"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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"Der vorliegende Band widmet sich der beunruhigenden Lage der ägyptischen Medien. Er beschreibt Gleichschaltung und Zensur, er berichtet von Einschüchterungsversuchen der al-Sisi-, aber auch der Mursi-Regierung gegenüber in- und ausländischen Pressevertretern. Journalistinnen und Journalisten wu
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rden während der Ausübung ihres Berufes getötet oder in Gefängnisse gesteckt [...] In vielen demokratischen Ländern ist die Presse nur eine gesellschaftspolitische Arena von vielen. Anders in Ägypten, hier sind die Medien derzeit neben der Justiz und dem Sicherheitsapparat ein Hauptschlachtfeld der Machtausübung. Wer das 'Volksempfinden' beherrscht, braucht zum Beispiel kein gewähltes Parlament." (Vorwort, Seite 10-11)
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"This book provides an important set of critical reflections from a selection of foundational scholars of African media and communication studies through biographical method. The book interrogates the center of mainstream academic scholarship by providing the foundational history and origins of an A
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fricanist conceptual model while highlighting its significance globally. The editors use biographical and life story interviews to critically review the respondents’ interpretations of their key works and arguments in relation to key moments in the field, the continent and globally. Though the book is focussed on recovering pioneering arguments by key thinkers in African media and communication, efforts of individual academics are to be understood in the context of their work with others and within institutions that are networked, locally and globally. By bringing together many of the leading figures of African communication and media studies in a single volume, this book provides a critical corrective to the dearth of knowledge and information about who the key thinkers are and what their key arguments, theories and models for media and communication in African contexts entail." (Publisher description)
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"The presence of cameras, at the forefront of crises, either in the hands of journalists, bystanders or passers-by and sometimes even parties to the crises, has inspired multiple visual notations, commentaries and perspectives. Thus, efforts and resources are channelled towards documenting crises, t
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o help us better understand them and play a part in their resolution. Sometimes, the camera also participates in the adjudication of cases arising from crises or, indeed, even in the reconciliatory efforts after a crisis. The book aims to explore the multi-dimensional role of the camera in times of crises, with particular interest in how scholars view the camera as a [useful] tool in times of crisis in Africa. Hopefully, this book will help unravel the multi-layered tendencies of the camera as an instrument of documentation, history verification, (re)presentation of the other, and perhaps the legitimisation of narratives. The camera’s subjective framings of crisis narratives, as a manipulative tool for influence, inference and power are also explored. The book is structured into three parts. The first part focusses on the visual narratives of crises. The second part of the book explores the camera’s tendency to be a tool for representation and agency, while the third segment discusses the use of the camera as an entity for activism and advocacy in crises. These structured parts are intended to broaden the understanding of readers about the greater possibilities that images and imageries from the camera as a tool possess." (Abstract introduction, page 1)
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"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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"How can current debates on ‘media capture’ be understood within the contexts of Africa and Latin America? This edited collection provides a nuanced exploration of media capture—a critical yet contested concept that examines and illuminates how media can become skewed in favour of power—whil
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e also highlighting spaces and strategies of resistance. By adopting a South-South perspective, it brings together scholars focused on these issues in both regions, featuring a dialogue between two leading scholars, Herman Wasserman and Silvio Waisbord in the Foreword. The book not only demonstrates how media practices in Africa and Latin America are influenced by the political economy of their media systems, but also contributes significantly to advancing empirical, theoretical, and comparative research on media in non-Western settings." (Publisher description)
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"What does it mean to decolonise academia in Africa? Is this important project limited to the humanities? Is it a project for the future? Are there forerunners at African universities today? The contributors to this volume show different trajectories for anthropology as a discipline and for decoloni
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sing academia across the continent and beyond. They offer a variety of perspectives, especially regarding collaboration between African and German scholars in the areas of research, teaching and institutional development: While some are hopeful and take inspiration from earlier experiences of disciplinary and methodological developments in academic decolonisation and international collaborations, others remain critical and call for more radical attempts at decolonisation." (Publisher description)
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"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
