"As in much of the Arab World, satellite TV is almost ubiquitous in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, present in 97.9% of households (versus 31.5% with radio and 60.1% with the internet). Ethnic Kurds and those with a college degree are much more likely than other Iraqis to have internet access at home. Mor
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e than nine in 10 Iraqis (92.2%) have their own mobile phone, and 35% have accessed the internet via mobile device in the past week. The ongoing conflict has displaced many r esidents and has hindered their access to TV, radio, and the internet. More than one-third (36.0%) of Iraqis say that they have been “displaced” in the past 12 months due to instability. Despite the disruptions, Iraqis and Iraqi Kurds remain frequent news consumers. Almost 40% (37.6%) access news several times a day, while an additional 27.5% access it at least once a day. More than half (55.3%) share news with family, relatives, or other people at least daily. Weekly users of international news media are even more likely to access and share news daily." (Page 2)
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"This year we have evidence of the growth of distributed (offsite) news consumption, a sharpening move to mobile and we can reveal the full extent of ad-blocking worldwide. These three trends in combination are putting further severe pressure on the business models of both traditional publishers and
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new digital-born players – as well as changing the way in which news is packaged and distributed." (Overview & key findings)
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"Russian speakers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania rank Kremlin-backed media as the least trustworthy among international, Russian Federation and domestic news sources, according to research presented by the Broadcasting Board of Governors. In addition, only those survey respondents who considered R
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ussian-backed media to be credible showed a majority support for President Vladimir Putin’s domestic and international policies. In the three Baltic nations and Moldova, consuming Russian-backed media did not correlate with support for Russia’s policies. The BBG data found that domestic media ranked first in trustworthiness in Estonia (80 percent) and Latvia (79 percent). International media took first in Lithuania (74 percent) and in Moldova there was a statistical tie between international media (45 percent), Russian-backed media (42 percent) and domestic media (42 percent)." (BBG website)
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"In Syria, television is the dominant media type with high usage and availability rates in all areas studied. Television is followed by online media, print media, and finally radio. Media aligned with the Syrian government are leading in government-controlled areas, and opposition-aligned media are
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leading in opposition areas. There are indications that media not clearly aligned with a particular camp have a following across the board. Pro-government and opposition audiences are deeply divided in their media following and in their perceptions about their communities. Being open to both media camps does not always translate into a stronger critical view of the media. Syrian audiences are confident that they are well-informed about the general geopolitical situation, but sometimes express less confidence that they are receiving adequate information regarding immediate local affairs." (Main findings, page 2)
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"There are a sizeable number of people who have never had access to any form of media or device. Roughly one in three (34%) respondents have never had access to radio, television, newspapers, internet, or mobile phones. Furthermore, media is less accessible for women than it is for men. It is more c
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ommon (39%) for women to never have had access to any type of media than for men (26%). Overall, radio remains the most commonly accessed type of media (51%) and, not surprisingly, has a larger weekly reach (38%) than all other forms of media. This means that 4 out of 10 respondents listen to a radio on a weekly basis, roughly triple the rate of respondents who watch television on a weekly basis (13%) or read a newspaper on a weekly basis (10%). While access to television, newspapers, and internet remains sparse, mobile phone penetration levels are nearing levels of radio access." (Executive summary, page 3)
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"A qualitative study was conducted in Indonesia and Sri Lanka to understand the varied perceptions on the use and ownership of mobile phones [...] The study was conducted amongst four groups of people (urban men, urban women, rural men, and rural women) in each of two countries. The study found that
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: Gender does have some effect on how the phone is used. Women use it more for coordination. Men on the other hand seem to use it more for livelihood activities and for making and maintaining social connections. Men in general have greater decision-making power in a phone purchase even for their spouses. The most significant difference in the utility derived from mobile phones between urban and rural dwellers is the fact that, for the latter, the ability of the phone to help connect to needed infrastructure and services was more important. This was less of a concern for urbanites since essential infrastructure and services were generally close by, unlike for those rural dwellers." (Executive summary)
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"The percentage of Pakistanis using the Internet increased by 37.5% between 2009 and 2013, though overall internet penetration remains very low with only 11% of the population having access to the Internet". (Page 9) "Heavy internet users in Pakistan are very young (72% under 30 years of age), large
