Social media platforms are having profound impacts on the practice of journalism, which now involves a complex interplay of technologies, journalistic routines, and media economies. Platforms like Twitter are particularly important for news outlets in developing countries and emerging democracies. Easy access to a wide array of sources enables newsrooms with shoestring budgets and limited human resources to produce journalism that includes the perspectives of experts and citizens who are often excluded from news stories. Despite this potential, the use of Twitter for newsgathering may be replicating the same “echo chambers” that have always existed.
The majority of people now live under illiberal regimes or some form of autocracy as a consequence of democratic declines occurring globally since 2010. Understanding the driving forces behind this historic setback to democratic progress will be essential for turning the tide. An...
The unchecked growth of the commercial spyware industry is providing repressive governments with new tools to surveil, harass, and attack independent journalists and their sources in a new battlefront against the free flow of information. The chilling effect of this is strongest ...
Political shifts in Southeast Europe over the past thirty years were followed by dramatic improvements in the media sectors of several countries, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. Yet, over the past deca...
The 1991 adoption of the Windhoek Declaration in Namibia ushered in a continent-wide commitment to supporting independent media in Africa. Despite initial progress, including the establishment of the regional Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA), independent media in the re...