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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to characterize and identify the existing studies on the relationship between technological media and development Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a systematic mapping study to identify and analyze the related literature. The authors identified 196 primary studies, dated from 2000 to 2017 and categorized them with respect to research focus, types of research and research method. Findings A total of 97 studies were identified and mapped, synthesizing the available evidence on the relationship between technological media and development. “Social development” with 54 articles and “communication” with 34 articles were the dominant research focus. Regarding the research type, “Solution proposal” is the most frequently employed research type. “Case study,” “discussion paper” and “interview,” respectively were the most used research methods. However, “SNA,” “focus group” and “time series” were used less often. “Solution proposal” was the most common research type between 2015 and 2017, and after that “philosophical paper” was the dominant research paper type. Further, the number of publications has increased between 2006 and 2017. Originality/value This mapping study is the first systematic exploration of the state-of-art on technological media-development nexus. The existing body of knowledge is limited to a few high quality studies.