"The Media Programme South East Europe of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) has taken a closer look at the current situation and developments of public service media in South East Europe the last couple of months. In a current representative opinion poll, over 10 000 people from all ten countries,
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which are covered by the Media Programme, were interviewed. How important do people find public service media for democracy? How much do they trust them? How should they be financed and what content shall be broadcast? And are PSM considered politically independent? [...] Hereinafter you’ll find the summarised results for the entire region and some special findings for the individual countries." (Page 1)
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"The dynamism of Russia’s information warfare is best illustrated by the fact that over the last decade it underwent at least two strategic shifts—after the Russian-Georgian war in 2008 and in 2014 when Russia went from being risk-averse and stealthy to increasingly aggressive and risk-taking. E
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ffective countermeasures, especially those applied in Central and Eastern Europe, must reflect this reality by being highly adaptable and agile—a factor that local anti-information-warfare capacities often lack." (Executive summary)
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"The present report traces the development from the first bans on content in 2012 to the present day. It shows how critical editorial teams are put under pressure and how the authorities attempt to silence individual journalists and bloggers. It provides information about new online media that repor
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t on societal ills against all odds, and it raises the question about the relevance of international platforms for the freedom of expression in Russia. This report is based on about 30 interviews with journalists and activists, lawyers and human rights defenders conducted by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Germany press officer Ulrike Gruska and RSF Germany board member Gemma Pörzgen in Moscow and Berlin." (Preface)
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"Laut ukrainischen Journalisten und Medienaktivisten hat sich die Lage der Medien in der Ukraine seit dem Euromaidan 2013/2014 in einigen Aspekten verbessert. Die Medien können freier berichten, die Regierung aktiver kontrollieren und sie fühlen sich vom Staat weniger unter Druck gesetzt. Gleichze
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itig bestehen nennenswerte Einschränkungen, z. B. hinsichtlich der Unabhängigkeit und Pluralität der Medien. Einige Probleme sind heute gar akuter als vor fünf Jahren." (Zusammenfassung)
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"Over the past seven years, the Russian government has employed various methods from censorship and surveillance to the intimidation of internet companies to tighten its control over the internet. The Kremlin undoubtedly considers the costs of control insignificant compared to the costs of political
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instability – even if this means slowing down the pace of innovation in Russia’s digital economy. Close cooperation with China increases its technical capabilities to restrict the freedom of internet. But just how much control the Kremlin is willing to relinquish to Chinese companies in order to better control Russian society will remain the key question for the years to come." (Conclusion)
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"Our analysis of millions of Russian tweets over 2014-2018 reveals that bots make up a large proportion of the Russian political Twittersphere. However, an important lesson from our region is that one cannot assume that simply because there are bots present in the Russian political Twittersphere tha
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t they are pro-Kremlin. Instead, as it turns out, pro-opposition, pro-Kiev, and neutral bots proliferate as well. We therefore also developed machine learning models that allow us to distinguish between three major groups of political bots in Russia at scale, including pro-Kremlin, pro-opposition, and pro-Kyiv bots. It is worth noting, though, that the fourth residual category of bots that we call neutral actually make up a plurality of these bot-orientation types. Our preliminary analysis of bot activity shows that across the entire data set, bots mainly seem to be being used to amplify political messages. In the case of neutral bots, amplification is conducted via tweeting repetitive texts, whereas non-neutral bots achieve this via retweeting. It appears that the sources of retweets from Russian political bots are either mass media with strong political orientation or prominent political figures. Exciting topics for future research would include more deeply diving into the topics of the messages shared by bots, better understanding whether the target audience for these shared messages are humans or other computer algorithms (e.g., to influence search rankings), and testing hypotheses related to over-time variation in the use of political bots, both in Russia and beyond." (Conclusion)
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"The project seeks to restore confidence in the media in South East Europe and Turkey. The focus is on improving media accountability mechanisms, media internal governance, and media and information literacy among citizens to strengthen civil society support for the media and demand for quality medi
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a." (Page 3)
