"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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"Chayka.lv is an independent media outlet established in 2019 that provides free, high-quality, politically neutral information to the Russian-speaking community of the Latvian city of Daugavpils, including news, entertainment, human-interest and other factual content. It started as pages on the Fac
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ebook and OK.ru social media platforms, then an online news portal, before expanding to other platforms including Instagram, VK, Telegram, and YouTube. It has been supported to develop its journalistic capacity, expand its audience and progress towards financial sustainability by Internews’ project Supporting Independent Media in the Baltics Action (SIMBA), which was funded by the US Department of Human Rights and Labor between 2019 and 2022. In August 2021, Internews commissioned the Market Research Center to conduct a detailed research study into Chayka.lv’s impact on the media landscape of Daugavpils. This report is the product of that study, and highlights how Chayka.lv was the city’s third most popular Russian-language media outlet at the time of writing, that survey respondent’s viewed Chayka.lv as the only politically neutral source of information in Daugavpils, that it has a significant female following and that Internews’ support correlates with growth and expansion." (Publisher description)
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"This study examines the framing of media and information literacy issues in media projects financed by the Latvian Media Support Fund and discusses the professional quality of media and information literacy (MIL) related content with project beneficiaries and media experts. The study uses the ideol
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ogical model of literacy, linking it with the meta-journalistic approach to explore changes in MIL-related journalistic professional epistemology. Employing the three datasets (journalists and editors’ survey, framing analysis of MIL-focused media content, and qualitative semi-structured interviews), the research concludes that MIL representation in the commercial media is mostly superficial, and the audience is not offered the range of MIL competencies appropriate for the contemporary understanding of the notion. MIL content in the media is represented using educational, warning, and formal MIL framing." (Abstract)
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"Through carefully curated essays, Salazkina and Fibla-Gutiérrez bring wider meaning and significance to the discipline through their study of alternative cinema in new territories, fueled by different historical and political circumstances, innovative technologies, and ambitious practitioners. The
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essays in this volume work to realize the radical societal democratization that shows up in amateur cinema around the world. In particular, diverse contributors highlight the significance of amateur filmmaking, the exhibition of amateur films, the uses and availability of film technologies, and the inventive and creative approaches of filmmakers and advocates of amateur film." (Publisher description)
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"Straddling the boundary between historical inquiry and personal reflection, this extraordinary text unfolds as a series of encounters with eponymic Holocaust photographs. Although only a small number of photographs are reproduced here, Fresco provides evocative descriptions of many well-known image
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s: synagogues and Torah scrolls burning on the night of Kristallnacht; deportations to the ghettos and the camps; and, finally, mass executions in the killing fields of Eastern Europe. The unique set of photographs included in On the Death of Jews shows groups of women and children from Liepaja (Liepaja), shortly before they were killed in December 1941 in the dunes of Shkede (Skede) on the Baltic Sea. In the last photograph of the series, we see the victims' bodies tumbling into the pit." (Foreword, page vii-viii)
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"A RAND Corporation study examined Russian-language content on social media and the broader propaganda threat posed to the region of former Soviet states that include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and, to a lesser extent, Moldova and Belarus. In addition to employing a state-funded multilingu
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al television network, operating various Kremlin-supporting news websites, and working through several constellations of Russia-backed “civil society” organizations, Russia employs a sophisticated social media campaign that includes news tweets, nonattributed comments on web pages, troll and bot social media accounts, and fake hashtag and Twitter campaigns. Nowhere is this threat more tangible than in Ukraine, which has been an active propaganda battleground since the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Other countries in the region look at Russia’s actions and annexation of Crimea and recognize the need to pay careful attention to Russia’s propaganda campaign. To conduct this study, RAND researchers employed a mixed-methods approach that used careful quantitative analysis of social media data to understand the scope of Russian social media campaigns combined with interviews with regional experts and U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization security experts to understand the critical ingredients to countering this campaign." (Back cover)
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"This research is aimed at assessing national vulnerabilities and preparedness to counteract foreign-led disinformation in 14 countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The Visegrad states (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), Eastern Partnership countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia
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, Moldova, Ukraine), the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Romania are covered. An integral part of the research is the Disinformation Resilience Index, which is quantitative assessment of exposure to Kremlin-led disinformation and the level of national resilience to disinformation campaigns." (Page 1)
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"This study examines the existence of criminal defamation and insult laws in the territory of the 57 participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In doing so, it offers a broad, comparative overview of the compliance of OSCE participating States’ legislat
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ion with international standards and best practices in the field of defamation law and freedom of expression. The primary purpose of the study is to identify relevant provisions in law. Although the study does include examples of the usage of these provisions, it is not an analysis of legal practice [...] The study is divided into two sections. The first section offers conclusions according to each of the principal categories researched and in reference to international standards on freedom of expression. The second section provides the detailed research findings for each country, including relevant examples. As the study’s title suggests, the primary research category is general criminal laws on defamation and insult. However, this study also covers special laws protecting the reputation or honour of particular persons or groups of people (e.g., presidents, public officials, deceased persons); special laws protecting the ‘honour’ of the state and state symbols; and blasphemy and religious insult laws." (About this study, page 2)
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"Trust is a societal value that is difficult to gain and easy to lose. This article deals with the levels of trust that journalists working in eight post-authoritarian and post-totalitarian countries (Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Latvia, South Africa and Tanzania) have i
