commbox Central Asia & Caucasus

Central Asia & Caucasus

Filter

733

Sort by:

Direction:

External Link (207)

The State of Media Development: Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Giorgi Jangiani

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2025), 20 pp.

"The report highlights both urgent challenges and emerging opportunities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia — a region grappling with financial instability driven by the Russian war in Ukraine, political manipulation, declining support from tech platforms, and the potential loss of decades of accu ... mulated human and intellectual capital in the media sector. These challenges are further compounded by growing polarization, opaque platform-dominated markets, and increasingly repressive legislation. As a result, many media organizations are being forced into untenable choices between defending press freedom and investing in innovation and content production. Despite these pressures, the study emphasizes the resilience and adaptability of local media actors. Donor support remains meaningful in key areas such as institutional strengthening, coordination, research/learning and promoting local ownership. However, the report stresses that financial support alone is not enough — it calls for sustained, principled, and coordinated engagement. As one interviewee noted, “We don’t want to end up in a situation where we’re forced to sacrifice one principle over another — but in this region, that’s already happening.” While panic is not a strategy, inaction risks deepening the crisis. This report provides clear guidance for donors and implementers to reinforce media ecosystems and protect public interest journalism. If we were to summarize the key recommendations of this report, they would be: – Ensure sustainable core funding: Core support is essential to respond to crises and reduce reliance on politically influenced or commercially driven content. – Invest in long-term tech innovation: Fragmented, short-term digital investments fall short. Donors must coordinate support for scalable, sustainable digital strategies and help reclaim advertising revenue. – Address local media gaps: In many areas, television remains dominant while digital capacity lags. Fund initiatives that reinforce local democratic discourse and reduce polarization. – Strengthen legal and safety protections: Small and exiled media face legal threats and security risks. Long-term investment is needed in legal reform, journalist safety, and operational resilience. – Prioritize local leadership and inclusion: Donor reliance on international actors often sidelines capable local organizations. Local voices must be centered in strategy, funding, and implementation. Finally, it’s worth noting that the regional findings are based on a focused but insightful sample: 13 organizations from Eastern Europe and Central Asia participated in the survey (as part of the global survey), alongside 10 key informant interviews. Despite its limited scope, the report offers a solid foundation for future assessments and strategic agenda-setting in media development." (Conclusions and key recommendations) more

External Link (226)

Google Scholar (256)

WorldCat (232)

Gespiegelte Wirklichkeit: 'Osteuropa' und Öffentlichkeit im Wandel

Manfred Sapper (et al.)

Osteuropa, volume 75, issue 1-3 (2025), 472 pp.

"Der 100. Jahrestag von 'Osteuropa' bietet allerdings Anlass, in drei Bereichen das Verhältnis von Osteuropa und Öffentlichkeit zu analysieren. Der erste ist ein kritischer Blick auf die Geschichte und Gegenwart der Zeitschrift. Seit ihrer Gründung bewegt sich Osteuropa an der Grenze zwischen Wis ... senschaft, Journalismus und Politik. Das ist ein Balanceakt. Jens Bisky und Cord Aschenbrenner als Beobachter von außen machen sich Gedanken, ob er funktioniert, und Mitglieder der Redaktion blicken von innen auf die Vergangenheit, die Konstruktionspläne der Gegenwart und den künftigen Reformbedarf. Noch steht Osteuropa quer zum herrschenden Trend der Fragmentierung und Parzellierung der Öffentlichkeit. Interdisziplinarität bleibt fester Bestandteil des Osteuropa-Gens. Der zweite Bereich ist der Frage gewidmet, wie „der Osten“ in den deutschen Horizont kommt und wie aus Informationen Wissen wird. Welche Themen kommen an, welches Erkenntnisinteresse steht hinter der Beschäftigung mit Geschichte, Politik, Literatur oder Musik Osteuropas? Eine Pionierfunktion zur Vermittlung von Informationen aus anderen Ländern haben Korrespondenten. Sie registrieren als erste politische und kulturelle Trends vor Ort, sie sollen durch verlässliche Informationen Öffentlichkeit herstellen. Doch das ist nicht so einfach. Christian Neefs Portrait der drei „Korrespondenten-Promis“ Paul Scheffer, Hermann Pörzgen und Gerd Ruge sowie Markus Ackerets Schilderungen aus dem Moskau von heute veranschaulichen, wie politische Rücksichtnahme, Restriktionen, Einschüchterung und Selbstzensur die Arbeit an der Aufklärung beeinträchtigen. Gleichzeitig zeigen die Rezeptionsanalysen in diesem Bereich, wie stark die historische Osteuropaforschung und die deutsche Aufnahme von Literatur und Musik aus dem Osten Europas von der politischen Großwetterlage bestimmt sind. So spiegeln sich die politischen Brüche des Jahrhunderts 1:1 in der deutsch-deutschen Rezeption sowjetischer Musik. Und das literarische Osteuropa, das lange Zeit terra incognita war, wurde über die besondere Gewaltgeschichte der Region sowie die Verarbeitung der existenziellen Gewalterfahrung im Holocaust oder im Gulag geprägt. En passant zollen wir auf diesem Wege auch einigen jener Personen Anerkennung, die mit ihrem Wirken viel für die Osterweiterung des deutschen Horizonts und für die publizistische Qualität von Osteuropa getan haben und nicht zufällig unter den Autoren dieses Bandes sind: den Historikern Karl Schlögel, Dietrich Beyrau und Gerd Koenen, der Lektorin Katharina Raabe, dem Slavisten Ulrich Schmid, der Musikwissenschaftlerin Dorothea Redepenning und dem Ökonomen Roland Götz. Danke! Im dritten Bereich nehmen wir den Wandel der Medienlandschaft, der Öffentlichkeit und der Gesellschaft in den Kernländern Osteuropas, in Russland, der Ukraine und Belarus in Zeiten von Diktatur und Krieg unter die Lupe. Während es in der Ukraine allen kriegsbedingten Einschränkungen zum Trotz nach wie vor einen relativen Medienpluralismus gibt, sind die Medien in Belarus und Russland weitgehend gleichgeschaltet, Freiräume für Öffentlichkeit und Gesellschaft zerschlagen. Damit wächst die politische und gesellschaftliche Bedeutung des Journalismus, der Publizistik und des Verlagswesens im Exil. Sie sind das Surrogat der öffentlichen Sphäre und Pfeiler der Gegenöffentlichkeit. Und gleichzeitig sind auch sie Barometer zur Prognose der politischen Großwetterlage." (Editorial) more

