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Political Communication, Elections, Democracy

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El insulto como estrategia: Un análisis de 113.000 tuits del presidente Milei

Sandra Crucianelli et al.

Foro de Periodismo Argentino (FOPEA) (2026)

"La llegada de Javier Milei a la arena pública, primero como panelista televisivo y líder de opinión, luego como diputado nacional y finalmente como presidente, marcó el inicio de una forma de comunicación plagada de ofensas hacia quien piensa diferente. Un equipo de DJV Bootcamp analizó 113.6 ... more

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The value of journalism: Global evidence on why media matters to economies, national security and crises
Deep Insights

Mel Bunce, Beth Pearson

Deutsche Welle DW Akademie; International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM); UNESCO (2026), 17 pp.

"Economic return: Investigative journalism delivers strong returns. Every US$1 spent on journalism can result in more than $100 in savings to the public through reclaimed funds, improved public services and reduced corruption. Media freedom supports economic growth. A study of 97 countries has show ... more

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Hacia las urnas: La prensa argentina en la transición democrática

Marcelo Borrelli, María Paula Gago (coord.)

Buenos Aires: Teseo (2026), 180 pp.

"En este libro se analizan los comportamientos editoriales de la prensa argentina entre el fin de la guerra por Malvinas, a mediados de 1982, y el ascenso al gobierno de Raúl Alfonsín, en diciembre de 1983. Se trata de un periodo de revitalización informativa de la sociedad, durante el cual los m ... more

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Disinformation Campaigns in Africa: Actors, Consequences, and Responses

Admire Mare, Allen Munoriyarwa

New York: Bloomsbury Publishing (2026), 262 pp.

"Centering disinformation campaigns in Africa, this book examines typologies of false and misleading information and assesses the devastating consequences of disinformation. Admire Mare and Allen Munoriyarwa cover the key actors, consequences of, and responses to combat disinformation campaigns th ... more

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Information Manipulation in Sudan: A Baseline Assessment of Actors, Narratives and Tactics

Aida Al-Kaisy, Amal Hamdan

Thomson Foundation (2026), 81 pp.

"The destruction of Sudan’s established information infrastructure at the outset of the conflict in April 2023 has created an environment where systematic information manipulation and disinformation campaigns now flourish unchecked. This has intersected with increasing systematic information manip ... more

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How civil society coalition-building affects information integrity during elections: evidence from four African countries

Dani Madrid-Morales, Herman Wasserman, Nicola Davies-Laubscher, Fatoumata Sow

Information, Communication & Society (2026), 18 pp.

"This article examines how civil society actors promote information integrity during elections through coalition-building, drawing on evidence from four African countries (the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Senegal, and South Africa) that held elections between 2022 and 2024. In these countrie ... more

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No Signal, no Voice: How Internet Shutdowns Undermined Uganda’s 2026 Elections

Kampala: Unwanted Witness; Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) (2026), 55 pp.

"This report finds that significant, deliberate, and centrally coordinated internet disruptions occurred before, during, and after Uganda’s January 2026 general elections. Contrary to public assurances issued by government officials in the weeks preceding polling, access to the internet was progre ... more

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Generative AI and democracy: Study on advantages and risks of the use of generative artificial intelligence in public debate and democratic processes

Natali Helberger, Claes de Vreese, Gionata Bouche, Agustin Ferrari Braun, Max van Drunen, Simon Kruschinski, Nicolas Mattis, Sophie Morosoli, Laurens Naudts, Charis Papaevangelou, Theresa Seipp, Fabio Votta, Teresa Weikmann

Strasbourg: Council of Europe, Steering Committee on Democracy (CDDM) (2026), 77 pp.