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es: Western-backed conservative outlets with a charismatic and apocalyptic outlook; middle-ground channels that sought to balance their international sponsors' expectations with local interests; and grassroots initiatives rooted in ancient church traditions. The histories and programming strategies of primarily Arabic, but also Turkish and Persian, Christian channels reveal how media producers forged unexpected political alliances, pursued sectarian objectives, and navigated various transnational influences. Satellite Ministries explores how modern expressions of faith, technology, and political power intersected and clashed across the Global South and beyond." (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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"The handbook presents key contributions from scholars worldwide, providing a comprehensive exploration of current trends in media industries from diverse perspectives. Within the framework of understanding contemporary and future trajectories in media markets and industries, the volume delves into
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their influence on media organization and delivery, along with broader societal and market implications. Encompassing research at the crossroads of economics, management, political economy, and production studies, the handbook emphasizes the necessity for a robust interdisciplinary dialogue. Beyond scrutinizing present and forthcoming industry developments, the handbook addresses pivotal issues pertaining to media economics research methods and pedagogy." (Publisher description)
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"This chapter looks at the status of the freedom of the press, and the legal possibilities and obstacles that affect media’s ability to hold power to account and safeguard the principles of democracy. The legal environment in countries as diverse as the United States, Egypt, and Sweden differs gre
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atly, and affects the ability of journalists to report news to citizens that enables them to take part in the public discourse, based on theories on the public sphere. And according to theories on democracy, informed citizens can be seen as a requirement for democracy. Thus, certain conditions are necessary for journalism to be considered the fourth estate, and arguments for this are based on comparing the working conditions for independent professional journalists by semi-structured interviews with local journalists. Aspects discussed are access to official documents, media’s right to protect anonymous sources and the increase in intimidatory tactics against reporters, as the three countries are in different ways applying laws in order to regulate the media and their ability to hold power to account." (Abstract)
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"This article investigates news distortion within the Arab media ecosystem, as manifested on Arab media Facebook pages and perceived by Arab journalists during the COVID-19 pandemic. A textual analysis was conducted on 6 news Facebook pages affiliated with major local media channels in 6 Arab countr
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ies: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Tunisia. In addition, a survey was administered to 116 Arab journalists residing in these countries. The findings revealed five main distortion categories in pandemic reporting: (1) overestimating the official response, (2) underestimating the public response, (3) diverting readers’ attention, (4) concealing information about the outbreak, and (5) posting unverified information. Moreover, the findings indicate that news distortion in Arab media during the pandemic is often influenced by institutional, rather than individual, pressures, including those from media organizations, government institutions, and societal norms." (Abstract)
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"Les pratiques « médiactivistes » numériques offrent de nouveaux cadres pour la formation et le développement des mobilisations sociales contemporaines. Elles élargissent le champ de la lutte et incitent à s'interroger sur le rôle que jouent les dispositifs numériques dans l'amplification o
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u l'amoindrissement de l'agir collectif. Cet ouvrage issu d'une recherche scientifique se base sur un travail empirique réalisé en France et en Algérie. Il invite les lecteurs à réfléchir sur les modalités de luttes contemporaines : en effet, les répertoires d'actions collectives ne sont pas figés dans l'espace et dans le temps, mais évoluent sans cesse au contact des dispositifs numériques." (Description de la maison d'édition)
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"In this ground-breaking two-volume set, world-leading experts produce a rich, authoritative depiction of the world's press, its freedom, and its limits. We want press freedom but we also want freedom from the press. A powerful press may expose corrupt government or aid it. It may champion citizens
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or unfairly attack them. A vulnerable press may lack supporters and succumb to conformity. It may resist, and overcome tyranny. According to common belief, press freedom involves social responsibilities to equip public debate and render government transparent. Is this attitude valid given that the press is usually a private, commercial actor? Globally, the health, authority, and viability of the press varies dramatically. These patterns do not conform to traditional divisions between North and South, East and West. Instead, they are much more complex. How do we measure successful press regulation? What concessions can the state and/or society demand of the press? What constitutes the irreducible core of press freedom? The contributions in Volume 1 look at key jurisdictions in Europe; whereas Volume 2 goes beyond Europe to analyse the situation in key jurisdictions in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania." (Publisher description)