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n various social institutions using data from the present Worlds of Journalism Study. In each country, results showed the level of trust in journalists’ own institution—the media—is higher than the level of trust in both political and regulative institutions. The expression of low trust, particularly in regulative institutions, in the sampled countries represents significantly different results from previous studies about journalists’ trust in countries with longer democratic traditions." (Abstract)
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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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"Of the 939 identified main media literacy stakeholders, over a third were categorised as “civil society” (305), followed by “public authorities” (175) and “academia” (161). Over two-thirds of them do not have a statutory responsibility in this area and base their involvement on a differ
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ent motivation. 189 networks were identified and the vast majority of them (135) are operating at national level. Since the level of activity differs a lot between countries, of the maximum of 580 projects (20 possible projects for each of the 29 respondents, but not all of them were able to detect 20), only 547 were identified. The most common project type is “resources” (173); the second is “end-user engagement” (107). These two together account for more than half of all analysed projects, showing that providing frontline support to citizens is a priority. As to the a ddressed media literacy skills, “critical thinking” was the clear winner, being dealt with by 403 of the 547 projects, followed by “media use” (385). This trend is also confirmed by the case study analysis of the most significant 145 projects, which also feature projects on “intercultural dialogue” (46 of 145), including skills around challenging radicalisation and hate speech online." (Executive summary, page 3-4)
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"With well-organised and far-reaching weapons of information Russia has succeeded in sowing doubt about the need for democratic values and is therefore also undermining faith in democratic countries, weakening it. Russia government uses lies, concealment, and the manipulation of anything that can se
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rve their purpose—to turn citizens toward the ‘preferred’ direction. We are now faced with new and cunning forms of propaganda; a go-to source of information may turn out to be a false news outlet or a false Facebook ‘friend’. In the new information age, where borders between media fact and fiction are blurred, agents of propaganda seek to access citizens with messages presented in formats that discourage critical thinking. The main objectives of such attacks are to undermine democratic values—tolerance, minority rights, freedom of expression, the rule of law, and also loyalty to one’s country. In this war, democratic states are faced with unprecedented difficulties; in order to protect themselves they cannot fight the enemy using the same weapons the enemy uses, because then democracy would be no different than authoritarian rule. Democracies must choose mechanisms to counter hostile propaganda that comply with the rule of law and our fundamental values. This is difficult, but not impossible. In this publication, we have collected a number of expert opinions on what national governments, the EU, relevant institutions, and the media can do to win this war for the hearts and minds of the people." (Foreword)
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"International trade in creative industries showed sustained growth in the last decade. The global market for traded creative goods and services totaled a record $547billion in 2012, as compared to $302 billion in 2003. Exports from developing countries, led by Asian countries, were growing faster t
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han exports from developed countries. Among developed country regions, Europe is the largest exporter of creative goods. In 2012, the top 5 creative goods exporters included Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Exports of creative goods from developed economies grew during the period 2003 to 2012, with export earnings rising from $134 billion to $197 billion. Among developing countries, China is the largest exporter of creative goods. In 2012, the top 5 exporters were China, Hong Kong, China, India, Turkey and South Korea. Exports of creative goods from developing economies grew during the period 2003 to 2012, with export earnings rising from $87 billion to $272 billion. Developing countries are playing an increasingly important role in international trade in creative industries." (Executive summary)
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"When it comes to professional role orientation, Latvian journalists are almost unanimous that journalists should report things as they are and act as detached observers. Interviewed journalists also found it important to provide analysis of current affairs, to educate the audience, to let people ex
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press theirs views, to tell stories about the world as well as to advocate for social change. All these professional roles, except the necessity to tell stories about the world (s=1.22) and to let people express their views (s=1.08), showed relatively low standard deviations, suggesting that journalists agree on their importance. Similar consensus among the respondents showed over the little importance of supporting official government policies and conveying a positive image of political leaders." (Journalistic roles, page 2)
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"This report gives forecasts for online video spend and consumption, where available, for 40 markets in which online video is at varying stages of development. From markets such as Singapore, where 85% of the population claims to access online video (according to GlobalWebIndex, 2014), to countries
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where online video is still in its early stages of growth, what we see is that online video consumption has risen sharply over the past few years and has begun to attract budget-switching from TV advertising. TV remains, of course, the world’s most popular advertising channel, and will be so for some years yet. Nevertheless, networks and studios are having to adapt to the new importance of digital." (Introduction, page 1)
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"This report surveys the changing patterns of media consumption in 65 countries across the world, and forecasts how the amount of time people allocate to different media will change between 2014 and 2017. It measures the amount of time spent reading newspapers and magazines, watching television, lis
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tening to the radio, visiting the cinema, using the internet, and viewing outdoor advertising while out of the home. Note that the extent of information available varies considerably from market to market. For some countries we have a full breakdown of consumption figures across all media, with separate figures for desktop and mobile internet, with historical figures back to 2010 and forecasts to 2014, plus monthly breakdowns for consumption across the year, and hourly breakdowns for consumption across the day. For a few countries there is very little research on media consumption trends, so we are able to present only a limited set of figures. We expect the scope of the report to expand in future editions, both by adding new countries and by providing more details for countries where information is currently sparse." (Introduction)
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"The paper analyses articles from the Russian language newspaper “Vesti Segodnya”, which are devoted to the war in Ukraine. The paper consists of two parts. The first part of this paper explains how the conceptualization of the information warfare has evolved during the second half of the 20th c
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entury and how the term “information warfare” is defined in Russia. Then, by looking at the theoretical foundations of collective memory, it demonstrates how collective memory has been incorporated into news stories to create resonance with current events in Ukraine. It is concluded that the usage of collective memory can be identified in articles devoted to the war in Ukraine to resonate with conflict in eastern Ukraine." (Abstract)
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