A mouth piece for truth: Foreign Aid for media development and the making of journalism in the Global South¹

This piece explores the role of Foreign Aid in developing the current framework in which journalism operates in the Global South. It looks at how international development efforts have been crucial in fostering particular models of journalism while arguing that this explains the current international convergence around journalistic values, normative claims and news cultures. In so doing, the piece suggests that raise of professional journalism should not be interpreted necessarily as a historical ‘occurrence’ but rather be also considered as part of a larger enterprise to construct a sense of nationhood. In opening these questions, it invites the reader to understand news values such as objectivity, balance and fairness within national historical efforts seeking hegemonic status in an increasingly globalised world. It suggests that international aid efforts to foster media development are key in explaining the spread of particular models of journalism education and practice.