"In Media Compass: A Companion to International Media Landscapes, an international team of prominent scholars examines both long-term media systems and fluctuating trends in media usage around the world. Integrating country-specific summaries and cross-cutting studies of geopolitical regions, this i
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nterdisciplinary reference work describes key elements in the political, social, demographic, cultural, and economic conditions of media infrastructures and public communication. Enabling the mapping of media landscapes internationally, Media Compass contains up-to-date empirical surveys of individual countries and regions, as well as cross-country comparisons of particular areas of public communication. 45 entries, each guiding readers from a general summary to a more in-depth discussion of a country’s specific media landscape, address formative conditions and circumstances, historical background and development, current issues and challenges, and more." (Publisher description)
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"Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Entwicklungen der Diasporagemeinschaften aus Osteuropa, die in Deutschland und seinen östlichen EU-Nachbarländern seit 2020 an Größe und Bedeutung gewinnen – bedingt durch politische Krisen und Repressionen im autokratisch regierten Belarus und Russland u
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nd den Krieg in der Ukraine. Die Studie beschreibt Herausforderungen, Bedürfnisse und Potenziale dieser Gemeinschaften und fragt, inwiefern emigrierte bzw. im Exil lebende Kulturtätige als „Brückenbauer:innen“ den kulturellen Austausch in Zeiten von Konflikten und schrumpfenden Handlungsräumen (shrinking spaces) unterstützen und die interkulturelle Verständigung nachhaltig fördern können. Analysiert werden sowohl gruppenbezogene Rahmenbedingungen und Formen der deutsch-belarussischen, deutsch-russischen und deutsch-ukrainischen kulturellen Zusammenarbeit als auch länder- wie gruppenübergreifende Strategien und Projekte, die die einzelnen Diaspora-Vertreter:innen in Verbindung bringen (können) und dialogfähig sind. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt dabei auf (1) der Einbindung der osteuropäischen Kulturtätigen in den deutschen Kulturbetrieb, (2) möglichen internationalen Kooperationen auf EU-Ebene und (3) dem Erhalt zivilgesellschaftlicher Räume in Herkunftsregionen und im Exil." (Zusammenfassung)
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"Fictional TV politics played a pivotal role in the popular imaginaries of the 2010s across cultures. Examining this curious phenomenon, Sebastian Naumann provides a wide-ranging analysis of the rapidly evolving landscape of contemporary polit-series. Proposing a novel structural model of serial tel
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evision, he offers an innovative methodological framework for comparative textual analysis that integrates sociocultural, economic, sociotechnical, narratological, and aesthetic perspectives. This study furthermore explores how the changing affordances of (nonlinear) television impact serial storytelling and identifies key narrative trends and recurring themes in contemporary TV polit-fiction." (Publisher description)
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"This study discusses the use of TikTok during the war that began with the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022. TikTok has been the fastest growing social media channel and is known for its young user base. Although associated with lifestyle and light entertainment, it also become an importan
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t arena in the war. Young people abroad used TikTok to obtain information about the conflict and to comment on or share it. This article presents a case study of five young Ukrainian women who captured the attention and sympathy of international audiences via TikTok. The authors study how the women succeeded as influencers and the variety of roles they took on in their performances. For the latter, they suggest a classification scheme for war influencer roles. In addition, they analyse data on the reactions from their audiences, as they appeared in the comments field. In a longer discussion section, the article goes deeper into the gender dimension of war and social media, as well as the possibilities of cosmopolitanism or affective publics. Finally, the authors suggest directions for future research." (Abstract)
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"The study examines Global Times’ strategic narratives on the Russia-Ukraine War (2022–2024) by analysing 301 articles through issue, identity and systemic frameworks. It reveals China’s framing of the conflict as a US-Russia proxy war, positioning itself as a neutral mediator advocating multi
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lateral dialogue while critiquing Western hegemony. The narratives portray Russia as a rational actor defending sovereignty, Ukraine as weakened yet reckless, and Europe-EU as internally fractured. Systemically, China projects a multipolar vision, blending realist power dynamics with idealist peace-building. The findings underscore China’s media diplomacy in contesting Western discourse and advancing its global governance agenda." (Abstract)
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"This joint report from OpenMinds and the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) analyzes the activity of a network of 3,634 automated accounts that posted pro-Russian comments on Telegram channels between January 2024 and April 2025 targeting Ukrainian populations inside Russian-occupied territorie
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s. These accounts crafted tailored messages to target the occupied territories, differentiating their content from that aimed at other audiences across Russia and Ukraine. Our investigation found that automated Telegram comments targeting local audiences in Ukraine fell into three overarching categories: pro-Russian propaganda, anti-Ukrainian propaganda, and abstract anti-war messaging and calls for peaceful coexistence. Individual narratives were often tailored to respond to current events and changes in local conditions, such as power or water outages, but there was also evidence of proactive narratives initiated by the network unrelated to external events.
