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Russian Dominance on Moldovan Media Market Prevails

Hendrik Sittig, Darija Fabijanic

Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) (2020), 3 pp.

"Due to its Soviet past, the Russian influence in the Republic of Moldova is still very significant. The country is divided between European integration and Russian convergence. After the government of the pro-European coalition ACUM leaded by Maia Sandu and the pro-Russian Party of Socialists (PSRM ... more

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Needs Assessment of Independent Media in the Neighbourhood: A Summary of the Report Produced for the European Commission’s DG NEAR

Marek Bekerman, Michael Randall, Monir Zaarour et al.

Manchester: University of Salford (2020), 19 pp.

"This summary presents the top-level findings of an eight-month research project aimed at assessing the needs of independent media in the EU Neighbourhood (East and South). The study was carried out by four international experts who visited 11 of the 16 partner countries and conducted interviews wit ... more

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Les médias gabonais: Regards croisés

Fortuné Matsiegui Mboula, Joseph Tonda (eds.)

Paris: L'Harmattan (2020), 214 pp.

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COVID-19 and the Right to Privacy: An Analysis of South Korean Experiences

Byoung-il Oh, Yeokyung Chang, SeonHwa Jeong

Korean Progressive Network 'Jinbonet' (2020), 52 pp.

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Media Studies: Critical African and Decolonial Approaches
Deep Insights

Sarah Chiumbu, Mehita Iqani (eds.)

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

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Media Convergence and the Development Strategies of Radio and Television in China

Peng Duan

Singapore: Springer (2020), viii, 166 pp.

"This book discusses the development strategies of Chinese media convergence in the current, fast-changing communication environment. Drawing on both theoretical and empirical data and based on the author's observations, focus groups, and in-depth analyses of selected Chinese radio and TV networks, ... more

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Libya Social Media Monitoring Report: Main Findings

Democracy Reporting International; ZINC Network (2020), 10 pp.

"This report presents our main findings from eleven months of social media monitoring. We identify the main narratives of online discourse and their key drivers, as well as the weaknesses of Libya’s social media landscape — and how to address them." (Summary)

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Mediensysteme und Systemtypologien

Barbara Thomaß

In: Handbuch Politische Kommunikation

Isabelle Borucki, Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw, Stefan Marschall, Thomas Zerback (eds.)

Wiesbaden: Springer VS (2020), 14 pp.

"Die vergleichende Forschung zu Mediensystemen hat in ihrer nunmehr über 60jährigen Geschichte eine Fülle von Typologien hervorgebracht, die die vorfindbaren Mediensysteme kategorisieren sollen. Nachfolgend werden daher die Logik und die Ausprägungen solcher Systemtypologien und ihre Bedeutung f ... more

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Factoring Size Into the Equation: Media Studies, Politics, and Small States

Jón Gunnar Ólafsson

Nordic Journal of Media Studies, volume 2, issue 1 (2020), pp. 145-156

"In this article, I discuss how the world’s smallest states, including Iceland, are routinely absent in research and comparative studies concerning media and politics. Size has up until now mostly been ignored as a possible factor in understanding media systems and the relationship between media a ... more

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Resumen ejecutivo del estudio de riesgos al pluralismo informativo

Bogotá: Comisión de Regulación de Comunicaciones (CRCOM) (2020), 39 pp.

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Media Influence Matrix: India. Funding Journalism

Vibodh Parthasarathi, Simran Agarwal

Budapest: Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) (2020), 40 pp.

