"As in previous years, the BTI 2022 has identified considerable regression worldwide with regard to trans-formation processes. The guiding principles of democracy and the market economy have been subjected to intense pressure and are being challenged by corrupt elites, illiberal populism and authori
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tarian rule. For the first time, the Transformation Index lists more authoritarian states than democratic states. At no time in the last 20 years has the BTI assessed levels of socioeconomic development and economic performance as being so low. The quality of government performance has also continued to decline, particularly with respect to the consensus-related aspects of governance." (Introduction)
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"This ground-breaking three-year global study on gender-based online violence against women journalists represents collaborative research covering 15 countries. It is the most geographically, linguistically, and ethnically diverse scoping of the crisis conducted up until late 2022. The research draw
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s on: the inputs of nearly 1,100 survey participants and interviewees; 2 big data case studies examining 2.5 million social media posts directed at Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa (The Philippines) and multi award-winning investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr (UK); 15 detailed individual country case studies. The Chilling illuminates the evolving challenges faced by women journalists dealing with prolific and/or sustained online violence around the world. It calls out the victim-blaming and slut-shaming that perpetuates sexist and misogynistic responses to offline violence against women in the online environment, where patriarchal norms are being aggressively reinforced. It also clearly demonstrates that the incidence and impacts of gender-based online violence are worse at the intersection of misogyny and other forms of discrimination, such as racism, religious bigotry, antisemitism, homophobia and transphobia. Further, it identifies political actors who leverage misogyny and anti-news media narratives in their attacks as top perpetrators of online violence against women journalists, while the main vectors are social media platforms - most notably Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube." (Exexutive summary)
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"Drawing on an original dataset of survey responses collected in the summer of 2022 across four countries - Brazil, India, the UK, and the US - they examine the relationship between trust in news and how people think about news on digital platforms, especially Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, and YouTube
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, some of the most widely used platforms around the world. What they find is somewhat nuanced; how people think about information on platforms varies considerably. It depends on the platform, it depends on the country, it depends on the audiences within those countries, and it depends on the kinds of news those audiences are encountering in these varying spaces." (Executive Summary and Key Findings, page 3)
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"As the world welcomes its 8 billionth inhabitant, an estimated 5.3 billion people – roughly 66 per cent of the global population – are using the Internet. Yet some 2.7 billion people worldwide remain totally offline, with universal connectivity still a distant prospect in least developed countr
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ies and landlocked developing countries, where, on average, only 36 per cent of the population is online. Young people remain the driving force of connectivity globally, with 75 per cent of the 15- to 24-year-old age group now online, compared with 65 per cent for the rest of the world’s population. And while data show slow but steady growth in fixed-broadband subscriptions, mobile continues to dominate as the platform of choice for online access, particularly in low-income countries where wireline connections can be scarce and costly, notably for those living outside of major urban centres. In poorly connected countries, two of the biggest barriers to digital uptake remain cost and digital skills. While affordability of entry-level fixed- and mobile-broadband services improved in 2022, the global gap remains far too wide. For an average consumer in a typical low-income economy, the cheapest mobile broadband basket still costs more than 9 per cent of his or her income – over six times the global average. Fixed-broadband service costs over 30 per cent, compared with less than 2 per cent in the world’s high-income countries." (Foreword)
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"The 2022 Europe and Eurasia Vibrant Information Barometer (VIBE) sees the addition of the five countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) to the study, bringing the total number of countries examined to 18. With VIBE, IREX strives to capture a moder
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n and evolving media space where people are simultaneously producers, transmitters, consumers, and actors in the information that influences their lives and environments [...] For countries in Europe and Eurasia (E&E) included in this year’s publication, country-level scores were, again, mainly split into two VIBE classifications: Somewhat Vibrant (North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine) and Slightly Vibrant (Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Serbia). Azerbaijan held the lowest score in E&E, putting it in the Not Vibrant classification. In Central Asia, this year’s study put Kyrgyzstan the Somewhat Vibrant category, while Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan were Slightly Vibrant. While Uzbekistan’s score characterized it as Slightly Vibrant, Turkmenistan joined Azerbaijan in the Not Vibrant classification." (Executive summary)
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"This study examines the use of social media by individuals during protests in China (Hong Kong), Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon. Method: Surveys in the four countries assess the relationship between people's attitudes toward the protests and their selection bias on social media, manifested through selecti