The bot network used similar messaging when targeting channels based in Russia; however, a significantly larger share of comments targeting the occupied territory channels emphasized positive portrayals of Russian culture and government. Across the sixty-nine narrative themes identified (see appendix), the bot network pushed essentially the same menu of talking points in both Russia-wide and occupied territory channels. What differentiates the content aimed at the occupied territories from that aimed at a wider Russian audience is the proportion of talking points: themes that praised Russian culture, social services, and governance dominated in occupied territory-based channels, accounting for a markedly higher share of content than in Russia-based channels. The pattern points to an effort to cultivate the appearance of local consensus in favor of occupation and Russian administrative control, but not necessarily to create genuine agreement." (Executive summary)
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"The Trump administration’s freeze on U.S. foreign aid will lead to a surge in Russian disinformation across Eastern Europe, experts warn, as independent media outlets across the region will be forced to shutter, leaving a vacuum of credible information in their wake. “Russian disinfo will have
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it easier, just like they have it easier every time they or their allies manage to weaken another one of the counter-disinformation activities,” explained Jakub Kalensky, deputy director of the Hybrid Influence community of interest at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. “The Russians have made it clear they consider civil society their enemy; every effort to defund civil society is helping the Kremlin." (Introduction)
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"Lo studio presentato in questo lavoro può essere considerato come un contributo al campo della pastorale giovanile nell'Arcidiocesi di Ivano-Frankivsk, nel contesto della Chiesa Greco-Cattolica Ucraina (CGCU). Particolare attenzione è rivolta all'uso dei media digitali come strumento efficace di
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evangelizzazione. Sulla base dell'analisi dei documenti ecclesiastici, del contesto storico dello sviluppo della CGCU e delle sfide attuali per i giovani, sono state definite le direzioni strategiche dell'attività pastorale. Le piattaforme digitali sono ormai parte integrante della vita dei giovani e fungono sia da canali di socializzazione che da piattaforme di espressione personale. Per la Chiesa questo apre nuove opportunità di evangelizzazione, ma allo stesso tempo rende necessario un adattamento alle particolarità dell'ambiente digitale. L'analisi ha dimostrato che la Chiesa dovrebbe integrare un approccio multimediale nelle sue strategie pastorali. Creare contenuti di qualità che rispondano agli interessi e alle esigenze dei giovani può aiutare a comunicare meglio i valori del Vangelo. Tuttavia, ciò richiede una consapevolezza dei rischi potenziali dell'ambiente digitale, come la dipendenza, la superficialità della percezione e l'enfasi sulla soggettività. La Chiesa non deve solo essere rappresentata in tali contesti, ma anche formarne attivamente il contenuto." (Conclusioni, pagina 81)
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"A Saudi-led coalition of states initiated an on-going-armed conflict in Yemen on 26 March 2015. Meanwhile, Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Though no two armed conflicts are exactly alike, there is reason to compare US media coverage of the two because: (1) civilians have been victims of
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both conflicts; (2) both conflicts have undermined food security; (3) the US has provided military support to a party to each of the conflicts; and (4) the conflict in Yemen is in the Global South whereas the conflict in Ukraine is in the Global North. This article comparatively analyses US media coverage of the conflicts in Yemen and Ukraine, via New York Times headlines, by documenting the number of stories and their placement; assessing the types of media frames used; reviewing headlines for attribution of responsibility; and conducting a content analysis to identify the descriptive and normative terminology used. We find extensive biases in coverage and framing, rooted in peripheralism, culturalism and differential geopolitical US positioning. This results in reduced coverage of the war in Yemen, shielded in neutral language and lacking responsibility attribution—serving to devalue the suffering of victims and condemning the crisis to be functionally forgotten." (Abstract)
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"Political technology' is a Russian term for the professional engineering of politics. It has turned Russian politics into theatre and propaganda, and metastasised to take over foreign policy and weaponise history. The war against Ukraine is one outcome. In the West, spin doctors and political consu
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ltants do more than influence media or run campaigns: they have also helped build parallel universes of alternative political reality. Hungary has used political technology to dismantle democracy. The BJP in India has used it to consolidate unprecedented power. Different countries learn from each other. Some types of political technology have become notorious, like troll farms or data mining; but there is now a global wholesale industry selling a range of manipulation techniques, from astroturfing to fake parties to propaganda apps. This book shows that 'political technology' is about much more than online disinformation: it is about whole new industries of political engineering." (Publisher description)
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"The Ukrainian crisis has received substantial Global Northern policy support and favourable news coverage, contrasting sharply with Global Southern crises. Nevertheless, refugee organizations can influence public perceptions through social media. This study comparatively analyses UNHCR’s Instagra