"The largest players in terms of funding spent in the media are commercial advertisers. In 2018 advertising contributed €7.8bn to the media funding in India, an annual growth rate of 11.5%. Advertising makes the largest cut in the operating revenues of the news media. Subscription revenue does not ... bring in enough. The biggest advertising sectors across all news mediums include fast moving consumer groups (FMCG), services, automobiles, and banking and finance. Top advertisers include both domestic and international players such as Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Amazon Online, Paytm, and Maruti Suzuki. In 2016-17, the advertising sector experienced a slump due to the implementation of the currency demonetization policy. However, multiple sports events, national elections in May 2019, and a significant contribution from political advertisements, from both regional and national political parties, boosted the sector’s revenue in 2017-18. Two large investors in the Indian news media include Mukesh Ambani and Subhash Chandra. Media is not their primary business. They run Reliance Group and Essel Group of industries, respectively, which are spread across a myriad of industries including petroleum, refineries, telecom, chemicals, textiles, packaging, oil and gas, precious metals, retail, infrastructure, digital services, to name just a few. Ambani ventured into broadcasting in 2011 when he took complete control over the Eenadu TV (ETV) network, broadcasting in numerous regional languages. In 2014, the Reliance group gained control of one of India’s largest news and entertainment television networks, Network 18. This included taking over of Network 18 Media and Investments Ltd and its subsidiaries TV 18 and Viacom 18 (a joint venture between TV 18 and ViacomCBS in India) in a €513mn deal. In 2016, he also started what has become one of India’s three largest mobile operators, Reliance Jio. Such vertical expansion was furthered in 2019 when he entered the television distribution segment by acquiring a majority stake in two of the three largest cable companies in India, DEN Networks and Hathway for €661m. Chandra, an MP, owns the Essel Group which runs one of India’s oldest and largest television networks with 14 news channels across eight language markets, operated by the Zee Media Corporation Limited, besides 35 entertainment channels across 19 languages, operated by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited. This conglomerate is also vertically integrated through its subsidiaries in Direct-to-Home (DTH) and Cable distribution, Dish TV India Limited and Siti Networks Limited respectively, and horizontally integrated through its subsidiaries in print and film production, Diligent Media Corporation Ltd and Zee Studios, respectively. Politicians and their affiliates are major players in the regional news media. The Sun Group in the state of Tamil Nadu is owned by Kalanithi Maran, nephew of former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi, and brother of current MP Dayanidhi Maran. The Sun conglomerate owns 33 television channels across six languages, 67 FM radio stations, three daily newspapers and numerous other publications. Also, vertically integrated, it owns Sun Direct, one of the largest DTH operators, and Sumangali Cable Vision, a prominent regional cable network. Similarly, in the state of Orissa, the Panda Family runs the Odisha Television Limited, cable networks through Ortel, and digital news assets. Baijayant Panda is a former MP, currently a member of the ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party." (Executive summary, pages 4-5) more

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Media Influence Matrix: Slovakia

Marius Dragomir

Budapest: Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS), 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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Television in Bangladesh: News and Audiences

Ratan Kumar Roy

London; New York: Routledge (2020), xviii, 237 pp.

"This book examines the role of 24/7 television news channels in Bangladesh. By using a multisited ethnography of television news media, it showcases the sociopolitical undercurrents of media practices and the everydayness of TV news in Bangladesh. It discusses a wide gamut of issues such as news ma ... more

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Media Influence Matrix: Georgia

Giorgi Jangiani

Budapest: Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) (2020), 86 pp.

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Media Landscape: Syria

Lorenzo Trombetta, Caterina Pinto

European Journalism Centre (2020)

