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The State of Media Development: Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Giorgi Jangiani

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2025), 20 pp.

"The report highlights both urgent challenges and emerging opportunities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia — a region grappling with financial instability driven by the Russian war in Ukraine, political manipulation, declining support from tech platforms, and the potential loss of decades of accu ... mulated human and intellectual capital in the media sector. These challenges are further compounded by growing polarization, opaque platform-dominated markets, and increasingly repressive legislation. As a result, many media organizations are being forced into untenable choices between defending press freedom and investing in innovation and content production. Despite these pressures, the study emphasizes the resilience and adaptability of local media actors. Donor support remains meaningful in key areas such as institutional strengthening, coordination, research/learning and promoting local ownership. However, the report stresses that financial support alone is not enough — it calls for sustained, principled, and coordinated engagement. As one interviewee noted, “We don’t want to end up in a situation where we’re forced to sacrifice one principle over another — but in this region, that’s already happening.” While panic is not a strategy, inaction risks deepening the crisis. This report provides clear guidance for donors and implementers to reinforce media ecosystems and protect public interest journalism. If we were to summarize the key recommendations of this report, they would be: – Ensure sustainable core funding: Core support is essential to respond to crises and reduce reliance on politically influenced or commercially driven content. – Invest in long-term tech innovation: Fragmented, short-term digital investments fall short. Donors must coordinate support for scalable, sustainable digital strategies and help reclaim advertising revenue. – Address local media gaps: In many areas, television remains dominant while digital capacity lags. Fund initiatives that reinforce local democratic discourse and reduce polarization. – Strengthen legal and safety protections: Small and exiled media face legal threats and security risks. Long-term investment is needed in legal reform, journalist safety, and operational resilience. – Prioritize local leadership and inclusion: Donor reliance on international actors often sidelines capable local organizations. Local voices must be centered in strategy, funding, and implementation. Finally, it’s worth noting that the regional findings are based on a focused but insightful sample: 13 organizations from Eastern Europe and Central Asia participated in the survey (as part of the global survey), alongside 10 key informant interviews. Despite its limited scope, the report offers a solid foundation for future assessments and strategic agenda-setting in media development." (Conclusions and key recommendations) more

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The State of Media Development: Anglophone Africa

Robi Koki Ochieng

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2025), 21 pp.

"This study examines the status of media development in Anglophone Africa and specifically assesses adherence to the OECD’s six Principles that guide donor support for relevant and effective media development. The research draws on qualitative and quantitative data collected through surveys and in ... more

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The State of Media Development: Asia-Pacific

Umesh Pokharel

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2025), 23 pp.

"Amid the Asia-Pacific region’s complex political and media landscape — marked by authoritarian regression, shrinking civic space, digital surveillance, funding shortfalls, and gender inequality — this study has explored the current status of media development in the region vis à vis the OECD ... 's six principles for relevant and effective media support [...] This leads to the following key recommendations: – Safeguard independent journalism through ethical support, risk awareness, and mutual accountability: Media programs must integrate local risk assessments and ethical protections to maintain editorial independence. Donors should adapt visibility approaches to protect partners in sensitive settings and foster open, two-way communication for adaptive, shared accountability. – Secure sustainable, inclusive, and crisis-responsive media financing that reflects media’s public value: Unrestricted, long-term funding is critical for media sustainability, particularly in fragile or exiled contexts. Media should be treated as a core democratic institution with expanded support reaching marginalized communities and integrated into broader development sectors. – Design media support with systemic, evidence-based and inclusive approaches that address structural gaps: Support must be grounded in deep ecosystem diagnostics and be inclusive of marginalized voices. Resources should strengthen hyperlocal and digital-first media while building local advocacy and resilience with donor collaboration enabling long-term impact. – Put local expertise and diverse leadership at the center of strategy, funding, and decision-making processes: Local actors should lead program planning and execution, supported by simplified access, institutional investment, and inclusive leadership — especially for women, rural, and displaced journalists. – Build coherent, transparent, and diplomatically backed coordination mechanisms that prioritize local participation: Donors should institutionalize inclusive coordination platforms, fund coordination roles, and streamline compliance. Diplomatic engagement should align with media development to bolster press freedom during crises. – Invest in contextualized research, continuous learning, and regional knowledge exchange to future-proof media systems: Locally led research, updated journalism education, and regional knowledge-sharing must be supported to address emerging issues and build resilience across Asia-Pacific media landscapes. While the findings are drawn from key informant interviews with ten organizations across eight Asia-Pacific countries and a small online survey sample and thus has limitations in terms of representativity, the report does provide a valuable starting point for broader future assessments and strategic planning in media development in the Asia-Pacific region." (Conclusion and key recommendations, page 22) more