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ly male (59%), and highly educated (72% with at least some university schooling). Light users are much more likely to be over thirty years of age (42% for light compared to 18% for heavy users), women (47% for light vs. 36% for heavy users), but more highly educated (38% of light users have graduate degree vs. 31% for heavy users) [...] Television news is by far the most popular source of information among Pakistani Internet users, with 80% of survey respondents selecting this communication channel as one of their three top sources of information. After television news, social networking sites are the most commonly cited source of information used by Pakistani Internet users with 55% of respondents selecting it as one of their top three sources." (Executive summary)
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"The majority think their national media provide a diversity of views, but most say it is not free from political or commercial pressures. Two thirds of respondents (66%) agree that their national media provide a diversity of views and opinions, and the majority in all but one Member State agree (Gr
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eece is the only exception). More than four in ten EU citizens (44%) say the level of diversity of views and opinions in the national media are the same as it was five years ago, 29% think there is more diversity, while 18% say there is less. Almost four in ten respondents (38%) agree their national media provide information free from political or commercial pressure – the majority disagree (57%). There are only nine Member States where the majority agree. Just over a third of respondents agree their national public service media are free from political pressure (35%), but the majority (60%) disagree. Almost half (45%) think their national media are as free and independent as they were five years ago, while 18% say it is more free and independent, and 28% think it is less so. A small majority (53%) agree their national media provide trustworthy information, while 44% think it does not. In 19 Member States, the majority of respondents agree their national media provide trustworthy information. Radio is most likely to be considered reliable (66%), followed by television and newspapers (both 55%). Far fewer respondents consider social media to be reliable (32%). Radio is considered the most reliable media in 25 countries." (Key findings, page 4)
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"This report is the fifth in a series of annual reports designed to capture key developments and data related to usage of social media in the Middle East. The past year has seen the continued growth of visual-led social networks, especially in the more affluent Gulf region. Meanwhile, the discernibl
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e growth in mobile social users(+66% notes the creative agency We Are Social) emphasizes the increasing primacy of the mobile social experience. For many users, mobile is the only way that they interact with social networks. Mobile platforms, for millions in the region, will also offer their first online experience. Recognizing this, companies like Facebook have launched Facebook Lite, an Android app targeting users on slow networks (and with small dataplans). Their Free Basics program allows customers on the Zain network in Jordan and Asia Cell, Korek and Zain in Iraq avoid data charges when using Facebook on their mobile devices. Will other providers follow suit? Yet, for all the positives, the social experience in some parts of the region remains beset with challenges. Networks and services can be blocked – both temporarily and permanently – and issues around freedom of expression persist." (Introduction)
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"It is too often assumed anyone can communicate via the internet or share in the benefits of easily available newspapers and free-to-air television or radio; this is not always true. Lower internet penetration and mobile broadband access in countries like Egypt and Tunisia, for example, stand in sha
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rp contrast to that of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The 2016 report brings some good news about a narrowing digital divide between these countries, along with significant gains in internet connectivity in every country studied except Tunisia, where internet access has stagnated since 2014. Six in 10 Egyptians now use the internet, considerably more than the share of Tunisians online, but just three in 10 Egyptians have access to, or choose to use, mobile broadband. It is ironic that the two countries most closely linked to the Arab uprisings—Tunisia, where the uprisings began and Egypt, the location of the most publicized revolution—are still struggling to be fully enfranchised into the digital age." (Introduction, page 8)
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"Only 8% of respondents stated that the media in Moldova exhibit, to a very large extent, a responsible behavior toward their audiences. The majority of respondents or 56% stated they were dissatisfied with the lack of responsibility of the national media. One in ten respondents considered him/herse
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lf very informed; another five in ten respondents are quite satisfied in terms of perceived level of information. Television is still the main source of social and political news in Moldova, with 65% of respondents citing it as the preferred source, followed by the Internet (websites) (24%), and the social networking sites and radio stations with 5% each. According to the study “Measuring the perceptions of sociopolitical news by the media audience in the Republic of Moldova”, realized in October 2015, information sources have their specific audiences. Television is preferred mostly by occupationally inactive people, aged over 45 years, with secondary and low levels of education. Young people, with higher levels of education, who are occupationally active, and live in municipalities show preference for getting information online." (Page 5)
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"This study provides insights that can inform disaster communication management, policymaking, and theory building through a nationally representative field experiment (N = 2,015 U.S. adults) grounded in media richness theory, information and communication technologies (ICTs) succession theory, and