"The key finding of this report is that it is not enough to make sure that the technology is safe and no risk to human rights and public values. GenAI’s impact and potential for the realisation of fundamental rights depends on the societal, organisation and regulatory context in which it operates, ... the possibility for institutions to make value-driven choices and regulators that actively promote public innovation where the interests of society as a whole outweigh purely economic interests of a concentrated handful of technology companies. This report has made the argument that GenAI and its implications for human rights and democracy must be seen in the context of the configurations of infrastructural and political power, and who is able and entitled to decide the course and character of innovation. [...] The report makes a number of recommendations to the Council of Europe: 1. Provide substantive guidance and standardisation: As a human rights organisation, the Council of Europe is particularly well prepared to develop more substantive guidance and identify, concretise and monitor risks to democracy, human rights and political equality, be that in the way GenAI is used in democratic practices like elections, the more structural implications for democratic institutions (such as the free press) as well as the democratic governance of AI. Next to a focus on risks, the Council of Europe can also usefully develop guidance how AI can advance democracy and human rights and develop a value-driven interpretation of “public interest innovation” to inform States, companies and standardisation processes. 2. Incentivise and enable public interest innovation: Next to the risked-based approach to AI that is also enshrined in the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention, the Council of Europe could develop guidance on policies and governance approaches that enable and incentivise public interest innovation. It could help identify the democratic and human rights implications of procurement choices, and develop narratives to prioritize value-oriented innovation, open-source datasets, decentralisation and interoperability above the promotion of scale and innovation driven by a concentrated number of technology companies. 3. Strengthen democratic resilience and ability to govern: The Council of Europe, and the CDDEM specifically, could have an important role in exploring mechanisms and regulatory solutions to map and remedy existing dependencies and identify mission-critical elements of a European digital ecosystem, for example through monitoring the use of GenAI in elections, stimulating the development of public interest information infrastructures and strengthening the ability of states to develop democratic and inclusive ways of governing GenAI. Next to digital autonomy, empowering public accountability actors like civil society, equality bodies, academics or investigative reporters to participate in the governance of the digital transformation are critical conditions for strengthening democratic resilience. Finally, democratic resilience also means enabling more meaningful citizen engagement, including of otherwise often marginalised groups, for example through transparency, literacy and meaningful participation in decision making." (Executive summary) more

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Disinformation in Georgia

Koba Turmanidze (ed.)

Caucasus Analytical Digest, issue 145 (2026), 24 pp.

"One highly at-risk cluster is defined by socio-economic and geographic disadvantages. Vulnerability is greater among women, rural residents, and those with lower education and income, according to Bandzeladze and Chkhetiani. The authors further highlight that women living in rural areas with lower ... levels of education and income are collectively most at risk, as assessed by their ability to recognize information correctly. Similarly, Atchaidze and Fabos found that individuals living in rural settlements and those with lower reported income were most likely to receive low scores on the media literacy index, often inaccurately identifying answers as true or false, particularly on themes related to EU integration. A critical finding regarding vulnerability relates to ethnic minorities. The study by Atchaidze and Fabos demonstrated a clear media literacy divide, reporting that ethnic Azerbaijanis and ethnic Armenians scored far lower on the media literacy index compared to ethnic Georgians. These groups’ struggle to accurately assess politically relevant information makes them prime targets for false narratives. Political and ideological factors are also strong predictors of susceptibility. Crucially, politically unaffiliated individuals (nonpartisans or those declining to disclose party affiliation) are the most vulnerable group, reporting the lowest rates of fact-checking and the lowest accuracy in evaluating information, as demonstrated by Bandzeladze and Chkhetiani. Conversely, Bandzeladze and Chkhetiani note that partisan attachment, particularly among opposition supporters, can foster heightened vigilance, leading to greater skepticism and accuracy. Furthermore, subscription to conspiratorial beliefs significantly increases susceptibility to manipulation. Bandzeladze and Chkhetiani found that belief in narratives, such as the state-sponsored “Global War Party,” substantially undermines the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood. The analysis by Chkhetiani delves deeper into the profile of believers in this specific state-driven narrative, noting that men, older citizens (aged 55 and older), the unemployed or self-employed, pro-government TV consumers, and especially supporters of the Georgian Dream party are consistently more receptive to these conspiratorial narratives. This belief system is potent because the state-sponsored Global War Party theory channels diffuse suspicion into a coherent, anti-Western geopolitical attitude. The work of Kobaladze and Gagunashvili explains the mechanism by which such narratives are strategically constructed and disseminated through a “pre-suasion” strategy—framing the West as an enemy and discrediting civil society organizations months in advance—thereby preparing these vulnerable segments of the public to accept controversial legislation, such as the Law on the Transparency of Foreign Influence. These intersecting vulnerabilities—where low objective media literacy meets political disengagement and the acceptance of state-sponsored conspiracy theories—create a fertile environment for manipulation. This collective insight underscores the critical gap between public awareness of disinformation as a threat and the actual media literacy skills necessary to resist it effectively." (Page 2) more

