In the Service of Power: Media Capture and the Threat to Democracy media, it is a particularly challenging environment. The media market expanded initially without concurrent growth in advertising revenues, reporting capacity, distribution channels, or legal protections and infrastructure. Since 2012, however, advertising revenues have grown significantly. Yet much of that growth, she says, has been captured by state-owned media, which is uniquely advantaged: the state owns the broadcast infrastructure and uses state resources to distribute its newspapers. Independent news media struggle in this environment to compete.41 Media Development Investment Fund Asia Director Tessa Piper concurs: “The horrible irony is that, after being denied existence for half a century, now that independent media is finally free in theory to flourish, the existence of very wellfunded and long-established state- and crony-owned media means that, in practice, they face Herculean obstacles to survival.”42 The dozens of private and independent media in Burma’s seven ethnic states also are struggling to build viable businesses.43 Most survive on a mix of sales, bits of advertising (although this latter sector is under-developed outside of the main centers), investments by local businesspeople, their own money, and community contributions.44 Some also receive funding from donors, the diaspora, and religious organizations. Others are housed by non-governmental organizations and educational institutes.45 With a few exceptions, there has been little media development in the country’s seven non-ethnic regions (Nyan Hlaing Lynn 2016). Given the past political environment, ethnic media have had little to no opportunity to develop business skills and operations. This means they are effectively starting from scratch and facing a steep learning curve.46 Past reliance on donor support—which was critical to their survival—is, in part, responsible for the challenge of changing their mindsets to adapt to a commercial environment. Offers to become content producers for national media, and state and crony broadcasters, are, therefore, financially attractive. It may prove to be a struggle, however, for small operations to assume this new role, as well as guarantee their independence and the survival of their own independent operations. The explosive growth of digital media has done little to ameliorate this dire business outlook. Media outlets are struggling with a common difficulty: the search for digital platforms that can monetize online content.47 Facebook is undisputedly the primary place where Burmese citizens get their news, disseminate it, and discuss it.48 So if media operations are going digital, it is not because of the money, but rather because that is where the audience is. Burma’s digital space does offer something of a refuge from media capture, at least for the time being. Given the prohibitive cost of traditional media platforms, it remains one of the few places independent journalists can afford to practice their craft. This is particularly true in the ethnic states, where cross-border media continue to publish stories deemed “sensitive” online from their offices in the border lands.49 Yet Burmese journalist, and founder of the award-winning digital news 70