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the social-mediated crisis communication (SMCC) model. Key findings include the following: (1) Significant main effects of disaster information source were detected on how likely participants were to seek further disaster information from TV, local government websites, and federal government websites; (2) regardless of information form and source, participants reported strongest intentions to immediately communicate about the disaster predominately via offline interpersonal forms rather than through online organizational and personal forms; and (3) regardless of information source, participants reported strong intentions to evacuate if instructed to do so by the government. These findings call for developing crisis communication theory that is more focused on how publics communicate with each other rather than with organizations about disasters and predict a wider variety of crisis communication outcomes." (Abstract)
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"La sostenibilidad de los medios depende en gran medida de las nuevas relaciones que tejen con su audiencia poniendo la tecnología a su servicio. El desafío al que el periodismo y los medios se enfrentan es pensar cómo usar la información que capturan de los recorridos de sus usuarios en la red
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para planear sus prácticas narrativas. Las claves que se plantean en este informe buscan dar luces a manera de hipótesis que ayuden a entender la dinámica de las audiencias digitales en Colombia." (www.fnpi.org)
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"The magazine programme Fo Rod and the debate show Tok Bot Salone built a loyal and engaged audience. The number of people who listened to either one or both programmes increased from 0.8 million in 2013 to 1.1 million in 2015, representing 29% of all adults. The proportion of regular listeners was
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very high, with practically all listeners tuning in to at least every other episode. In the year after the elections, almost half the audience (48%) was female. But, despite efforts to maintain this, the proportion dropped to 39% by 2015 – a decline also seen in other Global Grant countries following elections. Research respondents were drawn to the radio programmes because they were informative and easy to understand, and listeners enjoyed the calm, audience-driven style of presentation. Tok Bot Salone’s format of debates in different localities was considered particularly effective at providing a platform for citizens to ask their leaders questions. By 2015, the BBC Media Action Sierra Leone Facebook page was the most popular (liked) in the country [...] Fo Rod and Tok Bok Salone appear to have successfully supported bottom-up accountability: more than two in five listeners strongly agreed that they played a role in holding government to account. This is a higher proportion than seen in any of the other countries where BBC Media Action delivered Global Grant-funded governance projects. Accountability was particularly important in the context of the Ebola outbreak when people were reliant on decisive, lifesaving government action. However, the extent to which the programmes supported top-down responsiveness was less clear. There were calls to provide more followup programmes to examine leaders’ commitment to making promised change." (Key findings, pages 6-7)
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"Das große – inhaltlich aber sehr diffuse – Misstrauen der „Zweifler“ gegenüber etablierten Medien ist vermutlich nur die Spitze des Eisbergs für ein grundsätzliches Dilemma, vor dem Medienanbieter stehen: Ein allgemeines Unbehagen gegenüber Politik, Wirtschaft und anderen gesellschaftl
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ichen Eliten, das sich im Zuge der Krisen der vergangenen Jahre nun auch offensiv manifestiert. Dieses Unbehagen erfasst – da sie „als Teil des Systems“ wahrgenommen werden – auch die Medien. Der Eindruck, dass die Medien das Establishment stützen oder gar von ihm gelenkt werden, gibt diesem Dilemma weitere Nahrung. Hinzu kommt, dass Medien in ihrer Funktion als Übermittler von Nachrichten ebenso wie von Meinungen der Politik(er) und anderer gesellschaftlicher Eliten nicht selten in „Mithaftung“ genommen werden für die Inhalte, die sie übermitteln. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist auch die hohe Zustimmung zu der Einschätzung, dass in den Medien häufig absichtlich die Unwahrheit gesagt wird, zu werten." (Seite 37)
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"The present report summarizes the results of a media use study that was conducted in autumn 2014 in the Ugandan districts of Kampala, Mbale, Lira, Pader and Gulu. The study consists of a quantitative survey of more than 650 survey respondents, as well as six qualitative focus groups with a total of
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45 participants. The target population was children and young people between 13 and 24 years of age. The results show that radio is still the most important medium in Uganda today. 94.6% of the participating young people from the aforementioned districts have access to a radio. There are, however, signs of a change in trend. Three quarters of the respondents also have access to a TV set, meaning television is no longer a minority media form in Uganda." (Executive summary)
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"Key takeaways: Internet use is increasing rapidly, but not replacing TV; Increases vary significantly by province; Internet trends will change as Iraqi government and ISIS vie for control of media." (Slide 32)
"Kurds live in a different media environment and rely primarily on Kurdish language TV; D
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ifferences in substantive interests; Historical differences in media access between Iraqi Kurdistan and rest of Iraq have disappeared; Facebook and other forms of social-media based news sharing are increasingly important." (Slide 46)
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