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State of digital development and trends in Asia and the Pacific: Challenges and opportunities

Geneva: ITU (2025), iv, 53 pp.

"[...] While mobile broadband covers over 95 per cent of the population, disparities persist. High-income economies lead in 5G deployment and innovation, while lower-income countries face infrastructure, affordability, and digital literacy gaps. The urban-rural divide remains, and women and marginal ... more

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La alfabetización mediática en Colombia: Una propuesta para la creación de conciencia crítica en los estudios formales y no formales de comunicación

Ricardo Gordo Muskus

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Tesis Doctoral (2025), 275 pp.

"El concepto de alfabetización mediática (AM), para quienes participaron en el Grupo ComunicArte, ha sido un concepto que ha estado en su formación a partir de las herramientas de aprendizaje y análisis que les ha dotado para construir conocimientos y capacidad crítica al momento de afrontar la ... información de los medios de difusión. Han podido generar habilidades para acceder, analizar, evaluar y crear mensajes a través de diversidad de medios; así, la AM es entendida por esta población como la capacidad que habilita para expresar puntos de vista, pensamientos, opiniones, sobre cómo y lo que informan. El alumnado de la UDistrital, conciben la AM como una herramienta para pensar críticamente y emitir opiniones razonadas gracias a las habilidades, herramientas y conocimientos con los que pueden acceder, analizar, evaluar y crear mensajes a través de diversidad de medios. La AM en la formación de estas dos poblaciones ha sido una herramienta conceptual que les habilita para posicionarse crítica y discursivamente frente a la información de otros medios de difusión. Además, les permite generar contenido mediático de acuerdo a sus necesidades e intereses. No obstante, a estas generalidades, en las que se da a entender que sí hay procesos de AM en la formación, no es algo que se pueda afirmar de manera certera; por lo tanto, es importante que las instituciones colombianas que se dedican a la formación en comunicación profesional o empírica, fortalezcan los procesos de AM, pues tal y como plantea Simons (2017) el profesorado debe estar suficientemente alfabetizado. El estudiantado de la UDistrital cuenta con mayores conocimientos teóricos debido a los contextos de formación. Sus autopercepciones; sin embargo, cuentan con carencias para permitirse interactuar de una manera significativa con los discursos y contenidos mediáticos. Es un aspecto que la universidad debe solucionar, teniendo en cuenta que serán profesionales de la comunicación a futuro y les corresponderá hacer frente a los sistemas mediáticos actuales. Quienes participan de las estrategias comunicativas del Grupo ComunicArte, al preguntarles por la competencia mediática (CM), la entienden preconceptualmente como una capacidad para razonar e interactuar críticamente con y sobre la información que presentan los medios. En la escogencia de selección múltiple de la pregunta que refiere a la definición por CM, en su mayoría la relacionan con las habilidades, conocimientos y actitudes que se asumen para aprovechar de manera efectiva la tecnología comunicativa y así poder actuar frente a los problemas que emergen de la interacción con los medios, identificando estructuras mínimas que los mensajes deben contener y los intereses que hay en quién y cómo se emite. Mientras que, en la UDistrital el estudiantado ve el concepto de CM como una habilidad que les permite poner a prueba sus conocimientos y actitudes para aprovechar de manera efectiva la tecnología comunicativa. A su vez, ayuda a reconocer cuándo una información, creación o producto mediático no cumple con niveles básicos de producción lingüística, técnica, estética, etc. Para las dos poblaciones, los niveles de CM en sus procesos formativos son generalizados; es decir, se poseen algunos conocimientos, actitudes, capacidades, habilidades, etc. que les permiten acceder a una interacción con los distintos medios de difusión; sin embargo, también hay debilidades en la construcción de elementos conceptuales teniendo en cuenta las seis dimensiones que se establecen de CM (Ferrés y Piscitelli, 2012) en este estudio y que se pueden potenciar gracias a los procesos de AM. Las dimensiones de producción y difusión, estética y tecnología, por las respuestas dadas, son con las que estas poblaciones tienen mayores acercamientos; pero queda el interrogante por las otras tres (lenguaje, ideología y valores e interacción) en cuyas respuestas no aparecen de manera explícita. Es importante que la formación reconozca que la integridad de los procesos de la AM debe estar dirigidos hacia la comprensión efectiva de la producción de los mensajes; y esto se logra potenciando la CM a través de las dimensiones propuestas (Ferrés y Piscitelli, 2012). Al preguntar por el pensamiento crítico (PC), quienes participan en el Grupo Comunicarte entienden que es una herramienta que les ayuda a diferenciar tipos de informaciones, mensajes, noticias, que se dan a través de los medios de difusión. Teóricamente, en su mayoría ven al PC como una estrategia que ayuda en la toma de decisiones con el fin de mejorar como comunicadores y comunicadoras, fortaleciendo las habilidades cognitivas e interpretativas. La población estudiantil de la UDistrital, entienden el concepto como una herramienta que se compone de habilidades cognitivas de interpretación, análisis, evaluación, inferencia, explicación y auto regulación. También lo asumen como un ejercicio que permite tomar decisiones individuales y colectivas en relación a proponer y probar puntos de vista e interpretación. Las respuestas en términos generales obligan a que dentro de los procesos formativos se insista en el fortalecimiento en las CM para que estudiantes de comunicación social y periodismo vean la importancia de relacionarse con los sistemas y medios a través de PC; de esta manera la AM pueda estar asegurada en un contexto tecnologizado y mediatizado en los que poco se produce y divulgan contenidos propios, haciendo que los ámbitos de expresión estén por encima de los de análisis, lo que produce que en el estudio de las dimensiones, haya mayor injerencia de la aplicación y actuación sobre la comprensión e interpretación; o sea, se ve que hay formación en cómo se produce una pieza radial, televisiva, digital, etc. Ambas poblaciones ven al PC como un recurso que les permite posicionarse frente a los medios fragmentando los niveles nstrumentales con los cuales se han formado. La dimensión de lenguaje es la que más tiene competencia en estas poblaciones respecto a lo que tiene que ver con el PC; pues en las respuestas se ve el valor que se da a la construcción y producción de contenidos (particularmente en la formación del Grupo ComunicArte) se da importancia al uso cotidiano de palabras, dichos, vocabulario, etc. como aspectos centrales en el proceso de comunicación y, por lo tanto, sentidos. Así mismo en esta población hay entendimiento conceptual en lo que tiene que ver con los procesos de interacción, identificación de enfoques, perspectivas, puntos de vista, ideologías y valores de quiénes informan y cómo informan." (Conclusiones, páginas páginas 209-212) more

