"This books draws a comparative balance of twenty years' international media assistance in the five countries of the Western Balkans. The central question was what happens to imported models when they are transposed onto the newly evolving media systems of transitional societies. Albania, Bosnia-Her ... zegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia undertook a range of media reforms to conform with accession requirements of the European Union and the standards of the Council of Europe, among others. The essays explore the nexus between the democratic transformation of the media and international media assistance. The cross-national analysis concludes that the effects of international assistance are highly constrained by the local context. From today's vantage point it becomes obvious, that scaling media assistance does not necessarily improve outcomes. The experiences in the region suggest that imported solutions have not been very cognitive in all aspects of local conditions but international strategies tend to be rather schematic and lacked strategic approaches to promote media policy stability, credible media reform and implementation. The book offers valuable insights into the nature and effects of media assistance and the strategies deployed by international aid agencies, local political forces, media professionals, civil society organizations and other actors." (Publisher description) more

"Is it possible to introduce, in a sustainable manner, investigative reporting practices and non-profit centers into media contexts that lack the basic preconditions necessary for the development of investigative reporting? The answer seems rather multifaceted and far from obvious or definite. For e ... xample, the effects of investigative journalism training programs and assistance for story production are questionable. The direct results of the numerous donor projects and programs aimed at improving the skills and knowledge of local journalists and the media about high-quality journalism are not readily apparent as the participants of such programs have had to return to media outlets that lack the basic resources to put the skills and knowledge they gained into practice. However, the potential cumulative impact of such initiatives should not be dismissed, as knowledge and skills spread through newsrooms, NGOs, and journalism schools. The long-term impact of such efforts remains a worthy subject for future studies, though it goes beyond the ambitions of this research. Similarly, the effects of the assistance towards the production of investigative content by media and individuals are unclear as the practice rarely continues beyond donor support due to unsupportive newsrooms and lack of funding. When looking into the effects of the two non-profit investigative reporting centers that were the focus of this paper, the situation becomes much clearer. Namely, both centers have a regular output of high-quality stories, featured in the media of their countries and have achieved some significant impact with their stories. It is safe to say that CIN and CINS are functional media organizations, which fulfill a need in media markets with a serious lack of professional investigative reporting and a lack of independent media." (Final remarks, page 49) more