External Link (319)

Democratic Decline, Economic and Political Pressures, Urgency for Reforms. The Future of the Media in Turkey – Facts and Trends

Sinem Aydinli

Sarajevo; Istanbul; Ljubljana: Mediacentar; Bianet; Peace Institute; South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) (2025), 39 pp.

"The state of the media and democracy in Turkey faces critical challenges that hinder freedom of expression and pluralism, due to restrictive legal frameworks, economic instability, and cross-ownership in the media sector. Although digitalization has transformed news consumption, the government’s ... more

External Link (396)

Google Scholar (287)

WorldCat (342)

Satellite Ministries: The Rise of Christian Television in the Middle East
Deep Insights

Febe Armanios

New York: Oxford University Press (2025), xxx, 337 pp.

"Through extensive fieldwork and archival research, Febe Armanios explores how Western evangelicals and indigenous Christians harnessed terrestrial and satellite technologies to promote Christian television in the Middle East. The sixteen channels analyzed in this study fall into three main categori ... more

Download (188)

Analysis of monetization tools for media, bloggers and media personalities in Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine: Overview of the financial landscape for digital content creators

Arthur Papyan, Anna Barseghyan, Oleg Khomenok

Fojo Media Institute (2025), 49 pp.

External Link (260)

As USAID dies, many of Georgia's "vibrant" CSOs face extinction

Jaba Devdariani

GEOpolitics, issue 16 (2025), 6 pp.

"For decades, Georgia has been one of the largest per capita recipients of U.S. assistance. In 2012-2023, the years in which the Georgian Dream has been in power, total U.S. overseas development assistance (ODA) stands at USD 1 billion 920 mil lion, according to official data. Of course, the lion’ ... more

Download (200)

WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech
Deep Insights

Sahana Udupa, Herman Wasserman (eds.)

New York: New York University Press (2025), vii, 375 pp.

"Known by the popular nickname “ZapZap” in Brazil and synonymous with the Internet across Africa and South Asia, WhatsApp has emerged as a major means of communication for millions of people around the world. Unlike social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, WhatsApp offers a closed, e ... more

External Link (535)

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025
Deep Insights

Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Craig T. Robertson, Amy Ross Arguedas, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2025), 170 pp.

"• 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 ... 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) more

External Link (309)

Google Scholar (312)

WorldCat (321)

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Digital Journalism

Bruce Mutsvairo, Kristin Skare Orgeret (eds.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2025), xxi, 444 pp.

