"This study assesses the current state of empirical research on the role of media ownership on journalistic content. Regardless of the differences in focus and research design, our systematic scoping review of 56 studies shows that media ownership matters. The vast majority of studies show that medi
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a ownership affects journalistic content. A few empirical studies found no systematic influence or significant connection. Regarding the different types of media ownership, research focuses on the private sector, whereas public and civil society media remain at the margins. Similarly, concerning ownership influence, the examined studies focus on the economic and political impacts on media content, whereas public interest orientation and audience alignment remain somewhat understudied." (Abstract)
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"This paper examines two different understandings of professional autonomy among journalists currently and formerly working at Mafra, a Czech media house acquired in 2013 by Andrej Babiš, who in 2017 became the Czech Prime Minister. We build on existing research of local trends in media ownership a
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nd journalistic autonomy to ask the following questions: What differentiated the experience of journalists who exited the organization after the ownership change from that of those who stayed put? How did the two groups understand professional journalistic autonomy? Based on the thematic analysis of twenty semistructured interviews with ten journalists who stayed in the media house after Babiš’s acquisition and ten journalists who left, we argue that in the journalists’ narratives, the two decisions reflect two different notions of autonomy: autonomy-as-a-practice and autonomy-as-a-value. While our findings add to the scarce empirical research on journalists’ lived experiences of the region’s mediascape marked by growing comingling and concentration of political, economic and media power, we also suggest that the autonomy-as-a-practice and journalists’ agency should be further studied as a possible way how to perform and promote journalistic autonomy even in illiberalizing contexts—in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond." (Abstract)
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"En tiempos de redes sociales, los actores políticos colocan sus contenidos en Twitter y Facebook para que sean replicados por otros medios y por la población. Sin embargo, los políticos tienen a los medios de comunicación como su principal vehículo de transmisión de ideas y mensajes a los ciu
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dadanos. En este marco, el autor escoge el diario El Comercio como objeto de estudio por tratarse del medio escrito más representativo del principal conglomerado empresarial de comunicaciones del país. La empresa que lo cobija tiene un accionariado casi exclusivamente familiar, bastante distribuido entre cientos de miembros de la familia Miró Quesada, quienes se agrupan en diversas facciones que reflejan variaciones importantes en su línea política durante las últimas dos décadas. Así, los juegos de poder y coaliciones en su interior determinan la predominancia de una determinada línea editorial en un lapso de tiempo marcado sobre la cual el autor busca echar luces mediante el examen de la historia del periódico como poder fáctico y su influencia en lo que va de la centuria actual. Durante las últimas dos décadas, el diario El Comercio ha tenido importantes giros en su línea editorial. Inició el presente siglo con una perspectiva liberal moderada, pasó posteriormente a una etapa decididamente conservadora y hoy tiene posiciones liberales en lo político y social y libertarias en lo económico." (Descripción de la casa editorial)
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"While scholarly inquiries into the coverage of climate change in Africa are growing, there appears to be a dearth of studies focusing on how the political economy shapes the coverage. This qualitative study addresses this gap by exploring how vested interests, corruption and declining advertising r
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evenue among other factors affect climate change news in Nigeria. The findings of this study - which draws on interviews with journalism professionals undertaken in Lagos in 2013 - suggest that media owners, editors and even climate change reporters have different interests to protect, all of which influence climate change reportage. The study concludes that in order to get their stories published, ethical climate change reporters might need to find creative ways of making their stories meaningful without hurting the interests that appear to frustrate the reporting of the phenomenon. The issues examined in this study provide a research-based framework for the analysis of the political economy of climate change reporting in Nigeria." (Abstract)
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"In this article, media coverage of the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) in Malawi as was reported in the Weekend Nation newspaper between 2005 and 2012 is examined from a critical political economy perspective. The FISP aimed at subsidising inputs for low income rural farmers. The Weekend Nation
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, a political weekly, was established by a key politician during the advent of democracy in 1995. Through institutional in-depth interviews and qualitative content analysis of editorials and opinion columns, the paper finds that overall, the political ownership of the newspaper had no bearing on editorial content on the issue of the FISP policy. This suggests that the coverage of a critical agricultural policy concerning, to a great extent, rural livelihoods of Malawi, was presented independently without political ownership influence." (Abstract)
