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Digital and Social Media in Africa

Henri-Count Evans, Tinashe Mawere, Ruth Teer-Tomaselli (eds.)

London: University of Westminster Press (2025), xi, 194 pp.

"This book provides case studies on the strategies used by African governments in monitoring and controlling digital and social media, as well as the implications of such actions for claims about media freedom and freedom of expression. Further, the book examines the human rights challenges posed by ... more

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Media, Economy and Society: A Critical Introduction

Christian Fuchs

London; New York: Routledge (2024), vi, 459 pp.

"This essential guide to the critical study of the media economy in society teaches students how to critically analyse the political economy of communication and the media. The book introduces a variety of methods and topics, including the political economy of communication in capitalism, the politi ... more

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Free to Hate: How Media Liberalization Enabled Right-Wing Populism in Post-1989 Bulgaria

Martin Marinos

Champaign: University of Illinois Press (2023), 391 pp.

"Martin Marinos applies a critical political economy approach to place Bulgarian right-wing populism within the structural transformation of the country’s media institutions. As Marinos shows, media concentration under Western giants like Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and News Corporation have l ... more

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The Political Economy of Mainstream Television Channels in Ethiopia: Perspectives from Ownership and Regulations

Nemosa Gizachew Eranfeno, Agaredech Jemaneh Gemeda, Abdissa Zerai Bamano

Observatorio (OBS*) Journal, volume 17, issue 3 (2023), pp. 74-96

"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 ... more

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Turkey’s Communicative Authoritarianism

Burçe Çelik

Global Media and Communication, volume 16, issue 1 (2022), pp. 102-120

"The majority of current political communication studies focus on discursive dimensions of communications and disregard how communications partake in the governing of populations through economic, material and institutional practices. By focusing on Turkey’s case, here I move beyond this approach ... more

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Access Rules: Freeing Data from Big Tech for a Better Future

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Thomas Ramge

Oakland, Cal.: University of California Press (2022), 209 pp.

"Access Rules mounts a strong and hopeful argument for how informational tools at present in the hands of a few could instead become empowering machines for everyone. By forcing data-hoarding companies to open access to their data, we can reinvigorate both our economy and our society. Authors Viktor ... more

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Economía política de la comunicación y la cultura en América Latina, 1970 y 1980

Cesar Bolano(Coord.)

Buenos Aires: CLACSO (2022), 714 pp.

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Strings Attached: Sustainability and Dependence in Five Models of Local and Community Media
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Franz Krüger

Journal of Alternative and Community Media, volume 7, issue 2 (2022), pp. 179-197

"Sustainability is a key issue for local and community media in the Global South as well as the Global North, albeit in different ways. After identifying significant gaps in the sustainability literature, the article presents and discusses a taxonomy of ‘models’ – the relationships that arise ... more

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The Political Economy of the Media in Sierra Leone and the Potential for Private-Sector Investment

Ibrahim Bangura

BBC Media Action; PRIMED (2022), 13 pp.

"The purpose of this political economy analysis (PEA) is to understand how political and economic factors have affected, or hindered, the media sector in Sierra Leone as well as the potential for private sector investment in the media [...] The report presents a contextual analysis of the media sect ... more

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The Politics of Impunity and the Shifting Media Landscape in Kenya

Philip Onguny

Athens Journal of Mass Media and Communications, volume 7, issue 1 (2021), pp. 61-78

"This article focuses on state-media relations and the shifts in the overall media landscape in Kenya. Drawing on a political economy approach to media operations in Kenya, it argues that while there are competing meanings over what constitutes "news values", "editorial independence", and "critical ... more

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Digital Transformations of the Public Arena

Andreas Jungherr, Ralph Schroeder

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2021), 75 pp.

"Digital technologies have changed the public arena, but there is little scholarly consensus about how they have done so. This Element lays out a new framework for the digitally mediated public arena by identifying structural changes and continuities with the pre-digital era. It examines three count ... more

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Media and Politics in the Southern Mediterranean: Communicating Power in Transition After 2011

Roxane Farmanfarmaian (ed.)

Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge (2021), xv, 426 pp.

"This edited volume presents ground-breaking empirical research on the media in political transition in Tunisia, Turkey and Morocco. Focusing on developments in the wake of the region’s upheavals in 2011, it offers a new theoretical framework for understanding mediascapes in the confessional and h ... more

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Overlooking the Political Economy in the Research on Propaganda

Aman Abishek

Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, volume 2, issue special issue (2021), 14 pp.