"This book responds to mounting calls to broaden the theorization of digital journalism, addressing critical questions about an emerging yet rapidly expanding area of study, and presenting multiple entry points and approaches that help us understand digital journalism better. Seeking to establish it ... more

External Link (178)

Armenian Media Vulnerability Report: Survey Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations

Riga: Baltic Centre for Media Excellence (BCME); Media Initiatives Center (2025), 35 pp.

"Armenian media outlets face multiple vulnerabilities that threaten their organizational security (including digital and cyber security), financial stability, the well-being of journalists, as well as ability to operate in a crisis to contain reputational damage and ensure continuity of operations. ... more

Download (105)

Azerbaijan digital skills assessment 2023-2024

Geneva: ITU (2024), ix, 83 pp.

"The survey findings reveal that 25 per cent of those aged between 15 and 74 have at least basic digital skills, with 7.8 per cent having above basic digital skills and 17.3 per cent having basic digital skills. The study also found that over a quarter (26.5%) of respondents below the basic level of ... more

Download (154)

Media Systems and Media Capture in Turkey: A Case Study

Murat Akser, Banu Baybars

Media and Communication, volume 12, issue 7733 (2024), 17 pp.

"This article attempts to explain the current situation of the Turkish media system through the media systems approach as a case study with special attention to the concept of media capture. We propose that the Turkish media system's shift is heavily influenced by media capture. We associate four of ... more

Download (93)

Financial transparency of media 2023

Nino Gelashvili, Mariam Pataridze

Media Development Foundation (MDF); Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2024), 43 pp.

Download (88)

The Nexus of Digital Authoritarianism and Religious Populism

Ihsam Yilmaz

Religions, volume 14, issue 747 (2024), 19 pp.

"This paper delves into the intricate relationship between religious populism and the legitimization of digital authoritarianism in Turkey. Specifically, it investigates how the ruling party, AKP, has strategically linked Islamist values to state policies as a means of justifying its repressive cont ... more

Download (146)

Armenian Media System Overview According to the Hallin and Mancini Model

Patricia Izquierdo-Iranzo, Lianna Sayadyan

Media and Communication, volume 12, issue 7850 (2024), 16 pp.

"An overview of the Armenian media system is presented from the perspective of media professionals. Interference with the media system by the political system is analysed and the health of the Armenian media system is explored in the context of its transition from a Soviet republic towards a liberal ... more

Download (125)

Communications, media and internet concentration in Turkey, 2019-2021

Bilge Yesil, Sinem Aydinli

Global Media & Internet Concentration Project (GMIC) (2024), 54 pp.

"Turkey’s network media economy witnessed substantial growth between 2019 and 2021, especially in the wireless, digital music, digital games, and internet advertising sectors. All told, revenue increased sharply over this period from TRY 65.7 billion to TRY 95.1 billion. This, in turn, was nearly ... more

Download (100)

Masters of Manipulation: Authoritarian Propaganda in Russia and Turkey

Ali Çelikkan, Andrey Zhvirblis, Can Ertuna, Evgeniy Shtorn, Evin Baris Altintas, Gökçer Tahincioglu, Olga Romanova, Onur Öncü, Roman Zholud, Sibel Yükler

Potsdam: Friedrich Naumann Stiftung; Journalisten und Anwälte für Meinungsfreiheit (JAM) (2024), 38 pp.

Download (87)

Unmasking Vulnerability: Understanding Disinformation in Samtskhe-Javakheti

Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC); International Media Support (IMS) (2024), 31 pp.

External Link (337)

Media pluralism in selected Black Sea countries: The influence of European standards

Andrei Richter

Strasbourg: European Audiovisual Observatory; Council of Europe (2024), 35 pp.

Google Scholar (246)

WorldCat (266)

Die katholischen Ostkirchen: Herkunft - Geschichte - Gegenwart
Deep Insights

Christian Lange, Dietmar W. Winkler, Karl Pinggéra, Hacik R. Gazer (eds.)

Freiburg et al.: Herder (2024), 363 pp.

"Am 21. November 1964 wurde das Ostkirchendekret des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils, Orientalium Ecclesiarum, in Rom promulgiert. Mit ihm erfuhr das reiche ostkirchliche Erbe innerhalb der katholischen Kirche eine besondere Wertschätzung. Internationale Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler nehme ... more

Satellite Ministries: The Rise of Christian Television in the Middle East Deep Insights

WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech Deep Insights

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 Deep Insights

Die katholischen Ostkirchen: Herkunft - Geschichte - Gegenwart Deep Insights

Satellite Ministries: The Rise of Christian Television in the Middle East
Deep Insights

WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech
Deep Insights

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025
Deep Insights

Die katholischen Ostkirchen: Herkunft - Geschichte - Gegenwart
Deep Insights