What Is Media Freedom?
Media freedom's role in democracy is well-established but often oversimplified with single indicators. This article analyzes ten existing measures to capture its complexity.
The Challenge of Measurement
Existing media freedom indices struggle due to the concept's multidimensional nature, making cross-national comparison difficult and unreliable.
A New Approach: Item Response Theory (IRT)
We treat media freedom as a latent variable using IRT with Bayesian estimation. This method creates robust data from 1948-2017 for all 197 countries studied.
Validating Our Measurement Model
Multiple validity checks ensure our new Media System Freedom measure accurately reflects underlying political realities across diverse contexts.
Key Findings: Replication and Refinement
Replicating Egorov, Guriev & Sonin (2009) on media freedom and natural resource wealth shows their original results don't hold once properly measuring the construct.