"A thematic meta-analysis – of recent literature on online propaganda in the context of the Global South, and 20 Facebook-funded research projects in 2018 – shows that research is overwhelmingly focused on the psychological and behavioral impacts of propaganda. This research advocates for promot ... more

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Media Influence Matrix: Israel. Technology, Public Sphere and Journalism

Roni Dorot

Budapest: Data and Society CEU Center for Media (2021), 30 pp.

"Although internet penetration rate in Israel stands at 88%, internet infrastructure, and notably the roll-out of fiber-optics, was not properly regulated until December 2020. Therefore, among other things, Israel’s internet speed was in decline in comparison to OECD countries, although it is expe ... cted to rise in mid-2021. Moreover, frequencies for 5G network deployment have been allocated only as late as August 2020, in significant delay compared to technologically progressed countries. Following global trends, Israelis draw on different technological means to use the internet, and especially to consume media. While fixed telephony demand is in decline, smartphones took over the market with 88% of smartphone ownership. Israel records a specific digital divide among marginalized groups like the Arab population and ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jews. Together with the 65+ age group, these three main sectors are susceptible to be affected by digital illiteracy. The international technology conglomerates that control the Israeli market are Facebook (with its daughter company WhatsApp) in the field of messaging applications and social media, and Google Chrome browser, while the operating system (OS) market is dominated by Microsoft (on desktop) and Google (Android on mobile). The four main Israeli groups operating in the communications market are: Bezeq, HOT, Cellcom and Partner. They are all active in five telecom segments and market them in bundle packages for relatively low prices: cellular, fixed (telephony and internet) infrastructure, internet providing, international calls and multichannel TV. This highly saturated and competitive market has damaged the revenues and future incentives of these companies to invest in cutting-edge infrastructure. Israelis get most of their political information from online news sites. Some 76% of the public in Israel consume news content on social media at least once a day (40% of Jews and 66% of Arabs). The leading social media platforms are YouTube, Facebook and Twitter; they make a central source for the dissemination of politics, and have significant power in shaping public opinion. Nevertheless, “fake news” is also circulating fast and efficiently on these platforms, making disinformation a troubling phenomenon for Israeli society. Few journalistic initiatives took upon themselves the responsibility for public fact-checking. Traditional media struggles with fragile financial sustainability and business models. Given the populist effect that fake news has on consumers and, consequentially, on revenues, it is risky to rely on traditional media solely, in this matter." (Page 4) more

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Who Owns the Media in Bangladesh?

Dhaka: Center for Governance Studies (CGS) (2021), 57 pp.

"This report documents a snapshot of media ownership in Bangladesh in late 2020 and identifies its major patterns. By no means is this report exhaustive nor does it cover all aspects of ownership of media in Bangladesh. In the absence of baseline data, our primary objective was to build one with the ... more

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Coronelismo e a propriedade dos meios de comunicação: A influência da mídia no poder político

Vinicius Holanda Melo, Gustavo Raposo Pereira Feitosa

Videre, volume 13, issue 28 (2021), pp. 385-412

"O presente artigo visa investigar os usos políticos das concessões de rádio para titulares de mandatos eletivos após a redemocratização, tendo como eixo analítico o conceito de coronelismo e sua potencial renovação para o chamado “coronelismo eletrônico". Inicia-se a pesquisa analisando ... more

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Media Influence Matrix: Jordan. Technology, Public Sphere and Journalism

Mohammad Abu Hawash, Marius Dragomir

Budapest: Data and Society (CMDS) Center for Media (2021), 28 pp.