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"This book explores the interplay between government and media drawing on unique evidence from, and in-depth analysis of, four national cases: Finland, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden. Based on the chapters dedicated to each country, five additional chapters address the following cross-national themes:
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government communication, social media, formality/informality in journalist-source relations, mediatisation of politics, and political communication culture. The book reveals what really goes on between the political executive and the media in everyday practices within these countries. First, it uncovers a process of mediated political-cultural change within media-political systems. Second, it illustrates the work- ings of prime ministerial power and communication aides at this apex of political power and the media and those who work there. Third, it examines both the struggle within governing institutions to control the flow of information and the tensions between civil servants and political aides, and takes the reader through the four media-political con- texts rooted in a deep knowledge of these relationships." (Publisher description)
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"Convergence of services usually affects the quality and price of services offered by providers. However, this has not been the case in Romania yet. People benefit from a very competitive market and enjoy fairly cheap services, but the implications of convergence on the content made available to con
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sumers are less beneficial for citizens. If three major companies start controlling both the infrastructure and the media content, the production of good quality journalism is likely to be affected and tastes and ideas could be shaped in unexpected ways. If these companies establish ties with the political elites as well and start endorsing certain ideologies, they can start having an unwarranted impact on society. Although these concerns are now hypothetical, they are grounded in practices that could be observed already for years in Romania. Social media is becoming increasingly influential as a source of information, with more than two-thirds of Romanians getting their news from Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms. Recent debates surrounding fake news have prompted calls for regulation of the online media in a similar way broadcast activities have been regulated for decades. Civil society organizations have been critical of such initiatives, fearing that they could pave the way to the reintroduction of censorship disguised as user protection." (Page 4)
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"The advertising market in Albania is relatively small, especially in regard to the large number of media that exist in the country. The market clearly favours televisions, which receive the lion’s share of the advertising. While the print media is in continuous decline, online media’s advertisi
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ng share has increased significantly, even though the role of the television in absorbing advertising funds is as strong as it has ever been. The radio continues to have its own small, but consolidated niche in this advertising market. The transparency in the media market in Albania continues to be low; both in terms of measurement of audience on one hand, and, consequently, on the criteria used to allocate advertising, on the other hand. Similarly, the strengthening of new actors in the media scene, such as advertising agencies, and partner companies of the media outlets, further complicates the range of factors that affect media outlets’ economy. As a consequence, in the absence of a powerful advertising market or the alternative tools for economically supporting the media, all of these factors to some extent affect also the editorial policy and media content served to the public." (Conclusion, page 53)
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"The survey discovers that the Albanian public, in its overwhelming majority, considers that the media has great importance for the democracy of a country. However, although they recognize the very important role of the media vis-à-vis democracy, about half of respondents say that Albanian media ha
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ve served democracy and public interest somewhat. The surveyed Albanian public also considers that media in Albania are partially free. This perception and evaluation are in line with Freedom House and other international institutions, which classify Albanian media as partially free. Respondents said that the three greatest problems for Albanian media are: 1. Bias, partisanship, and political clientelism; 2. dependence on business interests of media owners, and 3. verbal violence and physical threats toward journalists. The prevalence of such very serious problems for the functioning of the media and the fulfillment of its public mission explains the fact why Albanian media are partially free. On the other hand, the presence of such issues at the top of the list of problems demonstrates serious shortcomings and challenges with regard to aspects of their freedom and independence." (Summary)
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"This study focused on creating a picture of the local media in the country, by analyzing the main institutional players, the problems that they are facing, the status of the local journalists, as well as prospects for the future. The objective of this study was the identification of the whole unive
