"This report presents findings from the third wave of the Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS3), conducted between 2021 and 2025. In this iteration, we focused on journalists’ perceptions of risk and uncertainty in their profession and sought to identify key factors that shape how journalists navigate
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journalism’s changing environment. These risks and uncertainties arise from four partially overlapping domains: politics, economy, technology, and news consumption. Accordingly, the WJS3 questionnaire addressed journalists’ safety, editorial freedom, professional roles, news influences, and labor conditions. Our survey confirms that journalism is under pressure. Journalists worldwide are often undercompensated, and more than one-third engage in secondary employment. Economic pressures on news organizations have intensified in most countries. Nearly half of journalists have been targeted with hate speech, while psychological, physical, and digital threats are more prevalent in the Global South than in the Global North. More than 300 researchers from 75 countries participated in WJS3. This report provides a concise overview of key global findings. Subsequent publications will analyze specific topics in greater depth; please visit worldsofjournalism.org for more information." (Foreword, page 4)
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"The Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM) is a tool for assessing the risks for media pluralism in a given country. The Monitor aims to help policymakers, researchers, and civil society to understand the threat to media pluralism in different media systems through research, analysis and the provision of co
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untry data. The present Monitor has been developed and tested by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF), at the European University Institute, and has been funded by the European Union. The CMPF created the prototype of the Monitor and pilot-tested it in 2014 (MPM2014), building on the 2009 Independent Study on Indicators for Media Pluralism in the Member States – Towards a Risk-Based Approach. The results of this second prototype, which was tested in 2015 (MPM2015), are published in this report. During these two rounds of implementation, the CMPF has strengthened the research design of the Monitor, co-ordinated the data collection carried out by national experts, and analysed the results, i.e., it has assessed the risks for media pluralism across EU Member States. This report presents the results and the methodology of the MPM2015 implementation, which measures risks to Media Pluralism in 19 EU countries, namely, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden." (Executive summary)
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"Fact-checking journalism challenges procedural norms of objectivity by providing truth verdicts. By actively evaluating statements and online rumors based on evidence weight, fact-checkers aim for robust, scientific objectivity. Despite this trend, there is a lack of studies analyzing evidence type
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s used in verification articles, a gap which this article seeks to address. This comparative research examines types of valid evidence—documentation, digital forensic tools, and statements—employed by fact-checkers across 12 organizations in the UK, Germany, Portugal, and Spain (n=1976). Results are interpreted using media systems and digital indicators. Notably, Spain, with high political polarization and social media use for news, heavily utilizes digital forensic elements. Germany and the UK, known for high journalistic professionalism and low epistemic vulnerability, predominantly feature ‘all-inclusive’ evidence combining documents, statements, and forensics. Public service broadcasters exhibit the highest levels of verification complexity (hard fact-checking), contrasting with global news agencies, which generally favor softer fact-checking approaches, except for DPA." (Abstract)
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"Covering a wide range of different online platforms, including social media sites and chatrooms, this volume is a comprehensive exploration of the current state of sociological and criminological scholarship focused on online deviance. Understanding deviance broadly, the handbook acknowledges both
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an objective normative approach and a subjective, reactivist approach to the topic, putting into sharp relief the distinctions between cybercrime and online deviance on the one hand, and wider concerns of online communities related to online deviance on the other. Divided into five sections, the first section is devoted primarily to scholarship about the theories and methods foundational to exploring online deviance. The second section, "Gender, Sex, and Sexuality", presents empirical research on expressions of gender, sex, and sexuality in online spaces considered deviant. The third section, "Violence and Aggression," highlights scholarship on types of violent communications such as hate speech and cyberstalking. The fourth section, "Communities and Culture," describes empirical research on online communities and networks that can be described as deviant by wider society. Lastly, the fifth section, "Regional Perspectives," highlights research in which a terrestrial location is impactful to the online phenomena studied." (Publisher description)
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"• Engagement with traditional media sources such as TV, print, and news websites continues to fall, while dependence on social media, video platforms, and online aggregators grows. This is particularly the case in the United States where polling overlapped with the first few weeks of the new Trum
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p administration. Social media news use was sharply up (+6pp) but there was no ‘Trump bump’ for traditional sources.