"As for internet use, the percentage of the population with access to internet rose to 89% in 2019 from 48% in 2015. Access to a mobile phone and internet in Jordan has become a matter of choice rather than affordability or accessibility. The Syrian refugee crisis explains the overshooting in mobile ... phone penetration in Jordan during the 2010s. During the past decade, the Jordanian telecommunications industry has transformed from duopoly to oligopoly. Jordan’s three major telecommunications companies together worked to protect their positions in the Jordanian telecoms market. The market saw constant growth and a rapid introduction of new media technologies. Due to these technological advancements, the country has become known in the region as an increasingly influential tech hub [...] In the public sphere, Jordan has experienced an unstable legal and regulatory landscape for the media. The government constantly revises its audiovisual media and publications laws. This places those media networks with a proximity to the state at an advantage, since they have deeper insight into the expectations of the state. Independent media, on the other hand, suffers from the successive governments’ meddling in the foundational laws of the media industry. The work of journalists has been often obstructed by the blocking of hundreds of websites for failing to comply with one or another rendition of the publications law. Many journalists found their employers losing investors and/or funding after the state issued a registration requirement for websites publishing content out of Jordan. Due to strong public pressure, this requirement in the publications law was later revised. Jordan’s journalism sphere had a more difficult decade than the technology field. Restrictions on internet access and high taxes on independent media (compared with tax-exemption status for some media agencies that are close to the government) hurt several media organizations. Stagnation and decline in consumption of print media added to the woes. Jordanian newspapers are enjoying higher readership than ever but also the lowest revenues per reader in history. This is due to declining subscription rates. Jordanian journalists were stunned in the first half of the 2010s to see Jordan’s daily newspaper Al-Arab Al-Yawm end print circulation and shut down operations completely a few years later. Subscriptions to daily newspapers declined by 50% compared to their 2000s levels." (Pages 4-5) more

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Media Influence Matrix: Slovakia

Marius Dragomir

Budapest: Data and Society (CMDS) Center for Media, 2nd, updated ed. (2020), 110 pp.

"Seemingly, Slovaks have access to a wealth of news sources. In reality, though, the market is concentrated in the hands of a few large players. Powerful financial groups such as Penta Investments and J&T, and a handful of magnates including Ivan Kmotrik and Andrej Babis (who is also Czech Republic� ... ��s prime minister) exert decisive influence in the ownership of most major media companies. They are also close to politicians (if they are not themselves one), which means big leverage in regulatory affairs. The entry on the Slovak market of PPF, a Czech financial group led by another wealthy oligarch, Petr Kellner, which bought Markiza TV in 2019, is further cementing the oligarchic control in the country’s media. The Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic known as PMU is much responsible for the shape of the Slovak media market. It has been the PMU that approved a spate of merger cases allowing the expansion of some media owners. Decisions by the PMU in 2015-2016 allowed Penta Investments to take over several major publishers. It was one of these deals that prompted journalists from the daily Sme (acquired by Penta) to leave and set up DennikN. Civil society exerts little influence. International groups are not effective either. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a Vienna-based intergovernmental group, has some political leverage, but that does not materialize in any earth-shattering policy changes or palpable improvements for journalists. For example, in early March 2018, Harlem Desir, the head of media at OSCE, called on Slovak authorities in a meeting in Bratislava to investigate the killing by unknown assaulters in February 2018 of the Slovak investigative journalist Jan Kuciak. Instead, two months later, Slovak police began to harass Pavla Holcova, a Slovak journalist who was trying to help with the police investigation. It was only after massive pressures from citizens and journalism groups from abroad that four people were finally charged in October 2019 over Kuciak’s killing. Besides regulation, tightly controlled by authorities and highly politicized, the government plays also a direct role in the Slovak media market. Funding from license fees collected from all Slovak households and state budget makes the public broadcaster RTVS the largest player in the country’s media with a budget in excess of €115m. That is not necessarily bad. For some years, the Slovak public got its money’s worth. The station earned a feather in its cap for improved programming." (Key findings, pages 6-7) more

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The Independence of the News Media: Francophone Research on Media, Economics and Politics

Loïc Ballarini (ed.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2020), xvii, 320 pp.

"This book explores the different ways Francophone research on news media has faced the challenges of dependence and independence from three complementary perspectives. The first is economics - how can sustainable business models be developed and to what extent can crowdfunding help to maintain the ... more

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Media Studies: Critical African and Decolonial Approaches
Top Insights

Sarah Chiumbu, Mehita Iqani (eds.)

Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa (2020), xii, 340 pp.

Strings Attached: Sustainability and Dependence in Five Models of Local and Community Media Top Insights

Media Studies: Critical African and Decolonial Approaches Top Insights

Strings Attached: Sustainability and Dependence in Five Models of Local and Community Media
Top Insights

Media Studies: Critical African and Decolonial Approaches
Top Insights