"To better understand who participates in media-driven public discussion and opinion-making, this working paper presents the results of a randomised household survey implemented in four constituencies in Kenya and Zambia, one urban and one rural constituency in each country. The survey was conducted
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as part of Politics and Interactive Media in Africa (PiMA), a collaborative research project analysing the nature and political implications of expressions of public opinion in broadcast media in Kenya and Zambia, via new information and communication technologies (ICT) such as mobile phones. This paper presents descriptive survey results that are the basis of a deeper comparative analysis of drivers of listenership and participation in interactive broadcast media shows, also published in the PiMA Working Paper series. Nevertheless, a few results are highlighted here. The survey reveals that level of radio listenership of interactive shows in the two Kenyan constituencies is high, particularly in Kenya, ranging between 80-90%, whereas in Zambia listenership levels range between 40-60%, contrasting with listenership to radio shows generally (70-85%). Radio listeners tend to listen to all types of shows, from politics and development shows to social/cultural and music/entertainment shows. Yet country differences in interactive show listenership are not reflected in the levels of participation in interactive radio shows. Both in Kenya and in Zambia, roughly 20% of the total population have participated at one time or another in interactive shows. However, contrasting with listenership, participation tends to be more segmented across types of shows. Rural and urban constituencies show an inverse pattern of participation in Kenya and Zambia, with higher levels of participation in the urban sample from Zambia (21% versus 12% in the rural), and the rural sample from Kenya (21% versus 19% in the urban). Across the four sites, male and more educated listeners are more likely to engage interactive shows. Three to four times more men engage in interactive shows than women. Of the women who participate in interactive shows, they tend to be younger, single, more educated and wealthier compared with those who do not participate. Calling in to the studio is the most frequent form of engagement in radio shows, especially in rural areas. SMS is more popular in urban constituencies, particularly in Kenya. Only 10% of those who have participated in interactive media shows have ever used social media to communicate with stations. Across all sites, the main barriers to participation identified are cost and expectations of not getting through." (Abstract and introduction, page 4)
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"The use of smartphones and tablets has jumped significantly in the past year, with fewer people using their computers for news. More than a third of online news users across all countries (39%) use two or more digital devices each week for news and a fifth (20%) now say their mobile phone is their
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primary access point. The number of people paying for digital news has remained stable over the past 12 months, although we have seen a significant switch to more valuable ongoing digital subscription in most countries. Our new (and unique) social media index for news shows Facebook is by far the most important network for news everywhere. Although Twitter is widely used in the US, Spain, and the UK, it is far less influential in many other European countries. Google+ is emerging as increasingly important for news, along with messaging application WhatsApp. European respondents remain strongly committed to news that tries to be neutral (or impartial) but Americans are more interested in hearing from brands and reporters that are open about their own views and biases." (Key findings, page 8)
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"This guidebook aims to give the reader an overview of the existing international media freedom measures and how they can be used. By introducing the methodology and pointing out the strengths and weaknesses, it allows the readers to better understand, judge and thus critically reflect the indices
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findings. This, in turn, enables them to ideally use and adopt the results for their own purposes. It addresses both stakeholders active in media development cooperation and journalists as well as all other people interested in this topic, such as politicians, academics or activists. The following five international and global media freedom indices will be introduced and analyzed: The Freedom of the Press Index by Freedom House; The Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders; The Media Sustainability Index by the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX); The African Media Barometer by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung; The Media Development Indicators by UNESCO. These five measures were selected for the analysis because they are the only initiatives that evaluate media freedom internationally and on a regular basis. Strictly speaking, these indices can be further divided into two subgroups: those that claim to measure media freedom and those that aim to measure the theoretically broader concepts of media development or media sustainability. But since media freedom is a crucial component of media development and media sustainability and because in practice it is difficult to properly distinguish between the two concepts, both are included in this analysis." (Introduction, page 7)
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"The current investigation utilizes data from 44 diverse countries (n = 57,847), collected as part of the World Values Survey, to broaden our understanding of trust in media. The aim is two-fold-to learn about individual-level correlates across contexts and to demonstrate that macro-level factors pl