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The Index on International Media Freedom Support 2025

Martin Scott, Mel Bunce, Shannon Maguire, Mary Myers

University of East Anglia, Centre for Journalism and Democracy; City St George’s, University of London (2025), 30 pp.

"The Index on International Media Freedom Support (IMFS) evaluates and ranks states based on their support for media freedom beyond their borders. It does this by analysing the contributions that countries have made to international diplomatic, financial and safety / protection initiatives that prom ... ote media freedom. The IMFS Index includes all states that are members of both the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) (30 countries). These countries have pledged to promote media freedom internationally, and the IMFS holds them accountable for these commitments. The Index draws on data from the previous calendar year (2024), except for the ODA figures, which are for 2023, due to the time lag in reporting. The IMFS Index is produced by an independent research group and is a joint project between City St George’s, University of London, and the University of East Anglia. The results of the 2025 IMFS Index highlight several well performing states: Lithuania (1st) is the highest ranked country, largely due to its diplomatic efforts, including its leadership of two multilateral initiatives. Sweden (2nd) spent a far higher proportion of its Official Development Assistance (ODA) on media development in 2023 than any other country (0.91%). It is the only country to get close to the benchmark of 1.0%, as recommended by the Forum on Information & Democracy. France (5th) is the only country to award funding to all four qualifying multilateral pooled funds in 2024. Latvia (9th) is the only country to have both an active emergency visa scheme dedicated to supporting journalists at-risk and to support a national initiative that promotes the protection and safety of media workers in exile. The IMFS Index also identifies several less encouraging trends and performances: No country performed consistently well across all three areas of diplomacy, funding and safety / protection. Almost two thirds of the 30 countries qualified for the lowest, bronze category, earning only 10 points or less. This includes four members of the G7: the United Kingdom (equal 12th), the United States (equal 12th), Italy (equal 24th) and Japan (28th). The lowest ranked countries were Japan (28th), Slovenia (equal 29th) and South Korea (equal 29th), due to their relative lack of support for diplomacy, funding and safety / protection. However, South Korea and Japan do provide support for the wider enabling environment for media freedom in their ODA spending, which is not measured by this Index. On average, the 30 states in the IMFS Index allocated just 0.16% of their ODA to media development in 2023. Thirteen countries awarded less than 0.1%, including three – Latvia (9th), Greece (21st), and Slovenia (29th) – which reported giving 0%. Only five countries had an emergency visa scheme for journalists in 2024, and only five hosted an assistance programme for journalists in exile. Twenty-one countries had neither." (Executive summary, pages 3-4) more

