Marius Dragomir

Media and Journalism Research Center

Independent media around the world are in crisis. Failing market conditions, the loss of advertising revenue to big tech, and autocratic encroachment in the media sector leading to financial strangulation and policies meant to muzzle a free press have made it difficult for even the best news outlets to protect their editorial independence and remai...

An account of the latest trends in media and tech regulation in Mexico

Un nuevo informe en el proyecto Media Influence Matrix analiza tendencias clave de propiedad y financiamiento en los medios argentinos

Desde hace décadas el sistema de medios en México enfrenta dos problemas estructurales clave, altos niveles de concentración del mercado y prácticas clientelares como parte de un sistema de mutuo beneficio entre el poder político y el poder económico-mediático, de acuerdo con un nuevo informe centrado en las relaciones entre los encargados de la fo...

Der Beitrag analysiert die Medienlandschaft in Rumänien nach 1989 und zeigt, dass sie keine demokratiestiftende Rolle spielten. Generell erfolgte die Entwicklung der Medienlandschaft in drei Phasen: Normalisierung bis Mitte der 1990er Jahre, Konzentration des Medieneigentums und Politisierung von Mitte der 1990er Jahre bis 2007 sowie Boulevardisier...

For the media, and therefore journalism, to be sustainable in today's digital ecosystem, significant changes must occur in the relationship between journalistic companies and their audiences to generate the trust and added value necessary for the audience to feel that the worth paying for news content. This article summarizes the key findings of an...

Despite growing up in the digital world, today's teenagers are easy prey to disinformation, especially on their favorite social media platforms. Some fact-checking and media literacy outfits are struggling to fix that.

Ukraine lags behind EU countries in its technological development despite following the same digital trends. From an optimistic perspective, things could improve soon as the president of Ukraine announced that the country would take a path to digitization from 2021 onwards. In a campaign known as the “State in a smartphone,” the government promises...

This report is a summary of the best and worst practices in funding local media in Europe with a particular focus on Ukraine.

During the past decade, Romania’s media market has been experiencing massive shifts, particularly when it comes to its funding models. As elsewhere, these changes were triggered to a large degree by technological advances. The financial health of Romania’s media was also affected by local factors, including business practices, changes in government...

Public service media (PSM) are widely acknowledged as part of the variety of solutions to disinformation. The remit of PSM, formed around values of universality, equality, diversity, accuracy and quality, implies a responsibility to fight disinformation by producing fact-based news content and finding anti-disinformation solutions. In this article,...

Studying the complexity of today’s state media requires sophisticated research methods and tools as well as new categories able to capture the variety of existing state media and offer an understanding of how the way they are established and operated affects their editorial performance. This paper has two goals. One is to introduce a new taxonomy f...

The spread of misinformation related to the Covid-19 pandemic created new headaches for fact-checkers around the world. Some launched new organizations, others intensified their debunking efforts and shifted their focus. However, misinformation seems to move faster than any of them.

This article is based on responses from 30 fact-checking organizations to a questionnaire that was sent to a total of 102 fact-checking organizations in the world as following: 33 in Europe, one in Australia, 11 in Africa, 30 in Asia, 14 in North America and 13 in South America. They were asked to indicate the importance of the listed impact-relate...

Media capture, a situation in which the media can no longer function independently but is controlled by vested interests, has been researched as a concept and empirical phenomenon in a variety of contexts. The capture of Public Service Media has received less scrutiny, even though media organizations with a public service mandate are facing increas...

This is a paper about how technology affects news media and journalism in Jordan. The report is part of the Media Influence Matrix Project, a project run collaboratively by the Media & Power Research Consortium, which consists of local as well as regional and international organizations. The consortium members are academic institutions (universitie...

In a converged media system where the public is more than ever in control of what, when and where to consume content, public service media must put citizen participation at the heart of their strategies. That means giving the audiences more control over funding of public media, increased participation of civil society in the governance of these med...

In a converged media system where the public is more than ever in control of what, when and where to consume content, public service media must put citizen participation at the heart of their strategies. That means giving the audiences more control over funding of public media, increased participation of civil society in the governance of these med...

Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991 when people had access to only a few television channels, the television market in the country has flourished as a plethora of new commercial channels launched operations. Currently, the most popular television channels are controlled by the four largest media groups in the country: Media Group Ukraine, 1+1 Medi...

