"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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"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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"This book explores how unresolved questions of social justice shape the character of the political terrain and political actors, through the lens of social media. It treats communication as the medium through which social issues and processes are made visible. Given the rise and spread of populist
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politics, the views of ordinary people on social issues have never mattered more. One platform through which these voices can be studied extensively is social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter now X, YouTube, and Instagram, among others, afford ordinary citizens-often marginalized by traditional mainstream media-space to vent their opinions, engage in discussions of whatever topic, share information and ideas, and explore various kinds of information as well as data, links to which are often provided through various macro and micro discursive spaces therein. Arguably, therefore, social media have become a quintessential platform for studying contemporary sociality. Social media must be studied not just as a communication platform, but one through which the social world, social processes and social issues are made visible and, in some cases, enacted. With rich case studies from the Global South, and a particular focus on Africa, this collection does just that." (Publisher description)
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"Drawing from case studies from selected African countries, an international team of authors offer a broad insight into the state of harassment across the continent, while building new theoretical perspectives that are also context-specific. The chapters bring previous theories and research up to da
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te by addressing the continual change and development of new discourses, including the use of big data and artificial intelligence in harassing and intimidating journalists and mental health issues affecting journalists in their line of duty. More so, the authors argue that the state and form of harassment is not universal, as location and context are some of the key factors that influence the form and character of harassment." (Publisher description)
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"Ethiopia has been in a new transition since 2018 which resulted in changes in political arenas. In this period, the country has also been experiencing internal conflict and political instabilities. This article assesses how the political environment is convenient for the journalists to freely repor
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t stories, and how journalists practice their professional roles which have not yet studied. The article used both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative data was collected through in-depth interviews with key media practitioners. The quantitative data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire from selected 164 journalists from the public, and private media in the country. The result shows journalists’ freedom and practicing their profession in reporting stories from different views in the current unstable situation in the country are highly challenged. Among the respondents, more than 65% confirmed that they are not free to report stories; 95% of the sampled journalists either self-censor or ignore stories about conflicts and other critical issues in the country. The journalists are highly pressurized by the government and other actors who have ardent interest in controlling media to propagate their agenda and in silencing the critical voices. This put journalists to stack between a rock and a hard." (Abstract)
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"This study uses a randomised experiment targeting wheat producers in Ethiopia to examine the impact of providing market price information through Facebook on farmers’ sales behaviour. To identify the effect of informant homogeneity, we distinguished the informants’ nationality as either Ethiopi
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an or foreign. Our findings reveal that when wheat selling prices were provided immediately after the harvest – when prices are typically at their lowest – only the information provided by Ethiopian informants led to a reduction in sales decisions and sales volume during that period. This information did not affect selling prices during the lowprice period. However, analysis of data collected six months post-harvest shows that the selling price of wheat increased by approximately 14% due to information from Ethiopian informants. This suggests that farmers used the price information to delay sales until prices were higher, rather than negotiating with traders during the low-price period. Additionally, our heterogeneity analysis reveals that older, poorer, more socially isolated, and female farmers benefited more from domestic informant information, likely due to their previously limited access to information. These findings demonstrate the potential of social media for efficiently disseminating price information and highlight the importance of informant homogeneity in the effectiveness of such interventions." (Abstract)
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"This study aims to examine the interplay between political communication and discursive practices in the emerging new media landscape after the recent political reform in Ethiopia. The study employs interpretative textual analysis in qualitative research approach to analyze political communication
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texts posted by political party leaders and activists’ official pages through Critical Discourse Analysis. By using this method, the study critically examines the recent political developments with a specific focus on: EPRDF fragmentation, disintegration of TPLF from the central government, de-facto state formation, the integration of PP into political scene, inter-party political dialogues, and election scenarios among purposely selected ethno-nationalist and unionist political party leaders and activists’ official pages. The finding of the study reveals that political actors used social media as a political communication backchannel and a counter-hegemonic space to construct their political identities and ideologies. The result further shows ethnic identity has overwhelmingly become the source of power over pan-Ethiopian nationalism identity. The politics of ethnic belongingness is found to be an emerging political communication discourse in the study. Ethnic divisions and polarized political views have been recurrently propounded among political actor’s posts in their digital media. Accordingly, accommodative discursive strategies appear to be the dominant discursive strategies utilized by unionist political actors, while ethno-nationalists employ divisive rhetorical strategies in their political communication. In this continuum, polarized political views along with ethnic-based political formations put the issue of identity in a vexed condition and the existing Ethiopian politics in a state of interregnum." (Abstract)