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Guía de acceso a la contratación pública para el Tercer Sector de la Comunicación

David Comet-Herrera, Lucía Benítez-Eyzaguirre, Juan Antonio Roa-Domínguez

Comunicación Social Ediciones y Publicaciones (2025), 85 pp.

"Esta guía ofrece una herramienta útil y práctica que facilita el acceso del TSC a las licitaciones públicas, contribuyendo a su sostenibilidad económica y fortaleciendo su autonomía e independencia. Proporciona información clara, sencilla y accesible sobre los procedimientos, requisitos y op ... more

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Digital Shadows: Deepfakes Used As Violence Against Women in Journalism and Politics During African Elections

Risper Akinyi, Josephine Miliza, Mwara Gichanga, Sarah Kiden et al.

Kibera: Tanda Community Network (2025), 77 pp.

"This report delves into the growing threat of deepfakes as a tool for technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TfGBV) against women in politics and journalism during elections across Africa. With increasing reliance on digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI), deepfakes pose a serious ri ... sk to democratic processes and the personal security of women in leadership roles. The report investigated how deepfakes and other forms of manipulated media contribute to TfGBV against women journalists and politicians in the context of elections in Ghana, Namibia, and Senegal. Both interviews and focus group discussions elicited responses from policymakers, journalists, technologists, and researchers. Deepfakes, which use AI to manipulate videos, audio, and images, are being weaponized to tarnish reputations, spread falsehoods, and harass women, often in the most public and vulnerable moments of their careers. Women in politics and journalism are particularly susceptible, as their visibility makes them prime targets for digital harassment and character assassination. This misuse of AI-generated content not only impacts their personal and professional lives but also threatens to silence women’s voices in public discourse, deterring other women from engaging in leadership roles. The report emphasizes the urgent need for comprehensive measures to address this issue. Key recommendations include: the enactment of specific deepfake legislation; public awareness campaigns to educate women in leadership about online safety and investment in AI detection technologies; strengthening support systems for victims of TfGBV and promoting responsible AI use are also critical to creating a safer, more inclusive digital environment for women; Collaborative efforts with international organizations and the expansion of media and digital literacy programs are suggested to bolster the nation's resilience against this evolving threat. By addressing the challenges posed by deepfakes and TfGBV, Ghana, Namibia, and Senegal can safeguard its democratic processes and promote gender equality in the political and media landscapes. The report calls for immediate action to protect women in leadership, ensuring that they can participate fully and fearlessly in the country's democratic development." (Executive summary) more

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Our Media, Our Democracy, Our Future. The Future of the Media in the Western Balkans and Turkey – Facts and Trends. Regional Overview
Deep Insights

Sanela Hodžic, Sandra B. Hrvatin

Sarajevo; Ljubljana: Mediacentar; Peace Institute; South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) (2025), 57 pp.