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rse of the local media, as well as the mapping of the local media. Convinced that the mapping of the local media will serve as an important basis for the launch of other in-depth studies, we have carefully analyzed the majority of available sources from which we could collect information on the local media landscape [...] The effects of the lengthy Albanian transition are clearly visible in the way the local media have been developing. During these three decades of free press, the local media in Albania have not managed to build a sustainable business model and have been continuously fighting for their survival in the market. The small markets, poor economic development, and a lack of media literacy in many local communities in the country, have made the job even harder for these media. Besides these problems, local media operators also have had to face the transformative power of technology at a time when they still had not perfected their model of management. The proliferation of web-based media publications, the social media, and lately the switch to digital broadcasting have found these media unprepared." (Conclusions, page 51-53)
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"To understand the situation and examine what can be done to address it, we sent out a questionnaire to journalists in 16 countries in the region, asking them about the state of press freedom and the areas in which they felt their ability to work was being curtailed. We also asked them about sources
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of support and solidarity in their profession and asked what may be of assistance to them in the future. This report focused very much on the experience of working journalists and the threats that they directly identify. The journalists questioned spoke of coming under attack from politicians who discredit individual journalists and media outlets, launch vexatious lawsuits, and weaponise government advertising revenue to harm critical media and financially boost friendly outlets. There is also in many countries an outright state of media capture, where media outlets have been brought under direct or indirect government control. The region’s media landscape is also marked by rising job insecurity for journalists, along with increased polarisation in the media landscape. Outlets are characterised as being starkly pro- or anti-government and the journalists who work for them are also essentially made to pick a side." (Executive summary)
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"Während des kriegerischen Zerfalls von Jugoslawien und der Bildung neuer Nationalstaaten entstand in der Region ein reges Dokumentarfilmschaffen, das sich den dominanten Rhetoriken der Politik entgegenstellte. Anhand dieses Filmkorpus untersucht die Studie die Bedingungen der Filmproduktion und -r
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ezeption vor dem Hintergrund der komplexen politischen Zusammenhänge und fragt nach den Möglichkeiten der gesellschaftlichen Aktivierung. Die Autorin zeigt, wie die Filme mittels innovativer formalästhetischer Strategien die Widersprüche der existierenden Verhältnisse in ihrer unüberschaubaren Vielschichtigkeit aufdeckten und so die Reflexion der Zuschauer*innen anzuregen versuchten. Ihre präzisen Analysen führen sie zu Erkenntnissen darüber, wie politisch-aktivierende Dokumentarfilme eine zukünftige Realität evozieren, die als eine ‹sich formende› gedacht werden muss. Zudem rückt die Studie ein Filmschaffen in den Blick, das bislang kaum die ihm gebührende Aufmerksamkeit erhalten hat." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The Balkans Media Assistance Program (BMAP) (2017 – 2021, $8 million) is a USAID funded initiative focused on making media more competitive in local and regional marketplaces and strengthening the sustainability of the independent media sector across the Balkans, particularly in the digital space
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." (Overview)
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"This thesis involves an analysis based on the theory of peace and war journalism to show how these theories express themselves in a conflict area. By taking two major media outlets during the war in Bosnia – Borba (Struggle) and Open Broadcast Network (OBN) – as case study this thesis will expl
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ore the way war and peace journalism and the Galtung dichotomy function in practice. In order to better understand the substance of peace journalism, a qualitative content analysis of articles and reports was conducted. The local newspapers and TV broadcasts in the beginning of the war displayed a powerful war journalism framing whereas toward the end of the conflict the coverage of OBN – established with the assistance of international community – exposes a more hopeful peace journalism framing. The most outstanding peace journalism signs are: an unbiased approach, all-parties coverage, and avoidance of dehumanizing language. The war journalism frame is driven by a present focus orientation, a separation of good and evil and an elite angle. The literature on peace and war journalism puts forward the fact that the current media are a key concern to the media and public experts, combatants and contain a perceptive impact on shifting the focus to the conflict field. By using Galtung’s (1998) peace and war journalism frames indicators, Borba and OBN were tested to help see the difference between war and peace journalism in practice. Findings suggest that a third possibility exist, considering that both OBN and Borba have often shown merely objective-reporting signs without making themselves a good fit to Galtung’s dichotomous model of peace journalism. The belief that there is a clear distinction between peace and war journalism is theoretically derived, which was proved in the Bosnian case where the lines are blurred." (Abstract)
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