Reporting Facts: Free from Fear or Favour provides a comprehensive overview of the ways in which independent media are being undermined by both powerful external actors and decision-making structures or individuals within media organizations. Among the developments tracked is media capture, a form of media control achieved through a series of preme...

The Italian media market is increasingly characterized by a strong cross-mediality: the dizzying growth of the online sector is transforming the dynamics of the industry, revolutionizing both the way information is produced and the business models themselves. Not only have algorithmic sources and the consumption of information via the web become in...

With a myriad of authorities treading on each other’s toes, the Israeli media regulation is marred by unnecessary duplications, ambiguous enforcement and a waste of public funds. The Israeli media system is characterized by a multiplicity of regulatory authorities whose activity is governed by specific laws. Still, Israel does not have a press law...

Changes in the funding of journalism and citizen participation in the media are the focus of this article. The first one is usually analysed from a business point of view or in terms of independence from funding sources, while the second one is examined mainly in terms of the role of citizens as produsers. This article focuses on the link between m...

Since 2017, the Media Influence Matrix Project researched the changing landscape of: Government and policy space, with a focus on the changes in the policy and regulatory environment; Funding, with a focus on the key funding sources of journalism and the impact on editorial coverage; Technology in the public sphere, with a focus on how technology...

Unusual opacity is the most salient characteristic of the media system in Israel, where the involvement of political figures in media operation raises serious concerns. At first glance, the Israeli media market seems a diverse mix of old and new, public and commercial, cable and satellite, and increasingly dominant, if not ubiquitous, digital media...

Slovaks have access to a plethora of news platforms, but many of them are in the hands of powerful financial corporations, closely linked with political groups. 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 i...

A vibrant civil society, improved legislation and an emergent generation of skilled professionals are all good news for Georgia’s media policy. But politicians and wealthy families still have the upper hand, according to this Center for Media, Data & Society (CMDS) report. In recent years, the legal environment for media and journalism has experien...

As donors increasingly seek impact for their dollars, monitoring and evaluation has become an important part of the work carried out by media organizations, both news outlets and freedom of expression NGOs. However, their approach to evaluation needs improvement. This study is based on a total of 77 evaluation projects documented by the author duri...

Georgia has a liberal and progressive legal framework governing its media. The Constitution protects media freedom and access to public information is guaranteed. However, that is only the surface. The news media in Georgia operates in a highly polarized and politicized environment with regulators under the government’s thumb, the market concentrat...

In spite of journalism’s transnational nature, there is no common history of the subject and thus no common history of journalism in authoritarian societies, a field which can only be studied by bringing together historical facts about journalism in societies that experienced authoritarian regimes at some point in their history. Journalism in autho...

Since 2017, the Media Influence Matrix Project researched the changing landscape of: Government and policy space, with a focus on the changes in the policy and regulatory environment; Funding, with a focus on the key funding sources of journalism and the impact on editorial coverage; Technology in the public sphere, with a focus on how technology...

Romania’s media market seems vibrant and diverse, but in reality, the local environment hardly enables independent journalism to thrive. Independent journalism survives thanks to a string of small online outlets that are struggling financially and grappling with a low level of trust and a public unwilling to pay for media content. Media consumption...

The article analyzes the relation between media ownership and oligarchs, and their impact on developing independent media

In a country where media heavily rely on government funding and informal payments, there can’t be much independent reporting. Kyrgyz journalists attest to that. That media outlets in Kyrgyzstan take informal payments from politicians and state officials is not a secret anymore. The list includes prime ministers, mayors, MPs, current and former pres...

Romania has one of the most competitive technology markets in the world. But who benefits from it? The tools Romanians use to access the internet reflect larger trends in technology and digital media. Smartphones are now ever-present; the internet is used by more than two-thirds of the population, a significant increase from less than 40% in 2010....

The secret service, government officials and the royals shape Jordan’s media policy. The consequences for the country’s journalism are dire. The General Intelligence Directorate (GID), Jordan’s powerful secret service, has often been praised for its professionalism. Credited with foiling a number of terrorist attacks both in Jordan and abroad, it i...

Media regulation in Romania remains an openly political affair where chaos rather than strategy and expertise rules. Realitatea TV, a Romanian all-news television station, was officially declared bankrupt last April after the station’s reorganization plan was rejected by a local court. It took eight years for the Romanian courts to send the station...

