1. Introduction: Identify and explain the main problem or research question - What have been the significant changes in the focus of media on Third World countries and their development needs? • Has there been an increase in terms of quantity and/ or quality of information? Has it been mostly factual information or sentimental symbolization? • Has there been an increase in terms of frequency and/ or pervasiveness? Has development communications extended beyond the traditional forms of newspapers, articles, radio and television? (e.g. live music concerts to raise awareness or money such as Live 8 and Live Earth; the promotion of development campaigns and programs on the World Wide Web, such as Make Poverty History and their wristbands) • Has there been a change of message? (e.g. Fair Trade’s motto: Trade not aid) Have there been efforts to feedback and communicate from the underdeveloped world, so aid efforts could be adjusted and adapted to changing contexts and circumstances? • Has there been a change of participant demography? Have corporations undertaken a larger role or is it still mainly NGOs and government agencies? Have individual consumers joined the movement? Have development organizations utilized more than physical and monetary resources, such as both physical and virtual volunteering? - How persistent is the effectiveness of media on people’s awareness and urge for action? (How do we measure effectiveness?) - If the effectiveness of media could indeed be diluted by increases in its frequency and coverage, what are the possible mitigating resolutions? If, on the contrary, its effectiveness can resist dilution, what is the possible way forward? 2. Description: choice of method, research design, access to information - Charting trends in development communications • Determining major development publications between 1995 and 2005 • Documenting the number of articles mentioning Third World countries and their development problems to identify fluctuations in quantity of information • Examining the level of factualness and accuracy to identify fluctuations in quality of information • Identifying the main message in these articles to reveal trends in the development philosophy and/ or visions • Documenting the authors of these articles/ research to identify the participant demography. -Measuring media effectiveness • Identifying conventional and popular indications of aid efforts (foreign loans, human resources support, volunteering, campaigns, etc.) and development outcomes (literacy, GDP, life expectancy, infrastructure development, etc.). • Documenting the relationship between these two variables • Identifying recent creation/ invention of development communications material and compare this against the trend in aid efforts and development outcomes