"Apart from the geographical differences, another distinction has to be made between established media (pro-government) and emerging media (post 2011). The development of the media field is the product of the authoritarian pre 2011 context and the ongoing conflict, which has resulted so far in the d ... eath of hundreds of thousands of people and the displacement of an estimated 11 million Syrians. The popular uprising that broke up in March 2011, cracked down by the government and the subsequent escalation of violence by all the actors involved in the conflict, has led to a gradual descent into regional war, which has transformed the country - according to the New York-based organisation Reporters Without Borders - into one of the world’s most dangerous country for journalists, with extremely high risk of arrest, abduction or death. In fact, as the figures released by the Syrian Network for Human Rights state, 707 citizen journalists were killed in the country from March 2011 until April 2020 and 422 are still detained, mostly by the Syrian government. Nevertheless, there has been a true explosion of “independent media” after 2011, many of which, after reaching the peak in 2013, have since closed. The proliferation of media institutions has been quite chaotic and only recently people working in the field have become more aware of the importance of stronger institutionalisation. Also the Kurdish context has been affected by this break-with-the-past attitude. The repression and oppression by the government went further than in any other region: Kurdish language was banned until 2011 and any cultural expression of Kurdish identity was prohibited. With the autonomy self-proclaimed in 2016, for the first time in recent years a high number of local outlets in Kurdish were launched. The de facto neutrality of Rojava during clashes between the Syrian regime and the opposition forces has created a favourable environment for media institutions, with fewer restrictions than in the rest of Syria. However, local media are highly politicised and, being most of them affiliated with political parties, all too often biased. Political and sectarian fragmentation and polarisation in the different areas of Syria have an immediate effect on the structure of the media landscape, not only at a local, but also national level. Politics through its partisan and armed structures has a direct influence over media production. In government-held areas the Syrian media scene remains largely dominated by pro-government news sources. In this rapidly changing environment, though, the government has not remained behind. It has tried to update its media system, not by establishing new outlets, but by developing those already existing. Moreover, in recent years, especially local media (devoted for example to a specific city or region, or available only on Facebook) have gained relatively more independence. In such areas as Tartus, Latakia, Hama, local media running only on Facebook pages have managed to exert some kind of pressure on both local and central authorities and at this level, journalists have learnt whether and how to cross certain red lines. They have been able to denounce episodes of corruption in a frame of distorted governance dynamics, succeeding in circumventing censorship by not calling into question the status quo and not explicitly taking political stances.In opposition-held areas, the only real independent media are those funded by foreign INGOs, which for structural and economic reasons cannot invest as much and play the same role as the regional and local actors directly or indirectly involved in the conflict do. However, very local and grass-roots independent media initiatives in the years have proved resilient to openly denounce the socio-economic injustices of despotic local, central or foreign authorities. In Kurdish areas, the main division is between the PYD and its supporters on the one hand and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) - the largest party in Iraqi Kurdistan - and its affiliates on the other. A high number of journalists have reported being subjected to pressures on the side of the PYD and its supporters. Thanks to these connections with Kurdish parties, media outlets in Rojava have comparably more funds. It is the only area, for example, where TV stations have been established: Ronahi (linked to PYD) and Zagros TV (affiliated to KDP). It is not by coincidence that Ronahi newspaper has a circulation of 10,000 copies in Rojava, much more than what any independent media can afford." (Overview) more

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Media Landscape: Yemen

Laura Silvia Battaglia, Peter Wagner

European Journalism Centre (2020)

"[...] The media is dominated through the links between the media outlets and the political parties. Most local publishers suspended their print editions, while the English language press has completely disappeared. TV channels are also strictly controlled by parties, each side operates its own prog ... ram. Private satellites are only allowed to operate if they have close relations to the leading groups. The development of journalistic professionalism in Yemen has reached a minimum term. War destroyed any ambition. Journalists who are still working take part in a propaganda game, positioning themselves with or against the loyal government and paying consequently the price. Although detentions, violent actions, and torture were already present since the outbreak of the civil war, lately death sentences were prosecuted against the voices of the opposition. Besides the insecure political environment airstrikes, urban fights, and inhuman conditions endanger journalists while reporting. As the Yemeni press is under threat from all directions and journalists are unable to report or even defend their own colleagues without fear of retaliation. The targeted intimidation and the reportedly dead or missing journalists have also affected foreign journalists. The hostile circumstances have led to the closure of most of the newspapers, television channels, and news websites. The media market didn’t develop as expected after the Revolution in 2011, but rather transitioned to a weak phase, absolutely dominated by the links between the media and the political parties. This is totally clear in the printed media marked, followed by the broadcast TV market and website circulation where, with the presence of international and satellite channels and websites not based in the country, it is possible to have access to different and various views about what is happening inside and outside of Yemen. The control of the militias over journalists is strong and dangerous for them. So, the intervention of the two de facto States in the country (the official government of President Mansour Hadi and the Houthi government under the presidency of Ali Abdullah Saleh) is invasive. The Yemeni press is under threat from all directions and journalists are unable to report or even defend their own colleagues without fear of retaliation. Considering also the deaths resulting from bombings by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis and the targeting of journalists by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, this is the worst time ever in the history of the country in terms of cost of journalists’ lives." (Overview) more

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Media Landscape: Lebanon

Lorenzo Trombetta, Caterina Pinto, Roberto Renino

European Journalism Centre (2020)