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"Transformations in the Arab media landscape are a key element in the regional dynamics of political change. Where do the private owners of Arab media outlets stand on the scene? What part, if any, have they played in weakening dictatorships, countering sectarianism and political polarisation, and r
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eforming business practices in the Arab world? Arab Media Moguls charts the rise of some leading investors and entrepreneurs in Arab media, examining their motives, management styles, financial performance and links to political power. Responding critically to scholarship on Western moguls, this book uncovers the realities of risk and success for Arab media potentates and billionaires." (Publisher description)
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"This study investigated the political role of the Weekend Nation newspaper in the democratisation of Malawi between 2002 and 2012 within the context of its foundational and ownership structures by a politician. Bearing in mind that the newspaper was founded by a politician belonging to the first de
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mocratically elected ruling party, the United Democratic Front (UDF), this research sought to examine the impact of media ownership on the political role of the Weekend Nation’s journalistic practices in Malawi’s democratisation. Between 2002 and 2012, Malawi was governed by three presidents – Bakili Muluzi of the UDF from 1994 to 2004, Bingu wa Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from 2004 to 2012, and Joyce Banda of the People’s Party (PP) from 2012 to 2014 – all of whom were hostile to the Weekend Nation [...] Research findings indicate that overall, the political ownership of the newspaper had no direct bearing on the journalists’ political role in the enhancement of democracy and good governance in Malawi. It established that despite the ownership of the Weekend Nation belonging to a prominent and influential politician, the editorial independence was not compromised. Contrary to general expectations, this study established that the Weekend Nation in Malawi, was critical to the political elite in an indiscriminate manner. Although it was not the focus of this study, the research also showed that market forces, in line with the stance taken by the critical political economy theory, had some impact on the Weekend Nation’s editorial independence. The quest for more advertising revenue, to an extent, undermined the struggle for complete editorial independence." (Abstract)
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"This article investigates the levels of owner influence in 211 different print and broadcast outlets in 32 different European media markets. Drawing on the literature from industrial organization, it sets out reasons why we should expect greater levels of influence where ownership of individual out
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lets is concentrated, where it is concentrated in the hands of individuals or families and where ownership groups own multiple outlets in the same media market. Conversely, we should expect lower levels of influence where ownership is dispersed between transnational companies. The article uses original data on the ownership structures of these outlets and combines it with reliable expert judgements as to the level of owner influence in each of the outlets. These hypotheses are tested and confirmed in a multilevel regression model of owner influence. The findings are relevant for policy on ownership limits in the media and for the debate over transnational versus local control of media." (Abstract)
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"Focusing on politician-businessperson-owned (PBO) newspapers, the study examined how loyalty to the owners’ multiple interests has reduced the professional elbowroom of the Nigerian journalist. Through in-depth interviews and textual analysis, the study found that journalists in PBO newspapers ar
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e extremely constrained on the kind of stories they write and how. Caught in the conflict between professionalism and pandering to the owners’ layers of political and economic interests, many journalists submit, while some rebel. The narrowed elbowroom is a reason for many of the ethical violations among Nigerian journalists." (Abstract)
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"Zusammenfassend zeigt sich bei der Berichterstattung über Gewalttaten eine klare Unausgewogenheit in Bezug auf Opfer und TäterInnen. Es herrscht eine "asimetría de la indignación" (Semana 0.2.02.2008), das heißt eine Asymetrie der Empörung und eine asymetrische Sensibilisierung, die die Opfer
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des Paramilitarismus und des Militärs unsichtbar macht. Somit wird eine Wirklichkeit des Koflikts konstruiert, in der praktisch nur die Opfer der Guerillas - insbesondere Entführungsopfer - existieren. Dies reproduziert die asuymmetrischen sozialen Verhältnisse der Opfer selbst. Denn die Zielscheibe des Paramilitarismus und des Militärs sind meistens Kleinbäuerinnen und Kleinbauern, besitzlose SiedlerInnen des Hinterlands oder VerteterInnen von Basisorganisationen, deren Zugang zu den staatlichen Ressourcen - ganz zu schweigen zu den Massenmedien - viel beschränkter ist, als der von Mittel- und Oberschichtsangehörigen bzw. Mitgliedern des Militärs, die in der untersuchten Periode bevorzugte Entführungsziele der Guerillas waren." (Schlusskommentar, Seite 160)
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"Grève des imprimeurs et des journalistes à Rio de Janeiro — Revendications salariales — Solidarité entre les journalistes." (Jean-Marie Van Bol, Abdelfattah Fakhfakh: The use of mass media in the developing countries. Brussels: CIDESA, 1971 Nr. 1154, topic code 110.30)