"The three countries that this year experienced a decrease in overall score—Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan—were ones last year that had showed small but unexpected increases. Last year’s Executive Summary indicated that such increases were unlikely to be part of a larger upward trend; pan
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elists’ scores this year for all three ended up placing the three more or less where they stood in 2014. A similar phenomenon occurred this year with Tajikistan. Panelists there gave scores that increase the overall score in the country by 0.18 despite the fact that many serious threats to the media sector exist, including government pressure and harassment of critical voices, concentration of media control, poor quality reporting, and difficulty for independent media in raising revenue. Except for Objective 3, Plurality of News, all objectives received higher scores. Reading the chapter text, however, one does not get the impression that much positive is happening to improve the ability of Tajik media to serve as the Fourth Estate." (Executive summary)
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"This study aims to identify Jordanian journalists’ awareness of the basic concepts of journalistic professionalism by addressing four sets of media quality standards, as abstracted from several studies. Notable among those sets are journalistic content standards, the performance quality standards
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of newsrooms, institutional standards, and standards of news selection. Furthermore, the study attempts to identify the difference between an awareness of specific standards of professionalism and quality, and a realization of media institutions’ actual practices. The responses of 200 journalists revealed a reasonable awareness of the basic concepts of quality and professionalism. However, there was a gap between Jordanian journalists’ realization of quality and professionalism standards and media institutions’ actual applications of those standards. By way of concluding, this study recommended that media institutions should adopt quality concepts. In addition, they should bridge the gap between standards and actual media practices by means of independence protection; separation between ownership and editing; and restraining external intervention. Also, media institutions should work towards increasing the level of their performance quality with respect to localism standards, their use of sources, pluralism, accuracy, social responsibility, criteria of news selection, and preparing relevant guidelines." (Abstract)
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"Results of the 2015 MSI study for Europe & Eurasia (E&E) at first glance show encouraging results: the average of 21 overall country scores increased by 0.04 compared with last year, representing the highest average of overall scores so far this decade. Out of 21 countries studied, seven increased
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by more than one-tenth of a point. Eleven country scores remained about the same and only three decreased by more than a tenth. Indeed there are some encouraging developments, described in more detail below. However, in other cases what appear to be improvements in scores are likely to be only short-term blips on an otherwise downward or flat trend. Belarus (+0.16), Azerbaijan (+0.15), and Kazakhstan (+0.16) all showed small increases in overall score, but in all of these cases several factors indicate that this is not part of a new trend.." (Executive summary)
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"Based on 25 in-person and skype meetings and extensive desk research, we identified a significant trend in the journalistic ecosystem in which information is created, delivered and monetized: the trend toward distributed production and delivery and subsequent absence of monetizing capacity and infr
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astructure. We concluded with confidence that quality journalism is a self-supporting proposition in this new ecosystem, and even a quite profitable one. We identified 52 means to generate revenue or reduce costs, and we identified what is lacking in and obstructing development toward the profitable exploitation of quality journalism in the digital age." (Itnroduction, page 1)
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"This new study, a follow-up to 2007’s The Future of Journalism in the Advanced Democracies, includes a comparative analysis of possible alternative business models that may save the future of the quality news business across the developed, intermediate, and developing worlds. Its detailed evaluat
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ion encompasses also the different ways in which wider key issues are affecting the prospects for quality news as a core ingredient of effectively working democracies. It focuses on the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, India, Kenya, and selected parts of the Arab World, providing a detailed crosscultural survey of different approaches to addressing these various issues. To keep the study fi rmly rooted in the “real world” the contributors include distinguished practitioners as well as experienced academics." (Publisher description)
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"In this paper we describe how quality in reporting could be measured through content analysis. We show that this approach, although somewhat technical, is feasible. It can help projects to become better and more successful. As a suggestion for practitioners in media development we present three opt
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ions for measuring quality of reporting for monitoring and evaluation purposes." (Abstract)
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"The 2014 MSI study for Europe & Eurasia is marked by an overall constancy of scores, for better or worse. Taken as a whole, the average of 21 overall scores shows an increase of 0.01 compared with last year. Out of the 21 countries studied, 13 showed a change in score of less than 0.10. Of the rema
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ining eight showing significant change, five were headed in a negative direction while three showed improvement. The lack of change was in some cases a sign of resilience and part of a positive overall trend: for example, in Albania, Kosovo, and Moldova panelists noted that recent achievements are not eroding and the media as a whole are finding space to operate independently and are resistant to political control. However, in some cases, such as Ukraine and Serbia, the unchanged scores reflect a sense of frustration on the part of panelists—and a resolve to play a stronger role in bringing about change." (Executive summary)
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"Los diecinueve textos que conforman el libro se articulan en torno a siete temáticas: 1) Percepciones sobre el DIC y los medios, 2) Ética, 3) Estructuras de contenido, 4) Coberturas noticiosas, 5) Agresiones a periodistas, 6) Acceso a la Información Pública, y 7) Estado, medios y normativa. Su
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objetivo mayor es motivar a la reflexión de e inaugurar debate en los temas analizados, considerados de importancia estratégica para una mejor práctica periodística y la promoción del DIC en su más amplio sentido: como derecho articulador de la comunicación democrática." (Pág. web UNIR)
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"The Tanzania Media Fund (TMF) supports individual journalists and media institutions to produce quality public interest and investigative journalism content that better informs the public, contributes to debate and thereby increases public demand for greater accountability in Tanzania. TMF has used
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lessons learned from its first phase (2008- 2012) to develop a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework that captures TMF’s achievements in phase 2 (2012-2015) and beyond. This article provides an overview of the practical implementation of the M&E framework, and challenges encountered during implementation." (Abstract)
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