The impact of the mass media on the quality of democracy within a state remains a much overlooked area of study

Media organisations are generally assumed to play an important role in democracies, but how effective are they in performing this function within specific states? Lisa Müller outlines results from an analysis of 47 countries, based on a framework which rates two separate aspects of media performance: the extent to which they perform a ‘watchdog’ role by providing information, and the degree to which they act as a representative forum for the views of citizens. She finds that no country in the analysis performs well on both of these dimensions, but that the variations between states match differences in the quality of their democracy.