• Personalities and influencers are, in some countries, playing a significant role in shaping public debates. One-fifth (22%) of our United States sample says they came across news or commentary from popular podcaster Joe Rogan in the week after the inauguration, including a disproportionate number of young men. In France, young news creator Hugo Travers (HugoDécrypte) reaches 22% of under-35s with content distributed mainly via YouTube and TikTok. Young influencers also play a significant role in many Asian countries, including Thailand.
• News use across online platforms continues to fragment, with six online networks now reaching more than 10% weekly with news content, compared with just two a decade ago. Around a third of our global sample use Facebook (36%) and YouTube (30%) for news each week. Instagram (19%) and WhatsApp (19%) are used by around a fifth, while TikTok (16%) remains ahead of X at 12%.
• Data show that usage of X for news is stable or increasing across many markets, with the biggest uplift in the United States (+8pp), Australia (+6pp), and Poland (+6pp). Since Elon Musk took over the network in 2022 many more right-leaning people, notably young men, have flocked to the network, while some progressive audiences have left or are using it less frequently. Rival networks like Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon are making little impact globally, with reach of 2% or less for news.
• Changing platform strategies mean that video continues to grow in importance as a source of news. Across all markets the proportion consuming social video has grown from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025 and any video from 67% to 75%. In the Philippines, Thailand, Kenya, and India more people now say they prefer to watch the news rather than read it, further encouraging the shift to personality-led news creators.
• Our survey also shows the importance of news podcasting in reaching younger, better-educated audiences. The United States has among the highest proportion (15%) accessing one or more podcasts in the last week, with many of these now filmed and distributed via video platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. By contrast, many northern European podcast markets remain dominated by public broadcasters or big legacy media companies and have been slower to adopt video versions.
• TikTok is the fastest growing social and video network, adding a further 4pp across markets for news and reaching 49% of our online sample in Thailand (+10pp) and 40% in Malaysia (+9pp). But at the same time people in those markets see the network as one of the biggest threats when it comes to false or misleading information, along with Facebook.
• Overall, over half our sample (58%) say they remain concerned about their ability to tell what is true from what is false when it comes to news online, a similar proportion to last year. Concern is highest in Africa (73%) and the United States (73%), with lowest levels in Western Europe (46%).
• When it comes to underlying sources of false or misleading information, online influencers and personalities are seen as the biggest threat worldwide (47%), along with national politicians (47%). Concern about influencers is highest in African countries such as Nigeria (58%) and Kenya (59%), while politicians are considered the biggest threat in the United States (57%), Spain (57%), and much of Eastern Europe." (Executive summary, page 10-11)
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"[...] Pedro Jerónimo’s anthology addresses a highly relevant topic. It offers insights into the state of local media in countries where little research has been published to date. Of the eight contributions in the volume, four focus on Europe and Latin America (Romania, Portugal, Europe, and Bra
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zil), while the other four examine China. Thematically, the contributions cover a broad spectrum of topics within the field of local media: the impact of economic and social challenges on local journalism, automation in local journalism, transnational cooperation in investiga-tive research, and the potential of information apps for local communities. The four articles on China focus on the role of local media during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the title of the anthology may not lead readers to expect such a wide range of topics, some might have expected more research specifically on news deserts, i.e. studies examining the societal effects of local media decline [...] The anthology’s strength lies both in its detailed insights into specific aspects of local media communication in various countries and its potential to inspire further re-search. Readers seeking such inspiration will find the book valuable, whereas those expecting conceptually and methodologically rigorous case studies may be disappointed." (Review by Matthias Künzler, Global Media Journal–German Edition, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2024, pages 2-4)
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"This article discusses online harassment against women journalists exploring self-reported incidents, effects, and trust in safety mechanisms. Drawing on twenty-five semi-structured interviews of women journalists in Portugal, we use a feminist and critical realist framework to explore the causal s
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tructures and generative mechanisms that explain their vulnerability to online abuse. We identify three overarching themes: increasing visibility in a context of higher hostility towards journalism and insufficient safety mechanisms; intersectional gender inequality and cultural mores that foster it; and (individual) responses to harassment. These themes show that women journalists’ actions are both constrained and enabled by existing structures and cultural attitudes. While they tend to deny harassment is caused by their gender, seeing it mainly because of their job, they admit the sexualised and gendered nature of the insults, seeing this as an added offence not experienced by their male counterparts. They also see harassment as a continuation of inequality and prevailing sexism and find the protection mechanisms insufficient and ineffective. As a result, they assume an extra burden of emotional labour to deal with online bullying, admitting self-censoring and the need to develop resilience strategies." (Abstract)