"The Lebanese media sector is facing a profound crisis and there are many journalists and media staff, working in the local and pan-Arab media outlets based in Beirut, who have not been paid for long time or have lost their jobs. As-Safir, a historic newspaper, was forced to close, and An-Nahar has ... weakened and had to restructure. Even Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera offices in Beirut and in the region have reduced the number of their staff members. The only media outlets that resist are those financed by large investors, linked to political-sectarian actors in the region. In the 1970s, Lebanon offered a unique cultural openness and freedom of expression. Beirut was the region’s media hub and the target of important funding for its publications. Investors included Iraq’s former president Saddam Hussein, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, deposed Tunisian president Ben Ali, as well as Saudi royals. Lebanese newspapers were read throughout the Arab world and used to feature articles and op-eds by personalities from all over the region. Gulf countries, but also Iraq and Libya, used to finance Lebanese newsrooms to carry out and support their political battles. As a result, the injection of foreign funding was abundant and steady. Nowadays, with the global economic crises and the new channels of the Gulf, that money has been inexorably vanishing. From the second half of the 19th century, decades before the creation of independent Lebanon in 1946, Beirut boasted pre-eminence in the surrounding Arab regions for the freedom of expression enjoyed by its several newspapers. These are indeed the oldest and most important in the area. Even today, the smallest country in the Middle East is an exception compared to its Arab neighbours in terms of pluralism of the press and broad range of readers. Despite a history of turmoil, Lebanon’s well-educated and critical population has led to one of the most diverse and sophisticated press and media landscapes in the Arab Levant. With newspapers and media outlets in four different languages (Arabic, French, English and Armenian), Beirut has a vibrant media community with relatively high professional standards and free from State control. The Lebanese press does, however, reflect the limitations of the sectarian system that dominates the country, where a newspaper or a TV station is more often than not identified with one of the main religious and political groups. With the media being entangled to the national politics and international influence peddling, journalists are often required to act like political activists. On the one hand the Lebanese State does not control media outlets, contrary to what happens in many other Arab countries; however, on the other hand, political parties have the power to influence and direct the majority of Lebanese media institutions, which therefore reflect the country’s sectarian politics and all too often serve as the mouthpiece for political propaganda. Since media outlets do not rely on readership, but rather on investors as a source of revenue, there is little – if any – interest in producing quality journalism. Moreover, the deep and long-lasting economic crisis did not spare the media and in particular the newspapers. The media sector started to suffer heavily from 2016, when shortage of funding hit several companies and outlets, with the consequent inability of producing quality content and paying wages. Regardless of the political affiliation, the whole sector has reported negative trends and suffered from financial problems, reducing the number, the quality and the circulation of newspapers. The situation faced by Lebanese media reached a critical dimension, as it was defined “free falling” (The Guardian) and “dying” (Middle East Eye). It is unfortunately a common practice to bribe journalists to publish a certain piece of information, or – on the contrary – to avoid any further analysis on specific matters. With the financial crisis newsrooms have been facing, it is even harder for journalists to resist such offers. Lebanese syndicates have asked the government to support the country’s media. Former minister of information Ramzi Joreige announced in 2016 the creation of a $10m fund to back Lebanese newspapers, but the plan was never voted on in parliament. With the creation of a new cabinet in late January 2020, the newly appointed minister of Information is Manal Abdul Samad, an expert on taxation and fiscal policies, with experience in university teaching. In the first months of her mandate, she showed commitment in proposing reform plans for the information and media sector in Lebanon. Considering the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemics, the minister expressed concern on the accuracy of news broadcasted and the intention of drafting a plan to overview and regulate the spread of fake news regarding the virus. In May 2020, she presented a plan for the complete restructuring of the Ministry of Information and the public media sector, which is still under the government’s consideration." (Overview) more

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Building Regional Strategies for Media Development in the Middle East and North Africa

Fatima El-Issawi, Nicholas Benequista

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2020), 28 pp.

"Experts from 13 countries in the Middle East and North Africa agreed on the priorities that could provide the basis for greater collective action to defend independent media in the region. This report provides a summary of those deliberations [...] Building on and strengthening cross-country networ ... more

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Cambodian Communication Review 2020

Say Sok, Bun Y Ung (eds.)

Phnom Penh: Royal University of Phnom Penh, Department of Media & Communication, Cambodia Communication Institut (2020), 65 pp.

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Television and the Afghan Culture Wars

Wazhmah Osman

Urbana: University of Illinois Press (2020), 288 pp.

"Fieldwork from across Afghanistan allowed Osman to record the voices of Afghan media producers and people from all sectors of society. In this moving work, Afghans offer their own seldom-heard views on the country's cultural progress and belief systems, their understandings of themselves, and the r ... more

Media Studies: Critical African and Decolonial Approaches Deep Insights

Media Studies: Critical African and Decolonial Approaches
Deep Insights