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"The content analysis shows that polarization is still a major problem in the reporting of religion in the Ethiopian media. Stories are often biased towards the journalist’s political and ethnic stance. Claiming that they are ’secular’, the state media (’public media’) tend to ignore impor
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tant religious issues and conflicts which have resulted in loss of lives, burning of religious buildings, and displacement of people. The media appear to be ambivalent between applying a peculiar interpretation of ’secular’ principles by ignoring religion, or deciding to report such issues. The report stresses the importance of sensitizing reporters about religious issues and making the media more ethically responsible when reporting religion." (Executive summary)
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"This study explores contemporary journalists’ autonomy and role in the Ethiopian contested media practice by taking journalists working in Amhara Media Corporation (AMC). A qualitative research approach was used to collect data from journalists and admin staff. For triangulation, this study combi
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ned document analysis and observation. Fourteen in-depth interviews were conducted with purposively selected journalists and admin staff. The interviews used semi-structured and open-ended questions that would allow journalists to reflect their perspectives freely. The study applied the Hierarchy of Influences Model to examine the data and support discussion. The findings of this study clearly signify that partisanship among journalists, the politicization of journalism, and flip-flop media practices prevail. The outsourced programs are used as a tool for silencing journalists from working independently. The journalists’ safety anxiety is the grim reality at AMC. As a result, journalists’ professional content productions and autonomies specifically on political and sensitive issues were negotiated or interfered. It is therefore challenging to maintain complete professional autonomy in order to be impartial, unbiased, and independent while working as a journalist in Ethiopia. It is recommended that the regional and federal governments should allow media independence and journalists’ autonomy in the Ethiopian media industry." (Abstract)
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"Responding to mounting calls to decenter and decolonize journalism, The Routledge Companion to Journalism in the Global South examines not only the deep-seated challenges associated with the historical imposition of Western journalism standards on constituencies of the Global South but also the opp
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ortunities presented to journalists and journalism educators if they choose to partake in international collaboration and education.
This collection returns to fundamental questions around the meaning, value, and practices of journalism from alternative methodological, theoretical, and epistemological perspectives. These questions include: What really is journalism? Who gets to, and who is qualified to, define it? What role do ethics play? What are the current trends, challenges, and opportunities for journalism in the Global South? How is news covered, reported, written, and edited in non-Western settings? What can journalism players living and working in industrialized markets learn from their non-Western colleagues and counterparts, and vice versa? Contributors challenge accepted “universal” ethical standards while showing the relevance of customs, traditions, and cultures in defining and shaping local and regional journalism." (Publisher description)
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"A large majority (71%) of Ethiopians "agree" or "strongly agree" that the media should "constantly investigate and report on government mistakes and corruption." About six in 10 citizens (59%) endorse the principle that the media "should have the right to publish any views and ideas without governm
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ent control." A slim majority (51%) of respondents assess their country's media as "somewhat free" or "completely free," while 44% consider the media "not very" or "not at all" free. Close to two-thirds (64%) of adults own a mobile phone, 33% a radio, 29% a television set, and 5% a computer. Only 22% own a mobile phone with Internet connectivity. Radio is Ethiopia's most popular news source: 42% of citizens say they tune in "every day" or "a few times a week." More than a third (35%) say they regularly get news from television, while about two in 10 are regular consumers of news from social media (18%) and the Internet (17%)." Key findings)
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"The chapter examines the cost of dissent in a governance system that is structured by ‘political marketplace.’ Informed by Alex de Waal ‘political marketplace’ conceptual framework and employing a phenomenological approach, the chapter chronicles the lived experiences of nine independent jo
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urnalists who have endured harassment of different kinds for daring to dissent and for refusing to tiptoe official lines. It also scrutinizes the impact of such experiences on their professional practice, on their safety and security and the overall well-being of their families as well as what all this meant for the media space and the broader political reform in Ethiopia. The study revealed that the study subjects fell victim to dramatized arrests, enforced disappearances, trumped-up charges, weaponized court system and suffered inhumane treatment of different kinds at the hands of law enforcement agents. And such harrowing experiences have pushed the overwhelming majority of the victims to either be very cautious and exercise more self-censorship in their journalistic practice, or decide to quit altogether the profession they loved, or even contemplate exile as an option." (Abstract)
