Why don't we read more news about transitional or developing nations? For most of us, these countries are distant locations with little impact on our daily lives--unless we pause to think how lucky we are to live where we do. For news editors, international news doesn't sell in the U.S. Localism attracts ears and eyeballs.

How do you tell the difference between a transitional and a developing country?

Transitional Countries: Nations with infrastructure, roads, electrical systems, economic development, including manufacturing capacity—though frequently in the form of government owned factories that need to be privatized and along with privatization will come unemployment. Transparency of government operation is needed: how revenues are collected and used by government. Government spending needs to be scrutinized. Media probably involve two levels of operation: government owned and some privately owned print and broadcast media. Many countries in Eastern Europe are or were classified as transitional.

Developing Countries: Countries lacking infrastructure development that may in term impede the nation’s ability to advance economically and socially. Most developing countries are in need of governance transparency initiatives. Where transparency may be present, lack of development may be hindered absence of natural resources to finance infrastructure. Media probably involve three levels of operation: government print and broadcast media, community media—often low power FM stations, and probably some privately owned print and broadcast media. There are countries in Africa, Asia and South America that belong in the developing category.

Discussion:
Chad, in Central Africa, has been a developing nation since its boundaries were designated. In the last decade, oil has been discovered. The World Bank funded the construction of a pipeline to enable the oil to be sold, thus generating foreign exchange (money made from selling goods to other countries) to finance development. Most of the promised development has not yet taken place. The government of Chad has recently announced plans to take infrastructure development money and shift it to military development. Chad, sharing a common border with Sudan, is concerned about civil war spilling across its border. But, does the government have the power to do this? According to the IMF, it doesn’t but can they do anything about it? Probably not. The New York Times has written about this situation.

It can be difficult to know where to place a country. Brazil, a few years ago, was clearly transitional—well, I suppose some people will say developing, if you go back far enough. Today, the country’s economy exhibits vitality and stability, levels of government reform have begun to take root and Brazil has held successful national elections. They are relatively energy independent—Brazil has a highly successful ethanol program. But, poverty remains a significant problem; economic and social development have not been evenly spread throughout the population or geography; there are significant gaps between the most successful and least successful; gender inequality is severe. I’m probably wrong and will be insulting the people of Brazil, but I still think of Brazil as transitional.

Population measures are important in evaluating a country’s designation. Life expectancy, infant mortality, educational attainment, per capita income and average household income are examples. Students in mass communications might also find it worthwhile to examine the number of broadcast stations per person, number of newspapers sold per person, or the number of broadcast receivers (radios and TVs) per person. What do you do with this raw data? Compare it with a developed country. Compare data from Chad with India, the U.K. and the U.S. Or, pick whatever comparison countries you wish. Where do you find this information? Some of it is available from UNESCO. The CIA Factbook can provide additional information. Also, look at Freedom House for Freedom in the World. In the old days, you would have needed to visit the library to actually open books. Now, this information is available online or in downloadable PDF files. And, even in a developing or transitional country, Internet access empowers students to get answers to these questions.