"Key recommendations: Invest in increased nationwide coverage of environmental issues and media professionalism across all media platforms [...] Conduct more targeted, specialised training on effective environmental reporting [...] Build on dynamism of online information initiatives [...] Begin educ
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ation on the environment in schools early." (Page 5)
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"Die Faszination des slowenischen Buchmarkts ergibt sich aus mehreren Merkmalen. Zum einen handelt es sich europaweit gesehen um den kleinsten abgrenzbaren Buchmarkt, wenn man von Island absieht. Kleinstaaten wie Liechtenstein, Monaco oder San Marino gehören sprachlich zu dem größeren deutschen b
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eziehungsweise französischen oder italienischen Kulturraum und damit auch zum entsprechenden Buchmarkt. Zum anderen fällt der zahlen- und wertmäßig relativ hohe Buchkonsum der slowenischen Bevölkerung auf, wenngleich aufgrund der Finanzkrise des slowenischen Staates die Einkäufe der öffentlichen Bibliotheken – dem wirtschaftlich dominantesten Nachfrager – seit Jahren deutlich zurückgehen. Sachkundige erwarten durch den Wegfall der staatlichen Unterstützung einen empfindlichen Schlag für eine bisher sehr lebendige und interessante Literaturszene." (Einleitung)
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"Fuelled by the Arab Spring, the question of how the rise of internet-mediated communication affects authoritarian regimes has received unprecedented attention within the discipline of communications. However, in this debate, scholars have not yet turned to the concept of literacy and addressed the
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role of citizens' knowledge about political media in any greater depth. This is surprising since the concept of literacy as 'emancipatory knowledge', in Sonia Livingstone's words, has a 'long and proud history' of being linked with processes of enlightenment, political empowerment and democratization. The present study contributes to filling this gap by suggesting four highly consequential facets of critical news literacy in contemporary Russia, a high-profile hybrid regime. The conceptual development is grounded in western literature and 20 in-depth interviews with young, urban and educated Russians." (Abstract)
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"The 2014 MSI study for Europe & Eurasia is marked by an overall constancy of scores, for better or worse. Taken as a whole, the average of 21 overall scores shows an increase of 0.01 compared with last year. Out of the 21 countries studied, 13 showed a change in score of less than 0.10. Of the rema
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ining eight showing significant change, five were headed in a negative direction while three showed improvement. The lack of change was in some cases a sign of resilience and part of a positive overall trend: for example, in Albania, Kosovo, and Moldova panelists noted that recent achievements are not eroding and the media as a whole are finding space to operate independently and are resistant to political control. However, in some cases, such as Ukraine and Serbia, the unchanged scores reflect a sense of frustration on the part of panelists—and a resolve to play a stronger role in bringing about change." (Executive summary)
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"This book is an attempt to address obstacles to a democratic development of media systems in the countries of South East Europe by mapping patterns of corrupt relations and practices in media policy development, media ownership and financing, public service broadcasting, and journalism as a profess
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ion. It introduces the concept of media integrity to denote the public-service values of media and journalism. In analyzing the current situation of the media, the focus was on the assessment of factors that have been identified as posing a risk to media integrity, with an overview of past developments if relevant for understanding the current situation. Five countries were covered by the research presented in this book: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia." (Introduction)
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"While in 1990s media assistance efforts focused on ensuring the survival of independent media outlets under the authoritarian rule of the Miloševiæ regime, the scope of the assistance expanded after the regime collapsed in 2000, to address a range of issues, such as legal reforms, the establishme
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nt of regulatory bodies, the transformation of the state TV into a public service broadcaster, professionalization of journalism, and management of media outlets. However, in many ways the reforms still depend on continuous external support. Hence, this policy brief outlines key challenges to the media reforms, and lists several lessons that could inform the future media assistance efforts in Serbia." (Summary)
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This report is based on a quantitative study of 3500 children, aged from 9 to 16 years in seven countries, and a qualitative study with 327 children and 230 adults (parents, teachers and educators) in nine European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain
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and Romania).
