"How is professionalization influenced by the constant growth of a network society and social media? How are commercialization and political influences in the media relating to each other? These are some of the issues discussed in this study. It is based on the research project Journalism in Change
...
– professional journalistic cultures in Poland, Russia and Sweden. From 2011 to 2014 researchers from Sweden, Poland and Russia at Södertörn University in Stockholm have been cooperating closely in order to survey a sample of 1500 journalists and 60 in depth interviews with journalists. The results are presented in a comparative design covering different areas." (Publisher description)
more
"Los países de América Latina han implementado importantes reformas de gobierno abierto durante los últimos años. La combinación de los esfuerzos a nivel nacional con el soporte que los países han obtenido por parte de la Alianza para el Gobierno Abierto (AGA) ha sido benéfica para lograr ava
...
nces cruciales en diversas áreas relacionadas al gobierno abierto. Entre 2013 y 2014, la OCDE - como socio oficial multilateral de la AGA - llevó a cabo un estudio para conocer el estado actual de los estrategias y prácticas de gobierno abierto en la región. Este reporte presenta los principales hallazgos producto de la implementación de un cuestionario regional enfocado a recabar información sobre estrategias de gobierno abierto, acceso a la información y datos abiertos. En paralelo, el reporte presenta tres casos de estudio que analizan a fondo el estado del gobierno abierto en Costa Rica, Perú y Colombia. El cuestionario y el marco analítico están basados en la experiencia y estándares de la OCDE lo que permitirá a los países latinoamericanos conocer y evaluar la situación de la región en cara a las mejores prácticas internacionales. Se presentan los principales logros y desafíos regionales de una manera comparativa con la finalidad de posicionar las prácticas nacionales e institucionales desde una perspectiva global. Aparte del análisis comparativo de datos e información, el proyecto busca reforzar el marco institucional de los países partícipes del presente estudio con la finalidad de facilitar la implementación de los compromisos adquiridos dentro de la AGA y fortalecer la red regional de oficiales nacionales a cargo de gobierno abierto." (https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org)
more
"In 2014, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal, Colombia and Argentina, in that order, were the top five countries in the production of national fiction hours. Once again, Brazil and Mexico, despite the drop suffered by the latter, continued to be the largest producers of fiction in the Ibero-American region. I
...
n contrast, Peru and Ecuador had the lowest offer of national fiction hours, while Uruguay did not produce hours of national fiction during 2014." (Page 39)
more
"Die vorliegende Inhaltsanalyse untersucht über drei Monate hinweg die Konfliktberichterstattung der Hauptnachrichtensendungen der vier reichweitenstärksten deutschen Fernsehsender (Das Erste, ZDF, RTL und Sat.1). Anhand von 444 Nachrichtenbeiträgen über internationale Konflikte und Kriege werde
...
n öffentlich-rechtliche und private Nachrichtensendungen hinsichtlich der Häufigkeit der Berichterstattung und verschiedener journalistischer Qualitätskriterien miteinander verglichen. Die untersuchten Merkmale der journalistischen Qualitätsdimensionen Vielfalt, Relevanz und Professionalität werden von den Nachrichtensendungen beider Programmanbieter überwiegend erfüllt, die öffentlich-rechtlichen Sender schneiden aber insgesamt – vor allem mit Blick auf eine ausgewogene und kritische Berichterstattung – etwas besser ab." (Abstract)
more
"The current investigation utilizes data from 44 diverse countries (n = 57,847), collected as part of the World Values Survey, to broaden our understanding of trust in media. The aim is two-fold-to learn about individual-level correlates across contexts and to demonstrate that macro-level factors pl
...
ay a part in shaping such trust. Our findings indicate that levels of political interest, interpersonal trust, and exposure to television news and newspapers are positively correlated with trust in media, while education and exposure to news on the Internet are negatively associated. On the macro level, postmaterialism emerged as a consistent predictor of trust in media. State ownership of the media industry did not have a main effect on trust in media after controlling for other factors. However, an interaction was found between state ownership and level of democracy: state ownership of television is positively associated with media trust in democratic societies and negatively associated with trust in media in nondemocratic societies." (Abstract)
more
"The election protests in Moscow in December 2011 signified an important moment for Russian society. Political dissent, historically reserved for the private domain of Soviet kitchens and in recent years to the regulation-free space of the Russian Internet (RuNet), entered the public space of Moscow
...