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ve sharing and selective avoidance. Findings: Regardless of the different political and media systems in each country, social media usage was largely similar. Overall, our findings established that people's attitude strength toward the protests was associated with their selective sharing behavior; those who scored high on supporting the protests were more likely than those who scored high on opposing the protests to share news that supports the protests, and vice versa. As for selective avoidance, social media protest news use emerged as the strongest predictor. The more individuals followed and shared protest news on social media, the more likely they were to engage in selective avoidance by hiding or deleting comments, unfriending or unfollowing people, and blocking or reporting people for posting comments with which they disagreed." (Abstract)
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"In this report, we use online survey data collected in August and September 2022 to document and understand how people in eight countries - Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, Pakistan, the UK, and the USA - access news and information about climate change. A large majority of our respondents ac
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ross these countries recognise that almost all climate scientists believe that climate change is caused by humans and are worried about the impact, but above and beyond basic understanding of the scientific consensus and recognition of the climate crisis, it is important to understand people's attitudes towards climate change news, including who they trust as sources of information, how climate news makes them feel, and how well they think news media are performing covering it. Finally, we take some preliminary steps in understanding how each of these are correlated with climate change beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours." (Executive summary)
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"This study points to several recommendations for how international donors can improve support for media sector reform in countries at critical political junctures, and how they can build upon and strengthen approaches that have been effective in the past. Donor support is more likely to be effectiv
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e when it is driven by a deeper understanding of the political dynamics surrounding media sector reform, including the potential weaknesses in state capacity and threats to sustained political will. As such, donor agencies need to provide robust funding and technical support for rigorous media sector assessments led by local experts, targeted efforts to cement local leadership, and dedicated technical and financial support for consensus building. A common blueprint for assistance does not exist—different strategies are needed that are attuned to the strength and commitment of the state, the capacity and cohesion of civil society, and the persistence of anti-democratic forces. Intervening early in a transition, when priorities are established and plans are drawn up, pays better dividends, and long-term assistance is critical to ensuring the sector is not co-opted by political and societal rivalries." (Conclusion, page 31-32)
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"Cross-national media freedom comparison is often based on Western-biased indices published by organizations such as Freedom House or Reporters Without Borders. Additionally, Eurocentric analysis and comparison are endorsed by the application of hegemonic media systems models to compare media enviro
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nments. This study argues that cultural contextualization is indispensable to challenging the prevailing Eurocentrism. Comparison of the connotative’ contexts of Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand demonstrates the analytical and explanatory power of inductively inferred variables to understand the formation of political communication. The comparison highlights factors which go beyond the comparison of media systems using predefined categories and models." (Abstract)
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"This cross-cultural comparison study between China and the US aimed to examine the short video-sharing social media platform, TikTok/Douyin, particularly its use in the two countries. Because China and the US have some evident differences in cultural values, they are ideal for cross-cultural compar
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ison between Western and Asian countries. Other than knowing the platform itself, how people use it, and their influencer video use, the study further explored how cultural values influenced user behaviors on TikTok/Douyin. Two survey studies were conducted in each country. The questionnaire asked the same question but in two language versions Chinese and English. Questions asked about participants' demographic information, TikTok/Douyin use preference, influencer preference, and cultural values. In general, Chinese participants had a more extended time experience of using Douyin, and they spent more time on Douyin every day. Participants had a different preference for influencers' expertise on each platform. US participants favored music influencers while Chinese participants favored food influencers. Moreover, Chinese participants were more likely to be persuaded by influencers to make purchase decisions than US participants. Besides, Chinese participants claimed a higher individualism score and a lower power distance score than US participants, which contradicts with Hofstede's original cultural scores for each country." (Abstract)
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"This study employed three machine learning algorithms, Naïve Bayes, SVM, and a Balanced Random Forest to build a sentiment model that can detect Muslim sentiment about Muslim clerics’ anti-misinformation campaign on YouTube. Overall, 9701 comments were collected. An LDA-based topic model was als