"The results of the research conducted in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey suggest that the key determinants for the future of our media and democracies are the following: • The poor socio-economic status of journalists and their exposure to ... pressure and attacks, coupled with modest support mechanisms, cripple the ability of journalists to promote the public interest, report on key issues of public interest, and hold power to account. In the most extreme cases, the pressure involves imprisonment, interrogation, surveillance, and lawsuits aimed at silencing journalists. • The lack of consistent monitoring and registration of cases of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) in the region, with dozens of lawsuits against journalists filed by political officials and their affiliates. • A growing number or media outlets, but a declining number of journalism students, highlighting concerns about the future shrinking of staff numbers in media newsrooms and about the growing automatization of journalism. The most drastic drop was in North Macedonia, with the number of journalism students in 2023 amounting to only 11% of the number from ten years ago and 50% of the number from 2000. • The number of media outlets is growing, mostly in the online sector, while print media outlets are becoming increasingly endemic. • A worrying trend of overt concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few media conglomerates, often tied to national or foreign governments, that takes a toll on media freedom and pluralism. • The dominant instrumentalization (through ownership and funding) of media (including private and public) for particular political and/or business interests limits the space for editorial independence and integrity. • Non-profit media are still a rarity in the region, with only a few non-profit radio broadcasters in some countries, and an unknown number of online platforms of civil society organizations with a community-focused mission. • Lack of transparency of the media sector, particularly a lack of accessible and reliable information concerning the media industry and the media market. • Advertising is the main source of revenues in the media sector, with the total revenues ranging between EUR 12 million in Montenegro and over EUR 4 billion in Turkey. • Although it is declining, the TV sector is still dominant in terms of its share of advertising revenues, while social media’s share is increasing, and in Turkey it amounts to as much as 45.7% of advertising revenues. • The tech giants such as Google and Meta are an increasingly dominant competitor for media outlets in the region, jeopardizing the future sustainability of national and local media outlets and potentially curbing political pluralism in public communication. • Public funding for the media, including funding of public broadcasters (declining in four out of seven countries), grants, and subsidies for media outlets and government advertising, amounts to several to dozens of millions of euros per country, taking up an important share of media revenues, but without proactive transparency, effective guarantees of editorial independence, well-defined purpose and evaluation, the opportunities to make public funding for the media an important instrument of media democratization remain under-used. • The representation of different age, gender, ethnic, religious, and other groups in media content and in the newsrooms’ staff is limited. In multiethnic communities some policies promote ethnic diversity of media content, while other identity axes are largely neglected and pluralism in public communication is very limited. Women are an important, and in many countries even dominant, workforce in the media, but remain underrepresented in managerial posts." (Executive summary) more

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Entertainment interspersed with propaganda: How nonlegacy-news accounts deliver explicitly political content to mass audiences on Russia’s most popular social network VK

Julia Kling, Florian Toepfl, Pascal Jürgens

Information, Communication & Society (2025), 18 pp.

"Previous research on political communication on Russia’s most popular social network VK has concluded that most users avoid news by not following legacy-news accounts. In this study, we expand the universe of scrutinized accounts with the mostfollowed non-legacy-news accounts (>100,000 followers) ... more

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Media Bias, Legislative Challenges, and the Fight for Freedom. The Future of the Media in Serbia – Facts and Trends

Valentina Sigeti, Teodora Koledin

Sarajevo; Novi Sad; Ljubljana: Mediacentar; Novi Sad School of Journalism; Peace Institute; South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) (2025), 50 pp.

"Alongside the rise of new technologies and the evolving global conditions in the media industry, journalism and media in Serbia will face numerous challenges, particularly in the areas of basic media freedom and journalist protection, based on the findings of this research: • There is no reliable ... data on the number of journalists in Serbia, or how many of them are women or members of marginalized groups. • Media ownership in Serbia is highly concentrated, particularly in the television broadcasting sector, which affects media reporting. Channels with national frequencies often align their narratives with the government’s or ruling party’s agenda. • The state and ruling party demonstrate tendencies to control the media. This is evident in the newly updated law that allows business companies engaged in electronic communications, such as the state-owned Telekom, to own media outlets. Additionally, findings indicate that some media owners at the local level are connected to the ruling party. • Media financing is often misused to encourage biased reporting. Public calls for funding are corrupted by GONGO media organizations, which prioritize funding pro-government outlets; state advertising is not regulated by law, and the media community was left out of the discussion on new advertising laws; despite receiving the majority of its budget from citizens’ subscriptions, the national public broadcaster RTS is still perceived as one of the most progovernment outlets in the country; foreign donors, including the EU, US and UK, provide significant financial support for media projects in Serbia, but there is no transparent data on the total amount of money donated. • National minorities are represented through media outlets funded by National Councils of National Minorities. However, journalists from some of these media outlets work under political pressures and engage in self-censorship. National minorities living in the northern province of Serbia, Vojvodina, are also served by the provincial public broadcaster RTV. RTS does not provide content in the languages of the Bosnian, Vlach and Bulgarian communities in Serbia’s eastern and western regions. Romani and Albanian communities are represented on RTS, but the amount of content is minimal. • Television is the most commonly used source of news and information, with citizens watching up to eight hours of television daily. The most-watched TV news programmes are central-informative political shows on channels with national frequencies, which are widely considered pro-government. • Only 30% of Serbian citizens trust the media. Social media is the least trusted media type, while television is the most trusted." (Executive summary) more