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Freedom in the World 2025: The Uphill Battle to Safeguard Rights

Yana Gorokhovskaia, Cathryn Grothe

Washington, DC: Freedom House (2025), 29 pp.

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An overview of digital service taxation

raul Katz

Geneva: ITU (2025), xi, 36 pp.

"The study’s first major conclusion is that taxes imposed both on operators and on consumers remain in place in many countries around the world. At least 74 countries impose taxes on service providers, whether environmentally related, import duties on equipment or VAT on equipment purchases. Simil ... arly, 145 countries impose VAT on mobile services, while 74 apply import duties on mobile devices. Secondly, some nuanced geographic patterns in terms of taxation approaches can be teased out from the data. The group of countries exempting equipment purchases from taxation include advanced economies and some less developed countries. This would indicate that this group is not only composed of countries that do not require equipment taxation to increase revenues but also countries that prioritize maximization of network coverage (stimulated by lower equipment taxes) over tax collection. That said, there appears to be countries, mostly concentrated in the developing world, with some middle-income economies, that still prioritize tax collection from import duties on equipment. Thirdly, unlike with network equipment, many countries were identified that exempt consumer devices from import duty or device-specific taxes. Furthermore, several developing countries were found to tax the import of devices at an extremely high rate. However, some countries have established consumer device taxation approaches aimed at reducing the purchasing acquisition cost. At the other end, some countries appear to have imposed high taxation on consumer devices. In addition to taxes on devices, affordability of telecommunications/ICTs for consumers is affected by VAT paid on mobile telecommunications services, a fairly common practice across countries. Of all services to which VAT is applied, the most prevalent service is outgoing international traffic, where rates range between 2.75 per cent and 20 per cent. Finally, many countries have enacted a digital service tax to address perceived gaps in corporate income-tax systems. This approach imposes a tax on gross receipts derived from digital advertising, data mining and other types of digital platform revenue. A few countries have already implemented national approaches aimed at tackling profit shifting by digital platforms. While many countries did not report the application of digital service taxes in the ITU Tariff Policies Survey, of the 115 nations that provided a response, only 17 reported applying a digital service tax, and the percentage applied varies from 3% (Fance) to 21% (Argentina). This limited evidence prevents us from understanding what the current trend is in this domain." (Conclusion) more

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Measuring Digital Development. Facts and Figures: Focus on Landlocked Developing States
Deep Insights

Geneva: ITU (2025), iv, 33 pp.

"Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) face unique development challenges. Higher transportation costs, trade barriers, and limited connectivity impede economic integration. LLDCs rely on neighbouring countries for access to trade routes, resulting in delays and higher costs. These countries also ... more

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Measuring Digital Development: The ICT Development Index

Geneva: ITU (2025), iv, 36 pp.

"I am pleased to present the 2025 edition of the ICT Development Index (IDI). This is the third edition based on the revised methodology adopted by Member States in 2023. The current IDI is anchored in the concept of universal and meaningful connectivity (UMC), a term coined by ITU in 2021 that has ... more

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Exploring news gratifications across age groups: A European study in 23 countries

Mónica Recalde, Alfonso Vara-Miguel, Jorge del Río Pérez, Cristina Sánchez-Blanco

European Journal of Communication, volume 40, issue 1 (2025), pp. 70-86

"Research on motivations for news consumption has primarily focused on uses and gratifications (U&G) from both conventional and new media. However, there is a gap regarding age perspectives in this field. This study aims to address this gap by examining whether differences and similarities exist in ... more

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Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025
Deep Insights

Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Craig T. Robertson, Amy Ross Arguedas, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2025), 170 pp.