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ay a part in shaping such trust. Our findings indicate that levels of political interest, interpersonal trust, and exposure to television news and newspapers are positively correlated with trust in media, while education and exposure to news on the Internet are negatively associated. On the macro level, postmaterialism emerged as a consistent predictor of trust in media. State ownership of the media industry did not have a main effect on trust in media after controlling for other factors. However, an interaction was found between state ownership and level of democracy: state ownership of television is positively associated with media trust in democratic societies and negatively associated with trust in media in nondemocratic societies." (Abstract)
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"Die vorliegende Inhaltsanalyse untersucht über drei Monate hinweg die Konfliktberichterstattung der Hauptnachrichtensendungen der vier reichweitenstärksten deutschen Fernsehsender (Das Erste, ZDF, RTL und Sat.1). Anhand von 444 Nachrichtenbeiträgen über internationale Konflikte und Kriege werde
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n öffentlich-rechtliche und private Nachrichtensendungen hinsichtlich der Häufigkeit der Berichterstattung und verschiedener journalistischer Qualitätskriterien miteinander verglichen. Die untersuchten Merkmale der journalistischen Qualitätsdimensionen Vielfalt, Relevanz und Professionalität werden von den Nachrichtensendungen beider Programmanbieter überwiegend erfüllt, die öffentlich-rechtlichen Sender schneiden aber insgesamt – vor allem mit Blick auf eine ausgewogene und kritische Berichterstattung – etwas besser ab." (Abstract)
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"The structure of this Yearbook is divided in three parts. The first part is an introduction chapter that makes a comparative synthesis of fiction in Obitel countries. This comparison is made from a quantitative and qualitative perspective that allows us to observe fiction development in each countr
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y, pointing out its main products as well as the topic of the year: transmedia production strategies in television fiction. The second part includes 12 chapters (one for each country) with an internal structure in which sections of the Yearbook are usually constant, although some are more specific than others." (Pages 19-20)
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"This paper suggests that the problem of impact evaluation of media assistance is understood to be more than a simple issue of methods, and outlines three underlying tensions and challenges that stifle implementation of effective practices in media assistance evaluation. First, there are serious con
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ceptual ambiguities that affect evaluation design. Second, bureaucratic systems and imperatives often drive evaluation practices, which reduces their utility and richness. Third, the search for the ultimate method or toolkit of methods for media assistance evaluation tends to overlook the complex epistemological and political undercurrents in the evaluation discipline, which can lead to methods being used without consideration of the ontological implications. Only if these contextual factors are known and understood can effective evaluations be designed that meets all stakeholders’ needs." (Abstract)
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"This paper compares and contrasts four centers: The Center for Investigative Reporting in Bosnia-Herzegovina (CIN), The Journalism Training and Research Initiative in Bangladesh (JATRI), the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism in Jordan (ARIJ), and The Caucasus Media Investigations Center (
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CMIC) in Azerbaijan. No officials or funders ever announce failures or label projects like these failures. But this paper posits that those centers designed and run by journalists to actively report are more effective in fulfilling their role as watch-dogs, as well as more sustainable. They perform better at developing future practitioners and instilling an investigative reporting tradition in new places. This examination suggests that donors hoping to implant successful centers increase their chances when they match ambitions to the political and legal climate of host countries, commit to multi-year involvement, and select passionate leaders with clout in the eyes of other journalists in their host regions. This study suggest that centers designed by outsiders and run by non-journalists tend to evolve into generalized research, resource and training centers." (Introduction)
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"The practicability and effectiveness of state support schemes would have to be assessed on the basis of the economic and sociopolitical context in which the different types of support and subsidies are implemented. The expansive press subsidy schemes of Northern Europe cannot be directly compared t
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o the West African support schemes or the recent Latin American efforts to deconcentrate the media landscape and support to community media. There is no automatic relationship between the economic crisis and the scaling down of state support to media. The development and implementation of support schemes depend on political will." (Conclusion, page 31)
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"Do existing structures of media accountability - such as press councils, codes of ethics, and ombudspersons - suffice, or do we urgently need new instruments and initiatives in today's converging media world? These questions were tackled in an international survey of 1,800 journalists in twelve Eur
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opean and two Arab states conducted by the EU-funded research project, «Media Accountability and Transparency in Europe» (MediaAcT). The results provide a solid empirical basis for the discussions taking place. This book advances research on media accountability and transparency, and also offers innovative perspectives for newsrooms, media policy-makers, and journalism educators." (Back cover)