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"This volume addresses the concept of “(in)nocent lies” in the media – beyond the concept of misleading information online, this extends to a deliberate effort to spread misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories – and proposes a critical approach to tackle the issue in related i
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nterdisciplinary fields. The book takes a multidisciplinary and international approach, addressing the digital divide and global inequality, as well as algorithmic bias, how misinformation harms vulnerable groups, social lynching and the effect of misinformation on certain social, political and cultural agendas, among other topics. Arranged thematically, the chapters paint a nuanced and original picture of this issue." (Publisher description)
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"Investigative journalism is expensive. Partnerships and grants can help but can also introduce conditions or stall proceedings. Could crowdfunding, where audience members donate to support an investigation, offer an alternative? “Crowdfunding serves as a crucial revenue source in investigative jo
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urnalism, enabling funding for stories that might otherwise remain uncovered,” says Tanja Aitamurto, the author of “Crowdfunding for Journalism” and an assistant professor in communication at the University of Illinois Chicago. “These crowdfunded stories often emerge outside mainstream media and large newsrooms, contributing significantly to journalism by diversifying producers and voices.” To explore the opportunities and challenges of crowdfunding investigations, GIJN spoke with three newsrooms pioneering the model: Noteworthy in Ireland, a community-led newsroom where readers pitch and fund investigation proposals, and Portuguese investigative podcast Fumaça and Brazil’s Agência Pública, which both operate membership models and have experimented with crowdfunding campaigns." (Introduction)
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"Across markets, only around a fifth of respondents (22%) now say they prefer to start their news journeys with a website or app – that’s down 10 percentage points since 2018. Publishers in a few smaller Northern European markets have managed to buck this trend, but younger groups everywhere are
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showing a weaker connection with news brands’ own websites and apps than previous cohorts – preferring to access news via side-door routes such as social media, search, or mobile aggregators.
• Facebook remains one of the most-used social networks overall, but its influence on journalism is declining as it shifts its focus away from news. It also faces new challenges from established networks such as YouTube and vibrant youth-focused networks such as TikTok. The Chinese-owned social network reaches 44% of 18–24s across markets and 20% for news. It is growing fastest in parts of Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America.
• When it comes to news, audiences say they pay more attention to celebrities, influencers, and social media personalities than journalists in networks like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. This contrasts sharply with Facebook and Twitter, where news media and journalists are still central to the conversation.
• Much of the public is sceptical of the algorithms used to select what they see via search engines, social media, and other platforms. Less than a third (30%) say that having stories selected for me on the basis of previous consumption is a good way to get news, 6 percentage points lower than when we last asked the question in 2016. Despite this, on average, users still slightly prefer news selected this way to that chosen by editors or journalists (27%), suggesting that worries about algorithms are part of a wider concern about news and how it is selected.
• Despite hopes that the internet could widen democratic debate, we find fewer people are now participating in online news than in the recent past. Aggregated across markets, only around a fifth (22%) are now active participators, with around half (47%) not participating in news at all. In the UK and United States, the proportion of active participators has fallen by more than 10 percentage points since 2016. Across countries we find that this group tends to be male, better educated, and more partisan in their political vie ws.
• Trust in the news has fallen, across markets, by a further 2 percentage points in the last year, reversing in many countries the gains made at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. On average, four in ten of our total sample (40%) say they trust most news most of the time. Finland remains the country with the highest levels of overall trust (69%), while Greece (19%) has the lowest after a year characterised by heated arguments about press freedom and the independence of the media." (Summary, page 10)
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"In many countries, especially outside Europe and the United States, we find a significant further decline in the use of Facebook for news and a growing reliance on a range of alternatives including private messaging apps and video networks. Facebook news consumption is down 4 percentage points, acr
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oss all countries, in the last year.
• News use across online platforms is fragmenting, with six networks now reaching at least 10% of our respondents, compared with just two a decade ago. YouTube is used for news by almost a third (31%) of our global sample each week, WhatsApp by around a fifth (21%), while TikTok (13%) has overtaken Twitter (10%), now rebranded X, for the first time.
• Linked to these shifts, video is becoming a more important source of online news, especially with younger groups. Short news videos are accessed by two-thirds (66%) of our sample each week, with longer formats attracting around half (51%). The main locus of news video consumption is online platforms (72%) rather than publisher websites (22%), increasing the challenges around monetisation and connection.
