commbox Lebanon

Filter

250

Sort by:

Direction:

External Link (3)

Impact of U.S. Government Funding Suspension on Independent Media in Lebanon

Widad Jarbouh

Beirut: Samir Kassir Foundation (2025), 9 pp.

"The January 23, 2025 suspension of U.S. government funding has placed Lebanon’s independent media outlets under significant strain. Although some organizations were unaffected, many face heightened financial uncertainty, reduced operational capacity, and the potential for layoffs. The Samir Kassi ... r Foundation conducted a survey of 18 outlets to assess the scope of this impact, examining factors such as organizational size, primary funding sources, financial losses, and the specific measures being taken to address budget shortfalls. Key Findings: Mixed impact: Of the 18 organizations surveyed, 6 reported no adverse effects, 8 indicated direct financial and operational challenges, and 4 did not respond. Funding sources: Government grants remain the most common revenue source; however, 4 outlets also rely on advertising, subscription fees, or other production-related streams. The overall decline in available grant opportunities has intensified competition for funding and increased uncertainty. Operational challenges: 7 outlets have scaled back content production and restructured operations (e.g., implementing remote work, reducing salaries or benefits). 4 outlets project potential layoffs, albeit affecting fewer than five employees each. Short-term needs: Participants identified employee salaries and essential operating costs as top priorities. Many emphasized the importance of pursuing new grants, forging partnerships, and exploring revenue-generating activities (e.g., marketing services or AI-based tools). Psychosocial support for employees and enhanced security measures also surfaced as pressing concerns. Conclusion: The abrupt funding cut, compounded by Lebanon’s broader economic and political turbulence, has left smaller outlets especially vulnerable, limiting their ability to diversify revenue and threatening their long-term viability. Without adequate replacement funding, the diversity of Lebanon’s media landscape could shrink, and politically affiliated outlets may gain greater influence. This underscores the need for alternative financial avenues and supportive frameworks to preserve the independent voices essential to media freedom in Lebanon." (https://www.skeyesmedia.org) more

Download (0)

Impact Analysis of UNDP Lebanon Media and Peacebuilding Activities (2020-2022)

Beirut: Triangle Consulting; UNDP (2023), 87 pp.

"The UNDP “Peace Building in Lebanon” project has been working since 2007 on enhancing mutual understanding and social cohesion by addressing the root causes of conflict in Lebanon. The project’s third phase (2014-2022) built on the previous two phases and aimed to address new challenges to c ... ivil peace and peacebuilding in the country. In addition to the Syrian crisis, Lebanon is currently facing a severe socio-political, economic and fiscal crisis. The focus of this evaluation is the second output of the UNDP Peace Building in Lebanon project – the media component – which aimed to empower media to promote balanced and conflict-sensitive media coverage. This project component received funding from KFW and UKAID. Key project activities included countering fake news at national and local levels through a) capacity building and partnerships with media practitioners and b) training on hate speech and fake news for youth and their subsequent local awareness campaigns. The project activities also included providing positive media spaces and promoting rational discourse through a news supplement and its subsequent online platform, Salam wa Kalam. The report covers the projects’ duration from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2022. This evaluation relied on several data inputs, comprised of quantitative and qualitative data, analysis, and triangulation. The purpose of this final evaluation, commissioned by UNDP, is twofold. Firstly, assess the project’s performance and results according to the OECD-DAC criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability, cross-cutting and its overall contribution to the UN strategic plan outcome 3.1: “Lebanon has institutionalized mechanisms to promote peace and prevent, mitigate, and manage conflict at national, municipal and community levels”. Secondly, ensure accountability, as well as identify and analyse findings and results to enable the incorporation of lessons learned and prepare recommendations that can be useful for the design of similar projects in the future and for organisational learning. In conclusion, UNDP’s project theory of change was relevant to Lebanon’s need to address the impact of fake news and hate speech on social cohesion. The media component aimed to improve intra-community relationships, including between Syrian refugees and host communities, in line with SDGs and LCRP goals. Lessons learned throughout the project were systematically documented to ensure effective and efficient management. The project adjusted its work plan to adapt to the changing context in Lebanon, such as COVID-19 and the fuel crisis. However, there was a lack of baseline data and defined metrics to measure and assess the project’s impact, especially on communities targeted by local awareness campaigns." (Executive summary) more

External Link (24)

Google Scholar (19)

WorldCat (19)

Media Compass: A Companion to International Media Landscapes

Aljosha Karim Schapals, Christian Pentzold (eds.)

Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell (2025), xxiii, 502 pp.

"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 ... more

Download (1)

Repair work, resistance and the invisible data labour of Lebanon’s digital humanitarian infrastructures

Jenna Imad Harb

Big Data & Society, issue January–March (2025), 13 pp.

"This article draws upon a multi-sited ethnography of everyday labour in Lebanon’s digital cash assistance for Syrian refugees. The datafication of humanitarian infrastructures generates technological breakdown, gaps in data and incredibly strict and cumbersome rules. In response to impediments re ... more

Download (1)

The Media Coverage of Women's Rights and Feminist Movements in Lebanon: Between the Late 1800s and the Early 2020s

Marwan Issa

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) (2025), 64 pp.

External Link (9)

Google Scholar (18)

WorldCat (18)

Satellite Ministries: The Rise of Christian Television in the Middle East
Top Insights

Febe Armanios

New York: Oxford University Press (2025), xxx, 337 pp.