streets. Just like the protests revealed the long-held tension between the political discussion (and action) in Russian public and private spheres, the coverage of the protests by different media brought to light similar struggles in Russian journalism. This project combines the textual analysis of the protests' coverage by two progovernment and two oppositional media with the analysis of their connections to the RuNet-a space that played an important role in the protests' organization and coordination. The project aims to gain a deeper understanding of the role RuNet-a private space that increasingly becomes more public-plays in the development of Russian journalism." (Abstract)
more
"Through a paired comparison of two moments of mass mobilization, in Ukraine and Argentina, focusing on the role of different actors involved, this text maps out a multi-layered sequence of events leading up to mass mobilization." (Publisher description)
"This paper suggests that the problem of impact evaluation of media assistance is understood to be more than a simple issue of methods, and outlines three underlying tensions and challenges that stifle implementation of effective practices in media assistance evaluation. First, there are serious con
...
ceptual ambiguities that affect evaluation design. Second, bureaucratic systems and imperatives often drive evaluation practices, which reduces their utility and richness. Third, the search for the ultimate method or toolkit of methods for media assistance evaluation tends to overlook the complex epistemological and political undercurrents in the evaluation discipline, which can lead to methods being used without consideration of the ontological implications. Only if these contextual factors are known and understood can effective evaluations be designed that meets all stakeholders’ needs." (Abstract)
more
"This article explores the nexus between the democratic transformation of the media and international media assistance (IMA) as constrained by the local political conditions in the five countries of the Western Balkans. It aims to enhance the understanding of conditions and factors that influence me
...
dia institution building in the region and evaluates the role of international assistance programs and conditionality mechanisms herein. The cross-national analysis concludes that the effects of IMA are highly constrained by the local context. A decade of IMA of varying intensity is not sufficient to construct media institutions when, in order to function properly, they have to outperform their local context. From today’s vantage point it becomes obvious, that in the short-term scaling-up IMA does not necessarily improve outcomes. The experiences in the region suggest that imported solutions have not been sufficiently cognitive of all aspects of local conditions and international strategies have tended to be rather schematic and have lacked strategic approaches to promote media policy stability, credible media reform and implementation." (Abstract)
more
"Do existing structures of media accountability - such as press councils, codes of ethics, and ombudspersons - suffice, or do we urgently need new instruments and initiatives in today's converging media world? These questions were tackled in an international survey of 1,800 journalists in twelve Eur
...
opean and two Arab states conducted by the EU-funded research project, «Media Accountability and Transparency in Europe» (MediaAcT). The results provide a solid empirical basis for the discussions taking place. This book advances research on media accountability and transparency, and also offers innovative perspectives for newsrooms, media policy-makers, and journalism educators." (Back cover)
more
"The article identifies the drivers of media attention for climate change in three countries: Australia, Germany and India. It calculates the monthly amount of climate change-related coverage in two leading newspapers for each country in relation to all articles published in the respective newspaper
...
s over a 15-year time span (1996–2010). Based on an explanatory model derived from agenda setting theory, punctuated equilibrium theory and multiple streams theory, it uses time series regression analysis to assess the influence of weather and climate characteristics as well as various social events and feedbacks on issue attention. The results show that weather and climate characteristics are no important drivers for issue attention in two of the three countries, and that societal activity, particularly international climate summits and the agenda building efforts from international non-governmental organizations, has stronger impacts on issue attention." (Abstract)
more
"Der Autor porträtiert 23 Länder aus sechs Weltregionen. Anschließend bildet er mittels des pragmatischen Differenz-Ansatzes sechs Modelle heraus: Das liberale Modell, das Public-Service-Modell, das Klientel-Modell, das Schock-Modell, das Patrioten-Modell und das Kommando-Modell. Dabei zeigt sich
...