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Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy: A Global Synthesis of the State of Knowledge on New Media, AI and Data Governance
Deep Insights

Robin Mansell, Flavia Durach, Matthias C Kettemann, Théophile Lenoir, Rob Procter, Gyan Tripathi, Emily Tucker

Paris: International Observatory on Information and Democracy (2025), xxxvi, 265 pp.

"This report is an invitation to grapple with the complex interplay between infrastructure, media systems, civil society, and public sector institutions. Our findings suggest that effective policy solutions must: acknowledge the historical, political, economic, and social forces that shape informati ... more

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The State of Media Development: Latin America and the Caribbean

Emy Osorio Matorel

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2025), 20 pp.

"Public-interest media across Latin America and the Caribbean are resilient and innovative, yet the enabling environment remains fragile. As this study has shown, none of the six OECD principles is fully met, with the sharpest gaps in funding (short-term, projectized support), donor coordination, an ... more

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The State of Media Development: Francophone Africa

Jean Claude Bitsure, Jean-Pierre Uwimana

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2025), 22 pp.

"The African media sector embodies both remarkable potential and persistent fragility. Across the continent, journalists and media organizations continue to demonstrate resilience, innovation, and commitment to public interest reporting, and often in environments marked by political interference, ec ... more

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Estado del Desarrollo de los Medios: América Latina y el Caribe

Emy Osorio Matorel

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2025), 20 pp.

"Los medios de interés público en América Latina y el Caribe son resilientes e innovadores, pero el entorno que los rodea sigue siendo frágil. Como ha mostrado este estudio, ninguno de los seis principios de la OCDE se cumple plenamente, con las mayores brechas en el financiamiento (apoyo de cor ... more

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The Information Animal

Alicia Wanless

La Vergne: C. Hurst and Company (2025), 314 pp.

"Depending on the news you read, new tools like AI will either save or destroy us. But our response to emerging technology’s ‘unprecedented’ threats actually follows a pattern as old as civilisation. From ancient Athens to COVID-19, social media to spam, Alicia Wanless shows how humans have al ... more

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Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy: The State of Knowledge on News Media, AI, and Data Governance

Robin Mansell, Flavia Durach, Matthias C. Kettemann, Théophile Lenoir, Rob Procter, Gyan Prakash Tripathi, Emily Tucker

Göteborg: Nordicom, University of Gothenburg; Observatory on Information and Democracy (2025), 305 pp.

"A critical assessment of why today’s information ecosystems are troubling for democracy, this book, based on research in the Global North and Global Majority World, examines changes in news media, artificial intelligence, and data governance. It focuses on measures to improve the quality of publi ... more

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Working towards healthier information ecosystems: Collective visions from civil society in Latin America and the Caribbean

Bárbara Paes, Olivia Johnson, Cristina Veléz Vieira

Engine Room (2024), 89 pp.

"[...] while information ecosystems encompass a variety of actors (including those within both private and public sectors), this research focuses primarily on civil society actors, including those who use information for their work (as consumers, producers, nodes, or facilitators of information), do ... more

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AI in Journalism Futures. Initial Report

David Caswell, Shuwei Fang

New York: Open Society Foundations (2024), 56 pp.