"• Engagement with traditional media sources such as TV, print, and news websites continues to fall, while dependence on social media, video platforms, and online aggregators grows. This is particularly the case in the United States where polling overlapped with the first few weeks of the new Trum ... p administration. Social media news use was sharply up (+6pp) but there was no ‘Trump bump’ for traditional sources. • Personalities and influencers are, in some countries, playing a significant role in shaping public debates. One-fifth (22%) of our United States sample says they came across news or commentary from popular podcaster Joe Rogan in the week after the inauguration, including a disproportionate number of young men. In France, young news creator Hugo Travers (HugoDécrypte) reaches 22% of under-35s with content distributed mainly via YouTube and TikTok. Young influencers also play a significant role in many Asian countries, including Thailand. • News use across online platforms continues to fragment, with six online networks now reaching more than 10% weekly with news content, compared with just two a decade ago. Around a third of our global sample use Facebook (36%) and YouTube (30%) for news each week. Instagram (19%) and WhatsApp (19%) are used by around a fifth, while TikTok (16%) remains ahead of X at 12%. • Data show that usage of X for news is stable or increasing across many markets, with the biggest uplift in the United States (+8pp), Australia (+6pp), and Poland (+6pp). Since Elon Musk took over the network in 2022 many more right-leaning people, notably young men, have flocked to the network, while some progressive audiences have left or are using it less frequently. Rival networks like Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon are making little impact globally, with reach of 2% or less for news. • Changing platform strategies mean that video continues to grow in importance as a source of news. Across all markets the proportion consuming social video has grown from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025 and any video from 67% to 75%. In the Philippines, Thailand, Kenya, and India more people now say they prefer to watch the news rather than read it, further encouraging the shift to personality-led news creators. • Our survey also shows the importance of news podcasting in reaching younger, better-educated audiences. The United States has among the highest proportion (15%) accessing one or more podcasts in the last week, with many of these now filmed and distributed via video platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. By contrast, many northern European podcast markets remain dominated by public broadcasters or big legacy media companies and have been slower to adopt video versions. • TikTok is the fastest growing social and video network, adding a further 4pp across markets for news and reaching 49% of our online sample in Thailand (+10pp) and 40% in Malaysia (+9pp). But at the same time people in those markets see the network as one of the biggest threats when it comes to false or misleading information, along with Facebook. • Overall, over half our sample (58%) say they remain concerned about their ability to tell what is true from what is false when it comes to news online, a similar proportion to last year. Concern is highest in Africa (73%) and the United States (73%), with lowest levels in Western Europe (46%). • When it comes to underlying sources of false or misleading information, online influencers and personalities are seen as the biggest threat worldwide (47%), along with national politicians (47%). Concern about influencers is highest in African countries such as Nigeria (58%) and Kenya (59%), while politicians are considered the biggest threat in the United States (57%), Spain (57%), and much of Eastern Europe." (Executive summary, page 10-11) more

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Determinants of watchdog journalism: A global empirical approach

Basyouni Ibrahim Hamada, Abdel-Salam G. Abdel-Salam

International Communication Gazette, volume 87, issue 3 (2025), pp. 191-216

"This article introduces and examines a hierarchical model of influences that identifies the variables affecting the watchdog role of journalists at three levels: the societal (press freedom and democracy), the organizational (media ownership), and the individual (editorial autonomy and perceived in ... more

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Determinants of Journalists’ Trust in Public Institutions: A Macro and Micro Analysis Across 67 Countries

Basyouni Ibrahim Hamada, Davis Vallesi

Journalism Practice, volume 19, issue 2 (2025), pp. 282-303

"Scholars have repeatedly expressed concern about the societal consequences of negative media coverage toward public institutions and political actors. Yet, there remains a lack of systemic understanding about the determinants of this cynical attitude. To examine this issue, we combine aggregate dat ... more

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State of digital development and trends in the Africa region: Challenges and opportunities

Geneva: ITU (2025), iv, 49 pp.