: In Ländern wie China, Syrien, dem Iran oder auch Weißrussland fungieren die Medien als Lautsprecher der Herrschenden. In den USA, Brasilien oder auch Deutschland und Frankreich sind sie eher Widersprecher. Doch auch dazwischen gibt es ein breites Feld von Ländern wie Russland, Libanon oder Italien, in denen eine Ambivalenz zwischen Lautsprechern und Widersprechern besteht, deren Kräfteverhältnis sich immer wieder verschieben kann." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
more
"The transformation of state media to public service media (PSM) is one of the most ambitious endeavors in the field of media development. Not many efforts to free the national media from government control have succeeded in the past decades. In this paper the comparatively promising cases of Kyrgyz
...
stan, Mongolia, Moldova and Serbia are discussed. The PSM in these countries all have a new legal basis, including a public service remit and a relatively independent governing body in which civil society is represented. The services delivered to the public by these media are analyzed according to a number of societal functions which are assembled under two general headings: “creating a public sphere” and “supporting integration”. Based on this analysis, a differentiation between “PSM in initial transformation” and “PSM in advanced transformation” is suggested. In all cases studied, different actors successfully used windows of opportunity: general political agendas to reform the media, a specific engagement from the management as well as support from the population and civil society. Media development actors here helped to advance the processes of change in different ways. Recommendations for future media development include strategic planning, inclusion of local actors, the pooling of legal expertise as well as structured processes of organizational development and capacity building." (Abstract)
more
"The use of smartphones and tablets has jumped significantly in the past year, with fewer people using their computers for news. More than a third of online news users across all countries (39%) use two or more digital devices each week for news and a fifth (20%) now say their mobile phone is their
...
primary access point. The number of people paying for digital news has remained stable over the past 12 months, although we have seen a significant switch to more valuable ongoing digital subscription in most countries. Our new (and unique) social media index for news shows Facebook is by far the most important network for news everywhere. Although Twitter is widely used in the US, Spain, and the UK, it is far less influential in many other European countries. Google+ is emerging as increasingly important for news, along with messaging application WhatsApp. European respondents remain strongly committed to news that tries to be neutral (or impartial) but Americans are more interested in hearing from brands and reporters that are open about their own views and biases." (Key findings, page 8)
more
"Leading media scholars from nine Asian nations focus on three main questions: How frequently do Asians use social media to access and discuss political information? Does the use of social media increase political participation? What political, social and cultural factors influence the impact of soc
...
ial media on political engagement in each nation? To answer these questions, contributors first analyze the current state of social media in their nations and then present the findings of a cross-national survey on social media use that was conducted with over 3,500 Asian respondents. By employing a comparative approach, they analyze how social media function and interact with the cultural and political systems in each country - and how they might affect political engagement among individual citizens." (Back cover)
more
"This article presents the findings of a detailed analysis of Russian media coverage of the conflict. Focusing on three prominent Russian newspapers and comparing them with three Western counterparts, particular emphasis is placed on their reporting of regime violence, the nature and actions of the
...
opposition, and Russia’s own role in the conflict. In so doing, a clear picture emerges of how starkly different the Syrian conflict appears to a Russian audience." (Abstract)
more
"The practicability and effectiveness of state support schemes would have to be assessed on the basis of the economic and sociopolitical context in which the different types of support and subsidies are implemented. The expansive press subsidy schemes of Northern Europe cannot be directly compared t
...
o the West African support schemes or the recent Latin American efforts to deconcentrate the media landscape and support to community media. There is no automatic relationship between the economic crisis and the scaling down of state support to media. The development and implementation of support schemes depend on political will." (Conclusion, page 31)
more
"The research showed that internet intermediaries are heavily influenced by the legal and policy environments of states, but they do have leeway over many areas of policy and practice affecting online expression and privacy. The findings also highlighted the challenge where many state policies, laws
...
, and regulations are – to varying degrees - poorly aligned with the duty to promote and protect intermediaries’ respect for freedom of expression. It is a resource which enables the assessment of Internet intermediaries’ decisions on freedom of expression, by ensuring that any limitations are consistent with international standards. The research also recommends specific ways that intermediaries and states can improve respect for internet users’ right to freedom of expression. This is through promoting: adequate legal frameworks and policies consistent with international norms; multi-stakeholder policy development; transparency of governance; accountability in self-regulation; mechanisms for remedy; and public information and education." (UNESCO website)
more