"Using Kosovo as its case, this dissertation discusses links between journalism’s historical development, daily practice and potential in a post-war society. In theory on media in post-communist Eastern Europe, journalists and editors are criticized for being unprofessional and for not contributin
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g to development of society. Scholars argue that it is both due to an unwillingness to professionalize as well as historical close ties with politicians. The dissertation applies a three-legged approach; a historical-political analysis discusses how media in Kosovo early developed as arenas of forming national identity, later as tools in ethnic conflicts and wars, but also with brief moments of journalistic professionalism. The news production study in four major newsrooms (Express, Koha Ditore, RTK, and Radio Kontakt Plus) in post-war Kosovo (2005-2006) reveals how journalists and editors continue to battle with the historical aspects of political interference and ethnic conflicts. This study shows that the challenges of the past continue in the post-1999 war environment, also in times when journalists and editors have attended numerous training courses in Kosovo. The international media support, with a goal of professionalizing the journalists, has had limited effect, the study reveals. Instructors and media support organizations did not utilize the journalists’ experience in their eagerness to implement western journalistic standards. Neither did they understand the massive political pressure in Kosovo. The dissertation concludes that in order to assist media development in Kosovo, media support must to a larger degree be aware of the links between the historical-political lack of journalistic autonomy, today’s post-war practice in the newsrooms, and the journalists’ previous experience. In this, there is a potential capital that can be utilized." (Abstract)
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"This paper is the first detailed account of the BBC's engagement with journalism in Romania after the fall of communism, including a description and evaluation of the journalism training carried out by the BBC in the country in the 1990s. Drawing on interviews with a cohort of journalists who were
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trained at the BBC School in Bucharest, it describes the media landscape from which they came and charts their professional progress after attending the training course. Their disillusionment with the decline in journalistic standards in Romania in the late 1990s is put in the context of wider assessments of the state of Romanian media in the run-up to the country's joining the European Union in 2005. Initiatives to establish and support a model of public service broadcasting in Romania after the “revolution” of 1989 were seen as part of a wider effort to build an open society. While Romania's goals of joining NATO and the European Union were achieved by 2005, there is considerable evidence of its continuing failure to respect the norms of liberal democracy. This paper investigates the reasons why the journalistic values which the BBC taught to 500 young Romanian journalists did not take root in the country's media and asks what lessons can be learned for similar interventions 20 years on." (Abstract)
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"Foreign aid has continually searched for true north and never found it. In the beginning, development experts concentrated on national economic growth, believing the benefits would trickle down to poor people. Free press systems benefit American journalists and their institutions directly. Because
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of their duty to inform their customers, journalists have an interest in securing as much access to the rest of the world as possible. Countries with free press systems afford more access than those without. Also, well-trained foreign journalists can aid media organizations. Journalists were among the first to call for foreign aid. As the ones who know and care most about a free press, they should make propagation of independent media their special aid mission. The task is too important a matter to be left to anyone else. The Independent Journalism Foundation, among a few other institutions, operates in-the-field training centers for working journalists that sometimes include special training for students." (Abstract)
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"Covers experiences of political parties and elections support, media assistance, support to women's and environment advocacy groups and reduction of ethnic conflict in Eastern Europe." (commbox)