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m communication strategies for the Ukrainian and Syrian crises (2022–2023). Applying a multimodal critical discourse analysis on UNHCR’s Instagram posts (N=90), we discern interacting humanitarian and post-humanitarian appeals, involving inter- and intra-group hierarchies of deservingness, expanding research on humanitarian communication. While UNHCR mainly represents forcibly displaced Ukrainians as victims and focuses on ‘ideal victims’, it mostly portrays forcibly displaced Syrians as empowered individuals, likely due to context-specific differences and partially countering news and policy narratives. Both humanitarian representations often intersect with post-humanitarian strategies, facilitated by Instagram affordances. This study thus contributes to the literature on humanitarian communication with comparative crisis-specific and platform-specific insights and causes. Moreover, it nuances the often-assumed importance of post-humanitarian imageries on social media." (Abstract)
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"After the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, the peninsula experienced a progressive transition of telecommunication and broadcasting infrastructure under Russian influence, followed by a wave of repression of Ukrainian media. Between 2014 and 2015, dozens of Ukrainian media organization
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s and independent journalists left the peninsula to continue working in exile. This paper explores the phenomenon of informational annexation using a mixed methods approach consisting of in-depth interviews with media and IT professionals as well as digital ethnography and network measurements. It argues that, besides pressure from pro-Russian authorities, journalistic work in the area is challenged by legal and infrastructural factors such as the absence of legal and financial protections for Ukrainian journalists traveling to Crimea, lack of holistic digital security within media organizations, and increased Internet censorship in Crimea. By analyzing the risk perceptions and digital security practices of exiled and Crimean civic journalists, this paper explores how informational annexation challenges journalistic work on the infrastructural and organizational level, enabling the rise of civic journalism, and how it affects journalists' individual digital security practices. In the context of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, this research provides insights into some of the informational annexation tactics used by Russians in the occupied Ukrainian territories." (Abstract)
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"Laure-Hélène Piron (The Policy Practice Director) undertook an analysis of official development assistance to media and the information environment for the Governance Network of the OECD Development Assistance Committee which was published in June 2024. The report shows that the rhetoric of gover
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nments which support freedom of expression and condemn disinformation is not matched by sufficient resources. ODA for media and the information environment has increased since 2002, reaching USD 1.5 billion in 2022, but this only represented 0.5% of total ODA in that year. When infrastructure support is excluded, ODA for media fluctuated around USD 500 million a year since 2008 (representing 0.19% of total ODA in 2022). This is despite the growth of threats facing media, such as the rise of censorship and the dominance of technology platforms.
And not enough aid directly reaches local organisations. Only up to 8% of ODA for media and the information environment (representing only 0.05% of total ODA) is directly channelled to media organisations in partner countries, such as journalists, media outlets or civil society organisations working with media or on access to information. To improve the quality and quantity of ODA for media and the information environment, the report recommends: increasing direct assistance for local public interest media; adopting a broader “information environment” lens; improving coordination between (i) digital transformation and ICT infrastructure and (ii) media and information policies and programmes; improving co-ordination and coherence between development partners (including global initiatives); strengthening the evidence base." (https://thepolicypractice.com)
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"This article examines Russia’s practice of the ban introduced by the so-called ‘fake news laws’ during the war against Ukraine. It blends doctrinal legal with discourse analysis to study how and why Russian courts have applied the laws, which epistemology of knowledge they have constructed wh
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ile limiting fake news about the war and what implications this has for freedom of expression and public debate of the war within Russia. The dataset covers 446 Russian court decisions from 2022 to 2023. A historical approach is utilised to discuss the results in connection to the Soviet Communist ideology. The article argues that Russian courts have used the laws to make truth in Russia conditional and loyalty unconditional, actualising the Soviet principles of ‘partyness’, ‘objectivity’ and ‘scientificalness’. It demonstrates how courts construct a mythologised reality about the ‘imaginary’ ‘military operation’ to help the government monopolise the public debate and misrepresent the war against Ukraine within Russia." (Abstract)
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"The 2024 Europe and Eurasia Vibrant Information Barometer (VIBE) covers 18 countries throughout Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia. With VIBE, IREX strives to capture a modern and evolving media space where people are simultaneously producers, transmitters, consumers, and actors in the information t
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hat influences their lives and environments. This year’s edition focuses on the media and information space across the countries in the study during calendar year 2023, capturing the impact of the second year of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, along with other issues related to the work of media like the lack of gender equity within the media sectors and issues with how gender is covered throughout the region." (Executive summary, page 7)
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