"Through extensive fieldwork and archival research, Febe Armanios explores how Western evangelicals and indigenous Christians harnessed terrestrial and satellite technologies to promote Christian television in the Middle East. The sixteen channels analyzed in this study fall into three main categori ... more

Download (1)

Religious Freedom and Populism: The Appropriation of a Human Right and How to Counter it

Bernd Hirschberger, Katja Voges (eds.)

Bielefeld: transcript (2024), 263 pp.

Download (1)

News Distortion in Times of Crises: Covid-19 Case in the Arab Media

Mostafa Shehata, Noha Adel

International Journal of Communication, volume 18 (2024), pp. 5222-5246

"This article investigates news distortion within the Arab media ecosystem, as manifested on Arab media Facebook pages and perceived by Arab journalists during the COVID-19 pandemic. A textual analysis was conducted on 6 news Facebook pages affiliated with major local media channels in 6 Arab countr ... more

External Link (22)

Google Scholar (16)

WorldCat (17)

Media and Democracy in the Middle East

Nael Jebril, Mohammed Ali Abunajela

London; New York: Routledge (2024), 176 pp.

"Since the outburst and spread of what was known as the ‘Arab Uprisings’ in 2010, the political and media landscapes in the Middle East region have dramatically changed. The initial hope for democratic change and governance quality improvements has faded, as several regimes in the Middle East ha ... more

Download (2)

Infrastructural platform violence: How women and queer journalists and activists in Lebanon experience abuse on WhatsApp

Martin J. Riedl, Azza El-Masri, Inga K. Trauthig, Samuel C. Woolley

New Media & Society (2024), 20 pp.

"Technology-facilitated abuse and violence disproportionately affect marginalized people. While researchers have explored this issue in the context of public-facing social media platforms, less is known about how it plays out on more private messaging apps. This study draws on in-depth interviews wi ... more

Download (1)

Public Opinion Perspectives on Governance and Civil Society Organizations in Lebanon

Mirna Ghanem

Metn: Samir Kassir Foundation (2024), 47 pp.

Download (1)

Perception and consumption of hate speech in the Lebanese media

Nidal Ayoub

Metn: Samir Kassir Foundation (2024), 25 pp.

Google Scholar (18)

WorldCat (17)

Are We Making a Difference? Global and Local Efforts to Assess Peacebuilding Effectiveness
Inspiring Practice

Top Insights

Stacey L. Connaughton, Jasmine R. Linabary (eds.)

Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littlefield (2024), xxvii, 320 pp.

"Sections of the book engage in critical reflection on what peacebuilding effectiveness is and who gets to decide, provide practical examples and case studies of the successes and failures of assessing peacebuilding work, and support innovative strategies and tools to move the field forward. Chapter ... more

External Link (12)

Lebanon's Information Environment: Exploring Appropriate Responses

Mirna Ghanem

Metn: Samir Kassir Foundation; National Endowment for Democracy (NED) (2023), 32 pp.

"The purpose of this study is twofold: to understand how the Lebanese public consumes news published on traditional and alternative media, with a focus on how they perceive and deal with disinformation campaigns and fake news, and to build a comprehensive view of the organizations and initiatives th ... more

Download (1)

Fairwork Lebanon Ratings 2023: Platform Work in Times of Crisis

Oxford; Berlin: Fairwork (2023), 35 pp.

External Link (15)

Consultation on media viability in Lebanon

Beirut: Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD); Maharat Foundation; Samir Kassir Foundation; UNESCO (2023), 15 pp.

External Link (16)

Google Scholar (15)

WorldCat (14)

Journalism in the Grey Zone: Pluralism and Media Capture in Lebanon and Tunisia

Kjetil Selvik, Jacob Høigilt

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2023), ix, 228 pp.

"Lebanon and Tunisia are two of the freest countries in the Middle East and North Africa, but elites in both countries seek to manipulate media organisations and individual journalists to shore up support for themselves and attack opponents. This book explores the political role of journalism in the ... more

Download (0)

Journalists' Insurance Coverage in Lebanon

Nadine Moubarak

Metn: Samir Kassir Foundation (2023), 26 pp.

External Link (11)

Google Scholar (10)

WorldCat (9)

Digital Political Cultures in the Middle East Since the Arab Uprisings: Online Activism in Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon

Dounia Mahlouly (ed.)

London: Tauris (2023), vii, 198 pp.

"This book offers a ten-year perspective on ongoing and evolving practices of digital activism across the Middle East and North Africa, drawing on interviews and ethnographic evidence collected between 2012 and 2022. It examines the shifting narrative around digital activism in the region, from the ... more

Download (1)

Reimagining Civil Society Collaborations in Development: Starting from the South

Margit van Wessel, Tiina Kontinen, Justice Nyigmah Bawole (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2023), xv, 348 pp.

"At a time when uneven power dynamics are high on development actors' agenda, this book will be an important contribution to researchers and practitioners working on innovation in development and civil society. While there is much discussion of localization, decolonization and 'shifting power' in ci ... more

Satellite Ministries: The Rise of Christian Television in the Middle East Top Insights

Are We Making a Difference? Global and Local Efforts to Assess Peacebuilding Effectiveness Inspiring Practice Top Insights

Satellite Ministries: The Rise of Christian Television in the Middle East
Top Insights

Are We Making a Difference? Global and Local Efforts to Assess Peacebuilding Effectiveness
Inspiring Practice

Top Insights