"This publication reveals that the gap between ambition and reality remains wide. Mobile broadband coverage has expanded rapidly, offering most of the population the possibility of going online. And yet, only 38 per cent of the population currently uses the Internet—the lowest rate among all ITU r ... more

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Veiled transparency: Access to public information remains elusive despite progress on right-to-information laws

Anne Okello, Sophie Sunderland, Joseph Asunka

Afrobarometer (2024), 17 pp.

"Across 39 countries surveyed in 2021/2023, a majority of Africans express support for public access to information such as local government budgets, local government bids and contracts, and even the salaries of public officials and teachers. But although demand for public information is high, few c ... more

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Global Perspectives on Press Regulation. Volume 2: Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania

András Koltay, Paul Wragg

London: Hart Publishing (2024), 368 pp.

"In this ground-breaking two-volume set, world-leading experts produce a rich, authoritative depiction of the world's press, its freedom, and its limits. We want press freedom but we also want freedom from the press. A powerful press may expose corrupt government or aid it. It may champion citizens ... more

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“We don’t believe in [the] Coronavirus; we believe in Allah. Whatever happens, it happens from Allah”: Pakistani media’s response to countering conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic

Madeeha Naz, Amir Hamza Marwan

Newspaper Research Journal, volume 46, issue 1 (2024), pp. 6-28

"This study examines the coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic by the four leading newspapers of Pakistan—Dawn, The News, Daily Times and The Nation—when they were responsible for informing and educating the public during a health crisis hit by conspiracy theories. The researchers utilized content a ... more

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Countering violent extremism through internet intermediaries: A typology for cross-country comparison

Vincent Pak-Hong Wong

Global Media and Communication, volume 20, issue 1 (2024), pp. 3-22

"This paper examines the counter-violent extremism and anti-terrorism measures in Australia, China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States by investigating how governments leveraged internet intermediaries as their surrogate censors. Particular attention is paid to how political rhetoric l ... more

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Global Index on Responsible AI 2024
Deep Insights

Rachel Adams, Fola Adeleke, Ana Florido, Larissa Galdino de Magalhães Santos, Nicolás Grossman, Leah Junck, Kelly Stone

Global Center on AI Governance (2024), 62 pp.

"The First Edition of the GlRAI revealed that global progress toward responsible AI is lagging far behind the development and adoption of AI. There are major gaps across many parts of the world and in many core areas of responsible AI, especially those areas related to protecting the rights of vuln ... more

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“No One Is Going to Silence Me”: A Comparison of the Conditions for Press Freedom and Independent Journalism as a Prerequisite for Democracy in the United States, Sweden, and Egypt

Elin Rantakrans

In: Handbook of Applied Journalism: Theory and Practice

Leon Barkho, Jairo Alfonso Lugo-Ocando, Sadia Jamil (eds.)

Cham: Springer (2024), pp. 615-629

"This chapter looks at the status of the freedom of the press, and the legal possibilities and obstacles that affect media’s ability to hold power to account and safeguard the principles of democracy. The legal environment in countries as diverse as the United States, Egypt, and Sweden differs gre ... more

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Most "Fake News" Legislation Risks Doing More Harm than Good amid a Record Number of Elections in 2024

Center for News, Technology & Innovation (CNTI) (2024), 18 pp.

"Legislation targeting “fake news” — a contested term used to reference both news and news providers that governments (or others) reject as well as disinformation campaigns — has increased significantly over the last few years, particularly in the wake of COVID-19. This study finds that even ... more

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Mobilisations sociales à l'épreuve du numérique : Une comparaison France-Algérie

Fetta Belgacem

Paris: L'Harmattan (2024), 285 pp.

"Les pratiques « médiactivistes » numériques offrent de nouveaux cadres pour la formation et le développement des mobilisations sociales contemporaines. Elles élargissent le champ de la lutte et incitent à s'interroger sur le rôle que jouent les dispositifs numériques dans l'amplification o ... more

Measuring Digital Development. Facts and Figures: Focus on Landlocked Developing States Deep Insights

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 Deep Insights

Global Index on Responsible AI 2024 Deep Insights

Measuring Digital Development. Facts and Figures: Focus on Landlocked Developing States
Deep Insights

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025
Deep Insights

Global Index on Responsible AI 2024
Deep Insights