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"Through a paired comparison of two moments of mass mobilization, in Ukraine and Argentina, focusing on the role of different actors involved, this text maps out a multi-layered sequence of events leading up to mass mobilization." (Publisher description)
"The research showed that internet intermediaries are heavily influenced by the legal and policy environments of states, but they do have leeway over many areas of policy and practice affecting online expression and privacy. The findings also highlighted the challenge where many state policies, laws
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, and regulations are – to varying degrees - poorly aligned with the duty to promote and protect intermediaries’ respect for freedom of expression. It is a resource which enables the assessment of Internet intermediaries’ decisions on freedom of expression, by ensuring that any limitations are consistent with international standards. The research also recommends specific ways that intermediaries and states can improve respect for internet users’ right to freedom of expression. This is through promoting: adequate legal frameworks and policies consistent with international norms; multi-stakeholder policy development; transparency of governance; accountability in self-regulation; mechanisms for remedy; and public information and education." (UNESCO website)
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"Der Autor porträtiert 23 Länder aus sechs Weltregionen. Anschließend bildet er mittels des pragmatischen Differenz-Ansatzes sechs Modelle heraus: Das liberale Modell, das Public-Service-Modell, das Klientel-Modell, das Schock-Modell, das Patrioten-Modell und das Kommando-Modell. Dabei zeigt sich
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: In Ländern wie China, Syrien, dem Iran oder auch Weißrussland fungieren die Medien als Lautsprecher der Herrschenden. In den USA, Brasilien oder auch Deutschland und Frankreich sind sie eher Widersprecher. Doch auch dazwischen gibt es ein breites Feld von Ländern wie Russland, Libanon oder Italien, in denen eine Ambivalenz zwischen Lautsprechern und Widersprechern besteht, deren Kräfteverhältnis sich immer wieder verschieben kann." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The transformation of state media to public service media (PSM) is one of the most ambitious endeavors in the field of media development. Not many efforts to free the national media from government control have succeeded in the past decades. In this paper the comparatively promising cases of Kyrgyz
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stan, Mongolia, Moldova and Serbia are discussed. The PSM in these countries all have a new legal basis, including a public service remit and a relatively independent governing body in which civil society is represented. The services delivered to the public by these media are analyzed according to a number of societal functions which are assembled under two general headings: “creating a public sphere” and “supporting integration”. Based on this analysis, a differentiation between “PSM in initial transformation” and “PSM in advanced transformation” is suggested. In all cases studied, different actors successfully used windows of opportunity: general political agendas to reform the media, a specific engagement from the management as well as support from the population and civil society. Media development actors here helped to advance the processes of change in different ways. Recommendations for future media development include strategic planning, inclusion of local actors, the pooling of legal expertise as well as structured processes of organizational development and capacity building." (Abstract)
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"This article looks critically at the systems approaches in comparative media studies when applied to studying the relationship between media and politics in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It introduces a concept of methodological systematization consisting of four different components: (1) the r
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elationship between a political and a media system (methodological politicization); (2) the relationship between democracy and a media system (methodological democratization); (3) the relationship between a nation-state and a media system (methodological nationalism); and (4) the relationship between culture and a media system (methodological structuralism). The article concludes that these system approaches should not be taken as a naturalized starting point for comparative research when studying media and politics in CEE." (Abstract)
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"This book sets out to answer essential questions regarding the extent and limits of freedom of expression online. It seeks to shed light on the often obscure landscape of what we are allowed to say online and how our ideas, and the process of imparting and receiving information, are protected. It s
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hows the large ambit of rights protected by freedom of expression – including freedom of the media and the right to access information via the Internet. It also highlights the importance of the standard-setting, monitoring and promotion activities of international and non-governmental organisations, with a chapter on relevant national practices that illustrates how different states deal with the challenge that the Internet has brought to ensuring freedom of expression for all. As the importance of the Internet in our daily lives grows, readers will find this book to be a valuable resource for understanding the rights and obligations of each actor on the Internet, including states, Internet companies and civil society." (Back cover)
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