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"In an era when hashtag campaigns like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter capture global attention for victims of injustice, politicians and corporations are now spending billions employing Cambridge Analytica-type consultancies to manufacture disinformation - employing trolls, cyborgs and bots to disrupt
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dialogue and drown-out dissent. In the first study of its kind, this open-access book presents a range of case studies of these emerging dynamics across Africa, mapping and analyzing disinformation operations in ten different countries, and using innovative techniques to determine who is producing and coordinating these increasingly sophisticated disinformation machines. Drawing on scholars from across the continent, case studies document the actors and mechanisms used to profile citizens, manipulate beliefs and behaviour, and close the political space for democratic dialogue and policy debate. Chapters include examinations of how the Nigerian government deployed disinformation when the #EndSARS campaign focused attention on police brutality and corruption; insights into how pro-government actors responded to the viral #ZimbabweanLivesMatter campaign; and how misogynists mobilized against the #AmINext campaign against gender-based violence in South Africa." (Publisher description)
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"Child domestic workers (CDWs) in Ethiopia tend to face challenging working conditions with limited access to education. Child domestic work refers to live-in or live-out work done in a household where the child’s biological parents do not reside and which often but does not always include some fo
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rm of remuneration. Child domestic work is common in Addis Ababa as it serves as an entry point into the labour market for girls migrating from rural to urban areas in Ethiopia (Erulkar et al., 2017). Indeed, a recent study estimated the prevalence of domestic work among girls aged 12–17 in Addis Ababa to be 37% (Erulkar et al., 2022). Though domestic work is not necessarily a harmful form of child labour, CDWs in Ethiopia often face mistreatment and abuse from their employers (Population Council and Freedom Fund, 2021). This mistreatment is linked to broader social norms which place CDWs as inferior and less worthy than other members of the household. In an effort to change norms and behaviours towards the treatment of CDWs, the Freedom Fund implemented a norms and behavioural change campaign (NBCC) in 2022. The NBCC targeted employers of CDWs in Addis Ababa. It was funded through the Program to End Modern Slavery, an initiative of the United States Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and was part of the Freedom Fund’s broader ‘Reducing the Prevalence of Child Domestic Servitude in Ethiopia’ programme. Based on the findings of formative research, the main objectives of the NBCC were to shift norms and behaviours relating to CDWs’ working conditions and access to education. [...] The NBCC reached 57% of employers interviewed during the baseline. Television was by far the main medium through which respondents were exposed to the campaign (95%) followed by online media (13%), physical posters (13%), and community discussions (6%). Using data on recall of campaign materials and participation in campaign activities, respondents were classified into three categories based on level of exposure: no exposure (43%), low exposure (17%), and high exposure (40%). The NBCC’s reach appears to have been uneven as younger respondents, women, and those with more education tended to have a higher level of exposure. Survey findings emphasised the differences in working conditions and access to school between CDWs who are related to their employer and those who are not. Whereas some CDWs are recruited as domestic workers, others are relatives of their employer (for example, a niece) and have been sent by their family to live in Addis Ababa. Those in the first category tend to work longer hours, as reported by their employer (35 per week compared to 24 for those related to their employer) and are less likely to be enrolled in school (25% compared to 75%)." (Executive summary)
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"Kolonialismus ist Teil vieler europäischer Familiengeschichten: Bis heute bewahren Familien Tagebücher, Militaria oder Beutestücke auf, die VorfahrInnen als koloniale AkteurInnen nach Hause gebracht haben. Sie bezeugen nicht nur familiäre Verstrickungen, sondern haben obendrein über Jahrzehnte
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hinweg kollektive Vorstellungen über die koloniale Vergangenheit geprägt. Fotografien waren daran - als vermeintlich authentische Zeugnisse - ganz wesentlich beteiligt. Über den Tod der "Erlebnisgenerationen" hinaus vermittelten sie koloniale "Erfolgsgeschichten", wodurch Familien zu einem Hort kolonialer Geschichtsmythen, etwa der "anständigen" KolonialherrInnen, wurden. Dieses Buch nimmt die kolonialen Bildbestände von Familien in der italienischen Provinz Bozen / Bolzano in den Blick, deren (Groß-)Vätergeneration am faschistischen Kolonialkrieg gegen das Kaiserreich Abessinien (1935-1941) teilgenommen hatte. Markus Wurzer untersucht die "sozialen Leben" kolonialer Bilder, also wie und wozu diese durch Soldaten und ihre Familien (re-)produziert, gebraucht und über Generationen hinweg weitergegeben wurden." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The main objective of this article was to explore the political economy of mainstream TV channels in Ethiopia from the perspective of ownership and regulations. The study used a qualitative approach to document analysis. It also conducted an in-depth interviews with randomly selected media monitori
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ng experts and journalists working in the newsrooms of TV channels to augment the data. The results showed that media ownership and political power are closely intertwined in Ethiopia. It also indicated the private TV channels need reasonable subsidies to survive in an increasing market competition. The boundary between private and government ownership is hazy despite differences in the business models with parallel censorship conditions in both private and government-owned channels. There is diversity in TV ownership, with lower competition and sluggish development of TV infrastructure. Constricted control of TV channels by manifold and overlapping regulatory provisions are obstructing TV content and restraining freedom of the press characterizes the political economy of TV channels. This study suggests a need for the establishment of a system in which constitutional rights and regulatory frameworks would become compatible to protect press freedom and diversity of voices in mainstream TV channels." (Abstract)
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