"In 'Media Compass: A Companion to International Media Landscapes', an international team of prominent scholars examines both long-term media systems and fluctuating trends in media usage around the world. Integrating country-specific summaries and cross-cutting studies of geopolitical regions, this
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interdisciplinary reference work describes key elements in the political, social, demographic, cultural, and economic conditions of media infrastructures and public communication. Enabling the mapping of media landscapes internationally, Media Compass contains up-to-date empirical surveys of individual countries and regions, as well as cross-country comparisons of particular areas of public communication. 45 entries, each guiding readers from a general summary to a more in-depth discussion of a country’s specific media landscape, address formative conditions and circumstances, historical background and development, current issues and challenges, and more." (Publisher description)
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"This report is based on more than 30 interviews with key figures in high-profile collaborative journalism experiments in three different countries, including journalists as well as senior management, community organisers, data analysts, technical experts, and others. The three primary cases feature
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d are the Bureau Local (UK), ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ (Italy), and Lännen Media (Finland). We also interviewed the director of CORRECTIV.Lokal, an initiative in Germany seeking to replicate the work of the Bureau Local. These cases reflect three distinct models of collaboration: (1) a permanent network of journalists and non-journalists engaged in topic-driven reporting projects (the Bureau Local); (2) legacy and start-up news organisations working together on a single extended investigation (‘L’Italia Delle Slot’); and (3) regional news organisations sharing content through a collaborative newsroom (Lännen Media). These initiatives involve both similar and divergent approaches to network building, project development, and content distribution. Two of the collaborations focus on publishing high-impact stories simultaneously across multiple outlets; the Bureau Local pursues multiple projects each year, while ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ is a time-limited project focused on one subject. The third collaboration, Lännen Media, includes journalists working in newsrooms around Finland to produce national and international reporting shared among 12 member newspapers. We find that these very different initiatives feature many common elements that offer potential lessons for other local newsrooms: Each collaboration is designed to facilitate concrete forms of resource sharing – of both human and technical resources – while minimising potential competitive friction among the individuals and organisations involved. All three collaborations feature diverse and dispersed networks, and are dedicated to creating connections, both virtually and in person, to allow for knowledge-sharing, skills enhancement, and mentorship. They also aim to engage participants as equal partners in editorial processes. Participants suggest that collaborative approaches have allowed them to report on topics they would not typically cover as well as engage with familiar subjects in more comprehensive ways. Many said they have also learned how to better incorporate data and multimedia elements into their reporting. Two of the collaborations embrace strategies that allow them to connect with communities to tell their stories. The Bureau Local and ‘L’Italia Delle Slot’ have worked to build partnerships with individuals and organisations affected by the issues they cover, while Lännen Media journalists aim for coverage with broad appeal that doesn’t favour particular localities." (Publisher description)
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"Across Europe there is as yet little evidence to support the idea that increased exposure to news featuring like-minded or opposing views leads to the widespread polarisation of attitudes. Although some studies have found that both can strengthen the attitudes of a minority who already hold strong
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views. Most studies of news use on social media have failed to find evidence of echo chambers and/or 'filter bubbles', where people are over-exposed to like-minded views. Some studies even find evidence that it increases the likelihood of exposure to opposing views. The extent to which people self-select news sources in Europe based on their political preferences, as well as the extent to which news outlets produce partisan coverage, still varies greatly by country. In addition to differences between European countries, comparative research often tends to show that the United States of America has much higher levels of partisan news production, consumption and polarisation, making it difficult to generalise from these findings. There are large gaps in our understanding of the relationship between the news media and polarisation, particularly outside Western and Northern Europe, and particularly concerning our knowledge of new, more partisan digital-born news sources." (
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"Even at the most audience-informed organizations, journalists recognize the immense difficulty in making sense of what audience members and relevant experts know, particularly without presently available tools and ample staff. This work is hard, yet there is an increasing amount of interest in it.
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We hear more reporters, editors, and audience development staff around the world asking: how can this work be operationalized? With this report you see what we have learned so far about memberful routines. We close by highlighting some of the limits and cautions of working closely with members. We do this not to dissuade you from pursuing these routines, but to help as you undertake your own projects with members, donors, subscribers, and contributors: not every story can have, and not every story should have, reader involvement; make it crystal clear to community members: Everyone has opinions. Your opinions will not run our newsroom; member engagement is hard work. Staff need to be identified, trained, and given time to do it right; be ready to handle the incoming traffic if your callouts and other outreach succeed and you have plenty of takers. Design for potential over-supply of information!; project management is a discipline unto itself. Without it, news sites will find it hard to succeed at establishing memberful routines; members in their natural state do not necessarily know what news organizations need from them. We have to teach them that part." (Conclusion, page 53)
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