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"The transformations in the media and political landscapes in Egypt over the last decade and their implications on media pluralism and freedom of expression are well documented. However, less is known about how Egyptian journalists themselves experience these changes; how their relationships with au
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thorities and ordinary citizens are being redefined, and how journalists’ routines and practices are evolving. Through interviews with twenty Egyptian journalists working for different types of media outlets (government-owned, independent, privately owned, opposition and new start-ups), this article records and analyses journalists’ experiences with both authorities and citizens amid the current transitional period, assessing to what extent these relationships and experiences are impacting journalism practices in Egypt. Findings reveal that journalists perceive a hostile stance from both officials and ordinary citizens towards journalists due to a common belief that journalists played a role in the removal of previous regimes and therefore are seen as “destabilising agents”. This prevents journalists from accessing both information and news sources, forcing journalists to produce unified content and practice self-censorship and “service journalism” as opposed to original and investigative stories. These challenges are discussed in light of research on media and democratic transition." (Abstract)
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"This article investigates the production culture and routines of “troll farms” in three Arab countries—Tunisia, Egypt, and Iraq—from a production studies approach. A production studies approach enables us to focus on the working conditions of paid trolls. We employed qualitative methods to
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look inside the “black box” of Arab troll farms. From February to April 2020, we conducted semi-structured interviews with eight disinformation workers at both managerial and staff levels. We propose to understand disinformation work as a specific type of digital labor, characterized by very intense shifts and emotionally burdensome daily tasks, absence of legal job contracts, and highly surveilled work environments. The article contributes to understand disinformation practices outside and beyond the West; it situates disinformation activities within the broader context of digital media industries; it provides a detailed analysis of the features that distinguish troll farms in the Arab world from those that emerged in other regions of the Global South; and it reconnects the research on disinformation to digital labor studies." (Abstract)
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"While much attention has been paid to how China’s rise as a digital superpower could threaten US hegemony over cyberspace, much less has been written on what the Digital Silk Road, or the presence of Chinese tech firms in developing countries more broadly, means for technological upgrading and de
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velopment. This article contributes to filling this gap by investigating the technology spillovers emanating from two Chinese tech giants – Huawei and ZTE – in Algeria and Egypt. Using a political economy framework that combines insights from structuralist economic development and techno-politics and drawing on over 70 semi-structured interviews and field-observations, it argues that despite localizing activities that bear the promise of generating significant linkages, the two Chinese tech firms created no meaningful learning opportunities for domestic entities that contribute to technological upgrading. What could at first seem like developmental connections that promote technology transfers are found to be linkages diffusing Chinese infrastructures, hardware, software, processes, and standards that shape distinct digital systems. Without pro-active policies from host governments, the Digital Silk Road risks creating new technological dependencies; locking local ICT actors into activities and relationships captured and defined by Chinese tech giants." (Abstract)
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"Conspiracy theories present a relevant phenomenon in society and are studied within dif-ferent disciplines. One of the aspects of analyzing conspiracy theories is understanding the pattern whereby social movements utilize the media to construct and spread those narratives. In that regard, social mo
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vements frame certain events as part of a conspiracy. By applying an international compar-ative approach, this study examines the media framing of events as a conspiracy theory in the USA and Egypt. The study focuses on political conspiracies targeting the local elite or political establish-ment as serving foreign enemies. Qualitative framing analysis is applied to analyze news segments (n = 140), 80 articles, and 60 videos from the Egyptian Islamist media and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) conservative media in the USA. The results show a huge similarity in the frames uti-lized by the media in both countries in constructing conspiracy theories. The Egyptian and American media constructed conspiracy narratives about claimed secret collusion between the elite leaders and foreign enemies. Whereas the Egyptian media morally framed the conspiracy as treason, the Ameri-can media framed it as part of corruption. Moreover, the historical continuity in the Egyptian con-spiracy theories was more obvious than in the theories in the USA. The empirical analysis shows that conspiracy theories are strategically used in the media to achieve certain political goals." (Abstract)
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