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"This article explores the nexus between the democratic transformation of the media and international media assistance (IMA) as constrained by the local political conditions in the five countries of the Western Balkans. It aims to enhance the understanding of conditions and factors that influence me
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dia institution building in the region and evaluates the role of international assistance programs and conditionality mechanisms herein. The cross-national analysis concludes that the effects of IMA are highly constrained by the local context. A decade of IMA of varying intensity is not sufficient to construct media institutions when, in order to function properly, they have to outperform their local context. From today’s vantage point it becomes obvious, that in the short-term scaling-up IMA does not necessarily improve outcomes. The experiences in the region suggest that imported solutions have not been sufficiently cognitive of all aspects of local conditions and international strategies have tended to be rather schematic and have lacked strategic approaches to promote media policy stability, credible media reform and implementation." (Abstract)
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"Both in form and in content, this publication is unconventional in its approach to deconstructing and debating some prevailing imageries of migrants across Europe and specifically in Spain, the UK, Turkey and Poland. In this publication, four individual case studies of incidents that occurred recen
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tly in the media provide the starting points for an analysis of country-specific, cuitural and historical contexts that influence public perception of, and general attitudes to, migrants and migration. An eclectic mix of images from mainstreain rnedia sources - footage "found" and introduced by the cultural organisations of the DocNext Network -. represent how migrants arc portrayed, or in some cases, made invisible in each country. The images are snapshots of the representation of migrauts in media: they show how migrants are stereotyped, criminalised, racially categorised, objectified and subjected to hate speech, all of which serves to deny their individual voices and agency." (Preface)
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"This article develops a number of conceptual and methodological proposals aimed at furthering a firmer agenda for the field of socialist television studies. It opens by addressing the issue of relevance of the field, identifying three critical contributions the study of socialist television can mak
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e to media, communication and cultural studies. It then puts forward a number of proposals tied to three key issues: strategies of overcoming the Cold War framework that dominates much of existing literature; the importance of a multilayered analysis of socialist television that considers its cultural, political as well as economic aspects; and the ways in which we can challenge the prevalence of methodological nationalism in the field." (Abstract)
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"The Kremlin exploits the idea of freedom of information to inject disinformation into society. The effect is not to persuade (as in classic public diplomacy) or earn credibility but to sow confusion via conspiracy theories and proliferate falsehoods. The Kremlin is increasing its “information war
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” budget. RT, which includes multilingual rolling news, a wire service and radio channels, has an estimated budget of over $300 million, set to increase by 41% to include German- and French language channels. There is increasing use of social media to spread disinformation and trolls to attack publications and personalities. Unlike in the Cold War, when Soviets largely supported leftist groups, a fluid approach to ideology now allows the Kremlin to simultaneously back far-left and far-right movements, greens, anti-globalists and financial elites. The aim is to exacerbate divides and create an echo chamber of Kremlin support. The Kremlin exploits the openness of liberal democracies to use the Orthodox Church and expatriate NGOs to further aggressive foreign policy goals." (Executive summary)
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"Russia still aspires to influence the news media in the former Soviet republics. The objective appears to be to manipulate their media environments in order to promote dependence on Russia and distrust of the West and to help Russia to pursue its political and commercial objectives–such as persua
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ding former Soviet republics to adhere to the Eurasian Customs Union or promoting opposition to the United States and NATO. The push by Russia to influence the media among its near neighbors not only marks an important thrust of Russian foreign policy, it also poses a major challenge to the international media development community." (CIMA website)
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"This manual is the result of Frequencies of the Past, a conflict sensitive journalism project by forumZFD. From 2011 to 2013, journalists from different media, ethnic backgrounds and from various regions of Kosovo have joined the project to explore the opportunities to cover sensitive issues relate
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d to Dealing with the Past in Kosovo." (Publisher website)
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