"The Katolícke noviny weekly derives five to ten times more income from advertising than Rádio Lumen, and the radio station derives three to ten times more income from advertising than TV LUX. Katolícke noviny are self-supporting, and so the publisher is not pressed for increasing advertising inc
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ome. On the other hand, both Rádio Lumen and TV LUX grapple with the finances and more advertising income would definitely help them. Rádio Lumen considers its advertising income adequate to market opportunities given the nature of the radio station and listeners’ profile." (Conclusion)
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"The chapters that follow provide an important insight into the evolution, current status and challenges to the effective implementation of media self-regulation systems in South East Europe and Turkey. Obstacles identified, which are likely to resonate in transitional democracies and other settings
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around the world, include insufficient tradition in the implementation of media self-regulation, low public trust in the media sector, political and economic pressures faced by media outlets and the important ties existing between politics, businesses and the media. The experiences recounted also underscore the essential need to bring all stakeholders on board in the effort to promote self-regulatory mechanisms, and to create awareness about the relevance of selfregulatory mechanisms among the general public - a task which is made difficult in the light of a prevailing lack of trust and consensus within the media sector itself. The publication sheds light on critical emerging issues for media accountability today. Confronting old dilemmas, journalists must abide by high ethical and professional standards in an environment that is revolutionized by the impact of new technologies. Contributing authors consider how media self-regulation fits into this new and ever-evolving picture, describing the impact of technological developments on media business models and traditional journalistic practices in South East Europe and Turkey, and the consequences that this bears for ethical and professional standards. Guaranteeing the application of such standards in online content is highlighted as a central challenge, with privacy protection, hate speech, gossip, unfounded accusations and criticism being issues flagged in some of the countries analysed. On a similar note, the multiplicity of actors producing and disseminating information, new methods of production and dissemination, and the increased speed of delivery has meant that editorial supervision is increasingly challenging." (Foreword, page 12)
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"Press freedom indices such as those administered by Freedom House, IREX, and Reporters Without Borders have emerged as crucial tools, not only for the general public, but also for donors, implementers, and academics in their attempts to understand the relationships among media assistance, democrati
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zation, and other forms of development. Bringing together a variety of viewpoints and perspectives on evaluating media assistance, Measures of Press Freedom and Media Contributions to Development offers a critical reflection on the theories and tools of measurements that are used by the academic, donor, and civil society communities. A variety of theoretical and geographic perspectives are drawn upon, offering a timely debate from both academics and practitioners." (Publisher description)
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"In social sciences, the interdependence between media systems and political systems is generally not in doubt. However, empirical knowledge about the relation between the two types of systems is rare. A deeper understanding can be gained by an international comparison of media and political systems
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from a macro perspective using aggregated data. The pilot study presented in this article offers an approach to international comparison based on four dimensions: freedom, diversity, centrality and tradition. These concepts serve as dimensions of comparison for both media - and political systems. The instrument is tested by using an intentionally heterogeneous sample of seven countries from around the world: China, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia and the US. In combination with a pragmatic use of systems theory as a theoretical framework, the dimensions allow more profound insights into the relation between media and political systems. In sum, the research project prepares the ground for future international large-N comparisons." (Abstract)
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"Cyrus Farivar explores the Internet's history and effects in four distinct and, to some, surprising societies—Iran, Estonia, South Korea, and Senegal. He profiles Web pioneers in these countries and, at the same time, surveys the environments in which they each work [...] Skype was invented in Es
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tonia—the same country that developed a digital ID system and e-voting; Iran was the first country in the world to arrest a blogger, in 2003; South Korea is the most wired country on the planet, with faster and less expensive broadband than anywhere in the United States; Senegal may be one of sub-Saharan Africa's best chances for greater Internet access." (Back cover)