• Although the platform mix is shifting, the majority continue to identify platforms including social media, search, or aggregators as their main gateway to online news. Across markets, only around a fifth of respondents (22%) identify news websites or apps as their main source of online news – that’s down 10 percentage points on 2018. Publishers in a few Northern European markets have managed to buck this trend, but younger groups everywhere are showing a weaker connection with news brands than they did in the past.
• Turning to the sources that people pay most attention to when it comes to news on various platforms, we find an increasing focus on partisan commentators, influencers, and young news creators, especially on YouTube and TikTok. But in social networks such as Facebook and X, traditional news brands and journalists still tend to play a prominent role.
• Concern about what is real and what is fake on the internet when it comes to online news has risen by 3 percentage points in the last year with around six in ten (59%) saying they are concerned. The figure is considerably higher in South Africa (81%) and the United States (72%), both countries that have been holding elections this year.
• Worries about how to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy content in online platforms is highest for TikTok and X when compared with other online networks. Both platforms have hosted misinformation or conspiracies around stories such as the war in Gaza, and the Princess of Wales’s health, as well as so-called ‘deep fake’ pictures and videos." (Executive summary, page 10)
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"This edited collection illuminates the scope with which identities and intimacies interact on a wide range of social media platforms. A varied range of international scholars examine the contexts of very different social media spaces, with topics ranging from whitewashing and memes, parental discou
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rses in online activities, Spotify as an intimate social media platform, neoliberalisation of feminist discourses, digital sex work, social media wars in trans debates and 'BimboTok'. The focus is on their acceleration and impact due to the specificities of social media in relation to identities, intimacies within the broad 'political' sphere. The geographic range of case study material reflects the global impact of social media, and includes data from Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the USA." (Publisher description)
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"Disputed Archival Heritage brings important new perspectives into the discourse on displaced archives. In contrast to shared or joint heritage framings, the book considers the implications of force, violence and loss in the displacement of archival heritage. With chapters from established and emerg
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ing scholars in the field of archival studies, Disputed Archival Heritage extends and enriches the conversation that started with the earlier volume, Displaced Archives. Advancing novel theories and methods for understanding disputes and claims over archives, the volume includes chapters that focus on Indigenous records in settler colonial states; literary and community archives; sub-national and private sector displacements; successes in repatriating formerly displaced archives; comparisons with cultural objects seized by colonial powers; and the relationship between repatriation and reparations. Analysing key concepts such as joint heritage and provenance, the contributors unsettle Western understandings of records, place and ownership." (Publisher description)
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"Combining an innovative mix of traditional chapters, autoethnography, case studies, and dialogue within an intercultural framework, the handbook focuses on the future of media education and provides a deeper understanding of the challenges and affordances of media education as we move forward. Topi
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cs range from fighting disinformation, how vulnerable communities coped with disadvantages using media, transforming educational TV or YouTube to reach larger audiences, supporting students’ wellbeing through various online strategies, examining early childhood, parents, and media mentoring using digital tools, reflecting on educators’ intersectionality on video platforms, youth-produced media to fight injustice, teaching remotely and providing low-tech solutions to address the digital divide, search for solutions collaboratively using social media, and many more." (Publisher description)
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"This article examines how online abuse is experienced and tackled by journalists in Portugal, and addresses the prevalence of online harassment and violence against women journalists and their perceptions of the issue. Theoretically, the article bridges the research on online harassment and gender
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in journalism. Empirically, it draws on a nationwide survey of journalists combined with data from semi-structured interviews conducted with 25 women journalists to explore the gendered experiences of online abuse. Journalists feel an increasing hostility aggravated by the digital environment. Half of the surveyed professionals experienced online abuse, including sexual harassment. Journalists evidenced low trust in protection mechanisms and feelings of resignation towards online abuse, seen as intrinsic to the job. The interviews further revealed a perceived connection between gender and online abuse: women recognized the sexualized nature of online abuse, which they linked to the broader cultural context of gender inequality." (Abstract)
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"This book details the project "Digital Citizenship Education for Democratic Participation" involving approximately 400 pre-school and primary school children, their families, teachers, and community members in a Lisbon locality. The research presented aims to answer the following question: To what
