Quality of Life, Well-Being and the Human Development Index: A Media Narrative for the Developed World?

Abstract The Human Development Index (HDI) produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been in existence since 1990. In its annual Human Development Reports (HDRs) the UNDP provides rankings of countries based on the HDI, and the idea is that these will help bring about positive change as countries compare their performance in the rankings with what they see as their peers. The HDRs are widely reported in the media, and previous research has suggested that the extent of newspaper reporting of the HDI (i.e. number of articles) is greater for those countries at the bottom and top end of the rankings. However, there are gaps in knowledge about how the HDI is reported in these media outlets. For example, to what extent does newspaper reporting of the HDI equate it to terms such as ‘quality of life’ and ‘well-being’, and how does this relate to the ranking of countries based on the HDI? This is the question addressed by the research reported in this paper. Results suggest that newspaper do often associate the terms ‘quality of life and ‘well-being’ with the HDI, and that the association appears to be stronger for countries towards the top-end of the rankings (i.e. those that have more ‘human development’) compared to those at the bottom-end of the rankings. This suggests that the association between reporting of the HDI and ‘quality of life’ and ‘well-being’ is a narrative that is perceived by the media to suit the developed rather than developing world.