rankings.
• ITU  – ICT Development Index- Measuring the Information Society Report 2014.
• CIMA: THE STATISTICAL COMMISSION SPEAKS: FIRST INDICATIONS OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION IN THE SDGS