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extent can a local (and replicable) digital media literacy program empower preschool and primary-school-aged children to become active and effective citizens in the digital era? Through this book, the authors share the steps taken during the project, including the main difficulties faced and the solutions found to overcome them as well as the project’s sustainability." (Publisher description)
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"Hate speech is more complex and diverse on social media. It spreads at high speed and can impact behaviors beyond the borders where it originates. Hate is ubiquitous, interactive, and multimedia. It is available 24/7, reaching a much larger audience. On social media, haters can be anonymous and fin
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d support from individuals with the same aggressive mindset. This is just a brief characterization and certainly presents many theoretical gaps that need improvement. This book explores the nature of hate speech on social media. Readers will find chapters written by 21 authors from 18 universities or research centers. It includes researchers from 11 countries, prioritizing a diversity of approaches from the Global North and Global South – Brazil, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Germany, Nigeria, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the USA. The analyses herein involve the realities in an even larger number of countries, given the transnational approach of some of these studies." (Preface, page 13)
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"Probablemente, el indicador más elocuente del descenso en la producción es que, sumados, los mismos países produjeron en 2022 un 54% de lo que producían en 2012. El gráfico 3 muestra las caídas ocurridas en cada país. A nivel agregado, los niveles de producción de 2012 son similares a los
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de 2017, pero a partir de ahí empieza una disminución que se agudiza durante la pandemia, se recupera parcialmente en 2021 y vuelve a caer en 2022. A los factores ya mencionados como algunas de las posibles causas de la caída, el descenso inversión publicitaria y desplazamiento de hacia las plataformas, cabe considerar otros dos que apuntan a la sustitución: la ya consolidada presencia de telenovelas turcas y de otros orígenes incipientes y también la competencia de las reposiciones. La brecha en la calidad visual de las realizaciones de fines de los años 90 en adelante, respecto de las actuales, es baja. Telenovelas históricas como Terra Nostra, Betty la Fea o Pasión de Gavilanes se reprograman y son consumidas de un modo parecido a las actuales.
Un elemento recurrente entre los capítulos nacionales de este informe es relevar la importancia de la reposición de materiales ya exhibidos. Los intercambios de contenidos audiovisuales entre países iberoamericanos han estado presentes por décadas, pero hay fuertes diferencias en las cantidades de producciones que cada país importa o exporta. Asimismo, también hay diferencias en la variedad de orígenes desde los que se importan contenidos.
En los capítulos nacionales se muestra la cantidad de títulos y horas de ficción televisiva de estreno iberoamericana de exhibida en el país durante 2022. Vistas individualmente, muestran los consumos locales. Sin embargo, al combinarlas, revelan los flujos de intercambios de producciones entre países.Eso es lo que se muestra en la tabla 3, usando las horas como unidad de medida. La tabla 3 puede leerse vertical y horizontalmente. Leída verticalmente, muestra el origen de la ficción televisiva de estreno exhibida en cada país. Horizontalmente, muestra los distintos países en que se exhibió ficción televisiva originada en un país [...]
La tabla 3 muestra que el principal país exportador de ficción televisiva en Iberoamérica es México, al igual que en los años anteriores. En 2022 vendió contenidos a todos los países, salvo Portugal, siendo además, con la excepción del cono sur, el principal exportador hacia cada uno de los países de la región. En segundo lugar, tanto en volumen como en cantidad de países a los que exportó, está Brasil. Un caso llamativo es Colombia: no sólo redujo sus exportaciones en casi un 60%, sino que su producción se redujo en un 53%, fundamentalmente por la reducción en la producción de telenovelas. Los casos de España y Portugal son interesantes en 2022 por la misma razón que lo fueron en 2021. Su volumen de producción los ubica sólo por debajo de Brasil o México y muy por encima de todos los demás países. La factura de sus realizaciones es de alto estándar. Sin embargo, sus niveles de exportaciones no alcanzan al 5% de lo producido." (Páginas 26-28)
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"The open access edited volume addresses children's rights and their ability to act in the digital world. The focus is on the position of children as subjects with their own rights and developing capacities. Their consideration by parents, courts and legislators is critically examined. Aspects of di
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gital parenting, especially educational practices and strategies in the context of social media, are analyzed with regard to the tension between protection and participation of children. The edited volume brings debates on privacy and data protection together with those from tort, family and intellectual property law, while also examining the role of families and children in the regulation of data and digital economies, especially online platforms. Legal reflections from Germany, Israel, Portugal and the United States of America are complemented by perspectives from media studies, political science, educational science and sociology of law." (Publisher description)
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