"The AI in Journalism Futures (AIJF) project explored how artificial intelligence (AI) might fundamentally transform our information ecosystem over the next five to 15 years. Engaging nearly 1,000 global participants, including journalists, technologists, academics, and civil society advocates, the ... project’s objective was to understand the range of possibilities for long-term impact of AI on journalism using a scenario planning approach. An open call for applications produced short scenarios from 880 participants, from which 40 were selected to participate in a scenario planning workshop held in Piedmont, Italy, in April 2024. This workshop facilitated the refinement of five robust and plausible future scenarios. The five key scenarios developed were: “Machines in the Middle,” in which AI-driven newsgathering and news production enables newsrooms to operate essentially without human journalists; “Power Flows to Those Who Know Your Needs,” emphasizing the shift of power to those who best understand individual information needs in an AI-empowered information ecosystem; “Omniscience for Me, Noise for You,” depicting a societal divide where some are super-empowered by AI while others may be overwhelmed by distracting or low value information; “AI with Its Own Agency and Power,” envisioning AI systems operating in the information ecosystem with minimal human oversight; and “AI on a Leash,” in which societal or regulatory constraints limit AI’s transformative potential. The workshop produced near-unanimous agreement that AI would fundamentally transform the information ecosystem, but also difficulty in articulating specifically how this transformation might occur, with participants often defaulting to extensions of the status quo. There was considerable skepticism about the ability of traditional journalism institutions to adapt successfully to an AI-driven future, and participants tended to envision coming changes in terms of power shifts away from journalists, with little attention to how those changes might increase or decrease value for audiences. The results of the AIJF workshop underscore the urgency for stakeholders in journalism and civic information to engage in long-term planning and adaptation strategies to effectively navigate the coming AI-mediated information ecosystem. The scenarios and insights provided aim to guide these efforts, offering a foundation for understanding and thinking about journalism’s AI future." (Executive summary) more

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Tour d’Horizon de l’Écosystème d’Information en Haïti: Confiance en et couverture de l’information liée à la gouvernance et aux élections

Inernews; Institut Panos; Policité (2024), 28 pp.

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Navigating Kenya’s Digital Information Ecosystem

Chaacha Mwita, Anne Mikia, David Odongo

Internews; Kenya Safe and Inclusive Digital Space (KenSafeSpace) (2024), 40 pp.

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Information Ecosystem Assessment: Jordan

Aida Al-Kaisy

Internews (2023), 63 pp.

"This report provides an assessment of the media landscape in Jordan from the perspective of its audiences. Based on audience research, it examines the key issues emerging around media usage, trust, content, and literacy. It is based on data that was collected throughout June and July 2023; the medi ... more

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Information and Risks: A Protection Approach to Information Ecosystems

Internews; USAID (2023), 181 pp.

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Rapid Assessment on Information Ecosytem and Access to Justice for SGBV Survivors, Kyangwali Refugee Settlement, Uganda

Brice Rambaud, Stijn Aelbers, Nkirote Laiboni, Kenneth Okwir

Internews (2018), 39 pp.

"Between October and December 2018, Internews carried out a rapid assessment in Kyangwali to examine two key issues: the settlement’s information ecosystem, and the formal and informal justice system operational in the settlement and available particularly to survivors of sexual and gender-based v ... more

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Afghan Information Ecosystems: A Design Research Approach

Internews; Sayara Research (2017), 82 pp.

"Afghanistan has made great strides in establishing media and communications outlets. However, very little is known about the ways in which Afghans actually engage in information exchange. To inform work with the media and effectively enhance access to information in Afghanistan, Internews commissio ... more

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Mapping Information Ecosystems to Support Resilience

Internews (2015), 2 pp.

"This tool is designed to support decision makers in understanding how information contributes to a more connected and resilient community. Whether your community is defined by place, population, issue, or a mix of these, a good understanding of a community's information needs and use are essential ... more

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Why Information Matters: A Foundation for Resilience
Deep Insights

Tara Susman-Peña

Internews (2014), 84 pp.

"This report: 1. Defines “information ecosystems” and proposes an analytic framework of eight critical dimensions for understanding them; 2. Analyzes information ecosystems across a spectrum of change and their impact on resilience, referencing four case studies of Internews’ previous work [In ... more

Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy: A Global Synthesis of the State of Knowledge on New Media, AI and Data Governance Deep Insights

Why Information Matters: A Foundation for Resilience Deep Insights

Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy: A Global Synthesis of the State of Knowledge on New Media, AI and Data Governance
Deep Insights

Why Information Matters: A Foundation for Resilience
Deep Insights