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o employed to understand the most expressed topics in the YouTube comments. Results: The confusion matrix and accuracy score assessment revealed that the balanced random forest-based model demonstrated the best performance. Overall, the sentiment analysis discovered that 74 percent of the comments were negative, and 26 percent were positive. An LDA-based topic model also revealed the eight most discussed topics associated with ten keywords in those YouTube comments. Practical implications: The sentiment and topic model from this study will particularly help public health professionals and researchers to better understand the nature of vaccine misinformation and hesitancy in the Muslim communities." (Abstract)
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"In 2021, the GxR metric registered two of the most dramatic declines ever seen: both Afghanistan and Myanmar dropped more than 30 points, plummeting two categories, as democratic governments were driven out and people were brutally attacked as they resisted the takeover of their governments. Countr
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ies working towards democracy and slowly shaking themselves free of embattled pasts found progress undermined, and years of work opening up the space for expression disappeared. Non-democratic changes in power rarely bode well for freedom of expression: the violence with which regimes immediately target journalists, activists, and populations shows that repressive regimes – militia and military alike – are keenly aware of the power of information and expression. Polarisation and disinformation continue to characterise many media environments, often serving those in power and sometimes driven by leaders and ruling parties like Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro. These types of content, by design of algorithms, thrive on social media platforms. With five coups in 2021 (plus another in Burkina Faso in January 2022), leaders act against democracy in increasingly brazen ways, both in power grabs and within democratic government, eroding systems and institutions from the inside." (Page 11)
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"Los medios investigados en este estudio llegan más que todo a una población de mayor poder adquisitivo y niveles académicos que buscan un periodismo serio, investigativo, de calidad. Es una audiencia bastante involucrada con el medio. Le gusta a esa audiencia sentirse parte del medio de comunica
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ción, colaborarle y tener contacto directo con sus periodistas. En específico, les gusta participar en diálogos y debates mediante eventos presenciales y webinars, sugerir temas de investigación, recibir información mediante boletínes informativos personalizados, y tener acceso a podcasts, videos, EBooks. El acceso a este tipo de servicios y productos puede ser incluso una razón de que se empiece a apoyar económicamente a un medio. El reto está en llegar a más y nuevas audiencias, más diversas, de segmentos distintos a las que actualmente no apelan por sus investigaciones con textos eruditos largos, porque más bien buscan noticias más populares o formatos más entretenidos (como los videos que son preferidos por la población joven)." (Relación con las audiencias, página 37)
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"The reach of the media outlets researched in this study extends above all to a population with greater purchasing power and educational attainment, who are looking for serious, investigative, quality journalism. This audience likes to feel part of the media outlet, collaborate with it, and have dir
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ect contact with its journalists. They specifically like to participate in dialogue and debates through in-person events and webinars, suggest topics for investigation, receive information by means of personalised newsletters, and have access to podcasts, videos and e-books. Access to this type of service and product may even be a reason to begin lending economic support to a media outlet. The challenge is to reach more and new audiences, of greater diversity and different segments, to whom their current investigations with long, erudite texts do not currently appeal, because they are instead looking for more popular news items or more entertaining formats (such as the videos preferred by the younger population." (Lessons learned, página 18-19)
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"1. En términos generales los derechos de los niños, niñas y adolescentes se encuentran adecuadamente consagrados en los marcos regulatorios, sin embargo, faltan medidas concretas para hacerlos efectivos. En muchos países los derechos se reconocen en la legislación, pero luego se desvirtúan a
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través de reglamentaciones o disposiciones de rango menor que flexibilizan o eliminan las obligaciones. Es el caso, como hemos visto, de los marcos regulatorios de Perú y México, pero no exclusivamente. 2. La situación en los países investigados da cuenta de que los derechos de los NNyA no ocupan un lugar prioritario en la regulación de medios audiovisuales, a la vez que los medios de comunicación no están entre las preocupaciones centrales de las legislaciones de protección de la niñez y adolescencia y/o de las agendas de política pública de los Estados. Como consecuencia, la protección es débil e ineficiente. A su vez, es posible afirmar que las autoridades regulatorias concentran su actividad en la agenda de telecomunicaciones relegando a la comunicación audiovisual que recibe poco interés y recursos. 3. [...]" (Conclusiones, páginas 42-43)
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"The fourth edition of the Global State of Democracy Report comes at a time when democracy is under both literal and figurative assault around the world. The steady drumbeat of such warnings—included in the previous edition of this report, which was produced at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic
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always runs the risk of becoming background noise, as today’s crisis can quickly become tomorrow’s new normal. But the dangers are real. Beyond the lingering pandemic, today’s wars and a looming global recession, lies the challenge of climate change and all it entails—severe weather events, the necessary green transition and multi-fold consequences for democratic governance [...] But contrary to what democratic pessimists may suggest, authoritarian countries and alternative systems of government have not outperformed their democratic peers. Discontent at the neverending stream of Chinese lockdowns and the tens of thousands of draft dodgers fleeing Russia for an uncertain existence in the South Caucasus and Central Asia show that it is not just in democracies where the social contract is in urgent need of renewal." (Preface)
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"This thesis uses a comparative case study to examine Tanzania and Ghana, two countries where China has contributed or sold large amounts of infrastructure, but who have seen different political reactions to and uses of this infrastructure. It poses the question: how do we explain the differing path
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s these two emerging democracies take in their political utilization of unregulated digital infrastructure investment? By analyzing elections and regulation in both countries over a period of roughly 15 years, this thesis examines the role that the timing of the introduction of digital infrastructure plays in each country's political reaction. It argues that in Tanzania, where digital infrastructure was adopted later than Ghana, country leaders perceived the internet as a threat to their hold on power and therefore internally developed a 'normal' standard of behavior and governance that was much less open. Ultimately, it concludes that countries combine internal concepts with outside rhetoric, both from China and the Global North, to justify their actions internationally." (Abstract)
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"This report provides an in-depth overview of the current state and trends of data protection regulation of seven North African countries – namely Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Libya, Sudan, and Tunisia. The st udy tackles regulatory approaches, key principles, and selected instruments. Fro
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m the outset, the analysis was limited to a textual analysis of the respective data protection laws, including constitutional law (i.e., the “law in the books”). In detail, the study engages with the development and status of regional and sub-regional data protection frameworks in Africa. Political as well as international influences on the development (or the lack of) of data protection laws in North Africa were considered. In addition, for countries with a comprehensive data protection laws (i.e. Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia), the comparative assessment also looked into the scope of alignment and of divergence with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)." (Back cover)
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"After an initial period of independent amateurism strongly conditioned by the technologies available, the podcast has achieved significant global popular recognition, as well as an increasingly important professional dimension thanks to the emergence and spread of new distribution platforms (podcas
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t networks) designed to serve as alternatives to the dominant feeds (such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iVoox, and Spotify) that rely on different catalogs and business models. This investigation identifies, describes, and systematically orders the main management and marketing models for podcasts on these platforms on the basis of a comparative analysis of fourteen of them, two in each of the eight countries in Europe, North America, and Latin America where this format is most widespread: Acast (Sweden); Podimo (Denmark); Binge Audio and Majelan (France); Podimo Spain and Podium Podcast (Spain); PodcastOne and Luminary (USA); Convoy Network and Puentes (Mexico); Posta and Parque Podcast (Argentina); and Pia Podcast and Podway (Colombia). The study measures and compares the offerings of each of the studied platforms using different quantitative and qualitative variables (age, territorial reach, content categories, dominant genres, funding, and consumption). The objective is to start to draw up a global map of the main operators in the podcasting industry, and to identify the production trends and marketing strategies of a format with increasing impact and demand, destined to become the future heir of broadcast radio." (Abstract)
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"Presentamos este estudio como una contribución relevante para entender los profundos cambios y las tendencias del periodismo en América Latina, a partir de un análisis riguroso del paisaje mediático, así como del mapeo y caracterización de 1.521 medios nativos digitales verificados en 12 paí
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ses de la región. Se trata de una investigación única que permite conocer quiénes son, dónde se encuentran y en qué se diferencian estos medios digitales de naturaleza muy diversa: hiperlocales, feministas, sobre medio ambiente, de chequeo, narrativos, colaborativos, culturales, de control público, de temas sociales y políticos, entre otras causas y enfoques de agenda. Los hallazgos son a la vez desafiantes y alentadores. Los medios nativos digitales latinoamericanos muestran una gran vitalidad a pesar de condiciones adversas de distinto tipo. Es revelador que en el último año hayan surgido medios en Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bolivia y Venezuela, países donde se han vivido incidentes en relación con la libertad de expresión, con casos de presiones, censura o vigilancia de los gobiernos sobre la labor periodística. Algo que distingue las búsquedas de los medios nativos digitales estudiados es que priorizan la calidad de la información y su foco está en aportar una visión propia, impulsar sociedades más democráticas y libres y construir relaciones firmes con sus audiencias. Son medios que en su mayoría hablan a una comunidad, pero también están dentro de ella." (Presentación, página 7-8)
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