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Putting ‘filter bubble’ effects to the test: Evidence on the polarizing impact of ideology-based news recommendation from two experiments in Germany and the U.S.

Katharina Ludwig, Philipp Müller, Nevena Nikolajevic, Alexander Grote

Information, Communication & Society (2025), 20 pp.

"Algorithmic news recommender systems (NRS) are present in many digital platforms. A decade after Eli Pariser introduced the infamous ‘filter bubble’ hypothesis, empirical evidence challenges the assumption that recommendation algorithms predominantly create homogeneous opinion environments. Stu ... more

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Changing Media Landscape, Same Persistent Problems. The Future of the Media in Albania – Facts and Trends

Ilda Londo

Sarajevo; Tirana; Ljubljana: Mediacentar; Albanian Media Institute; Peace Institute; South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) (2025), 33 pp.

"Analysis of media in Albania and mapping of main trends through credible, regular, and complete data is a problematic endeavour. However, the data available show that it is safe to say that challenges for professional journalism remain formidable in Albania. Full formality of the media market has n ... more

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Determinants of institutional trust in sub-Saharan Africa: Does media exposure matter?

Nabilatou A. O. Bouraïma, Mamadou Abdoulaye Diallo, Sylvain Hekponhoue

Afrobarometer (2025), 35 pp.

"As the main channel for information about institutions and their performance, the media have the potential to influence citizens' perceptions of them. In recent decades, the media environment has undergone significant change, making different types of information readily available. At the same time ... more

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The Expanding Media Landscape, Decline in Journalists' Safety, and Low Media Literacy. The Future of the Media in Kosovo – Facts and Trends

Jeton Mehmeti

Sarajevo; Pristina; Ljubljana: Mediacentar; Press Council of Kosovo; Peace Institute; South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) (2025), 32 pp.

"Kosovo enjoys a relatively good legal framework when it comes to the protection of freedom of expression and freedom of the media. Laws concerning protection of journalism sources, protection of whistleblowers, and access to public information appear to be in line with European standards. The overa ... more

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Global Communication: A Multicultural Perspective
Deep Insights

Yahya R. Kamalipour (ed.)

Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littlefield, 4th ed. (2025), xxxiv, 443 pp.

"Twenty-four highly accomplished and prominent media scholars representing ten countries provide a survey of international communication, public relations and advertising, implications of globalization, international law and regulation, global culture, propaganda, transnational media, the shifting p ... more

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Whose voice counts? Examining community media's coverage of South Africa's 2024 elections

Musa Oswald Rikhotso

Media Monitoring Africa (2025), 19 pp.

"Community media published a total of 774 election-related stories: 583 from the six monitored radio stations and 191 from the 15 online and newspaper publications. This coverage was significantly lower than that of the SABC, which published 5,020 stories, and privately-owned media, which produced 6 ... more

The value of journalism: Global evidence on why media matters to economies, national security and crises Deep Insights

Our Media, Our Democracy, Our Future. The Future of the Media in the Western Balkans and Turkey – Facts and Trends. Regional Overview Deep Insights

Global Communication: A Multicultural Perspective Deep Insights

The value of journalism: Global evidence on why media matters to economies, national security and crises
Deep Insights

Our Media, Our Democracy, Our Future. The Future of the Media in the Western Balkans and Turkey – Facts and Trends. Regional Overview
Deep Insights

Global Communication: A Multicultural Perspective
Deep Insights