ABSTRACT
Information and communication technology has had a major impact on all four dimensions of governance: transparency, accountability, the rule of law, and participation. Information is often presented by government in a way that inhibits informed debate and effective scrutiny by the legislature, the media, or the citizens. The media also plays a watchdog role in investigating misbehavior by politicians, government officials, and business leaders – a role traditionally summarized in the expression "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable". New media that employ old technologies include talk radio, TV talk shows, and news magazines. In addition, new media technologies easily bypass national and international boundaries, thus bringing citizens of each country into contact with diverse cultures and distant events to an extent that was not imaginable earlier – a key dimension of "globalization". Most democratic countries have legal provisions to assure media freedom, and almost all of these countries enforce the provision vigorously.