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"This publication is the first independent, large-scale study of music, film and software piracy in the developing world, with a focus on Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Mexico and Bolivia. Based on three years of work by some thirty-five researchers, the study tells two overarching stories: on
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e tracing the explosive growth of piracy as digital technologies became cheap and ubiquitous around the world, and another following the growth of industry lobbies that have reshaped laws and law enforcement around copyright protection. The report argues that enforcement efforts have largely failed, and that the problem of piracy is better addressed as a failure of affordable access to media in legal markets." (Back cover)
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"Die in Deutschland diskutierten Modelle und Fragen zu Regulierung, Partizipation und Mitbestimmung in den elektronischen Medien sind auch in anderen europäischen Staaten relevant. Die AutorInnen aus Wissenschaft und Praxis thematisieren dabei insbesondere die Beteiligung der Zivilgesellschaft. Da
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sich die Medienpolitik zunehmend auf europäischer Ebene abspielt, ist es sinnvoll, die europäischen wissenschaftlichen Ergebnisse mit den Erfahrungen von PraktikerInnen zusammenzuführen und zu diskutieren." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"With three notable exceptions—Belarus, Russia, and Uzbekistan—the media sector in the countries included in the first edition of the MSI in 2001 have over time either improved overall or stayed more or less the same. But, a review of overall MSI scores is just one way to use the MSI to see how
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the media situation has changed [...] Another is to compare the qualitative characterizations made by panelists in 2001 to those they are making today. In a similar vein, IREX includes a summary of how the Internet was viewed in 2001 and how it is described today as a way to look at the impact of new media on dissemination of information, public dialogue, and citizen access to timely news and information. IREX this year employed an updated methodology to prepare the reports [...] IREX added two new indicators. One assesses a media sector’s ability to report on local, regional, national, and international news in a way that meets the needs of citizens in all corners of a country." (Executive summary, page 9)
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"The study has three general objectives: (1) A detailed legal description and analysis of the audiovisual media services regulatory bodies in the Member States, in candidate and potential candidate countries of the European Union and the EFTA countries, as well as four non-European countries; (2) an
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analysis of the effective implementation of the legal framework in these countries; and (3) the identification of key characteristics constituting an independent regulatory body in light of the AVMS Directive. Various theoretical approaches on independent regulatory bodies and reasons for their establishment are unfolded in the study. It can be concluded that there have been and are a number of arguments for separating the regulatory task from traditional public authorities (e.g. governments) and market players. However, the independence and autonomy of these regulatory bodies is seen to be associated with risks, which are usually minimalised by number of counterbalancing measures, such as appropriate accountability mechanisms." (Executive summary, page 7)
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"The number of foreigners in Hungary (as a proportion of the total population) is a negligible two percent. The majority of immigrants are Hungarian nationals coming from the neighbouring countries. Given to the low number of foreign citizens, the ‘man in the street’ in Hungary relatively rarely
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meets an immigrant or asylum seeker. The attitude of Hungarians is nevertheless negative toward foreign citizens who are not Hungarian nationals. The average Hungarian despises the Roma even more. Members of this community encounter widespread discrimination and occasional physical violence. One of the media’s roles might be to foster social cohesion and the integration of minorities. These roles might be enhanced by programming from public service broadcasters, balanced news coverage from commercial media outlets, media content produced by members of the minority, and media campaigns which aim to integrate minorities. The public service broadcasters satisfy their legal obligations by way of providing programming for and about the national and the ethnic minorities. Though the length of the broadcasts in lower-reach periods is not proportionate to the size of the given national or ethnic minorities as compared to the total population, these programmes constitute the only fora where the average Hungarian can encounter these minorities. Several commercial media outlets have adopted codes of ethics, and our findings confirm that most of these include provisions on how the minorities should be portrayed. However, various studies on the media representation of minorities find that in the Hungarian media, the voice of the depicted minorities can hardly ever be heard in the news, with coverage generally focusing on problems and conflicts, and the context of events being covered superficially." (Summary and conclusion)
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