Technology companies were hoped and expected to liberate the world and give journalism a platform to operate freely. But in Pakistan, they have become a policing tool. Last year, Facebook didn’t need much convincing that a post critical of Pakistan’s government had to be taken down. At the request of PTA, Pakistan’s telecom watchdog, the social med...

The environment in which journalists operate in Kyrgyzstan has improved significantly after a new president took the country’s helm in 2017. However, the country’s media remain tied to the government’s apron strings, according to this report.

With millions of dollars splurged on media every year, control of large ownership stakes in media companies and a raft of loyal media entrepreneurs, the Kazakh government leaves little space for independent reporting and business innovation. This report analyses the patterns of funding journalism in Kazakhstan, concluding that lavish government spe...

A new generation of brash journalism outlets challenge the highly concentrated media system in Romania. But many of them remain highly vulnerable, according to this report, the most comprehensive analysis of the country’s media in decades. In Romania, media outlets able to generate sufficient cash on their own can afford to be apolitical. But only...

The collusion between political class and media owners has reached unprecedented levels, leading to a phenomenon known as media capture, a situation where most or all of the news media institutions are operating as part of a government-business cartel that controls and manipulates the flow of information with the aim to protect their unrestricted a...

Since 2017, the Media Influence Matrix Project researched the changing landscape of: Government and policy space, with a focus on the changes in the policy and regulatory environment; Funding, with a focus on the key funding sources of journalism and the impact on editorial coverage; Technology in the public sphere, with a focus on how technology...

The purpose of this report is twofold: to provide an expert opinion on the existing model of financing the public service broadcaster UA:PBC in Ukraine; and to explore possibilities for creating an alternative financing model that would secure adequate funding for UA:PBC to fulfil its public service mission. The exercise was requested by the Ukrain...

Since 2017, the Media Influence Matrix Project researched the changing landscape of: - Government and policy space, with a focus on the changes in the policy and regulatory environment; - Funding, with a focus on the key funding sources of journalism and the impact on editorial coverage; - Technology in the public sphere, with a focus on how tech...

Freedom of speech and press is a relatively new phenomenon in Russia, guaranteed by the Constitution adopted in 1993. According to the document, censorship is expressly prohibited and freedom of speech, thought and mass communications is warranted. Freedom of expression and the right to information can only be restricted by a federal act and only i...

During the past decade, the Czech media market has undergone major shifts that have radically changed the country’s journalism. Much of that was caused by technology. But changes in the country’s media ownership played an equally big role. This report is part of the Media Influence Matrix Project, run collaboratively by the Media & Power Research C...

This is a paper about how technology affects news media and journalism in Bulgaria. The report is part of the Media Influence Matrix Project, a project run collaboratively by the Media & Power Research Consortium, which consists of local as well as regional and international organizations. The consortium members are academic institutions (universit...

Slovaks have access to a plethora of news platforms, but many of them are in the hands of powerful financial corporations, closely linked with political groups. 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 i...

The media industry has been ravaged by the economic crises. Some media, mainly those covering tabloid fare and digitally savvier than others or those backed by deep-pocketed investors, are surviving or even thriving. But independent journalism outfits, particularly outside the Western world, have been grappling with serious financial problems. This...

The Open Society Media Program, which in January 2014 was renamed Program on Independent Journalism (PIJ), seeks to promote independent and viable media and professional, quality journalism in countries undergoing a process of democratization, and to help build functioning media markets. The Program’s primary objective is to strengthen indigenous i...

This collection brings together strategies for advancing media reform objectives, prepared by 33 scholars and activists working in and/or studying in more than 25 countries, including: Canada, Mexico and the United States; Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Uruguay, and Venezuela; Iceland; Germany, Switzerland and the...

The Program on Independent Journalism (PIJ; formerly Open Society Media Program) focuses on supporting journalistic initiatives led by individuals or collectives that strive to improve their journalism under difficult circumstances, such as autocracy, violence, repression, or poverty, or in moments of great opportunity, such as first democratic ele...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

O projeto Mapping Digital Media (Mapeamento da mídia digital), que analisa em profundidade essas alterações, objetiva estabelecer pontes entre pesquisadores e policymakers, ativistas, acadêmicos e instituições de regulação mundiais. Também amplia a capacidade de análise de políticas públicas em países onde esta é menos desenvolvida, encorajando sta...

The project assesses the global opportunities and risks that are created for media by the switch- over from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting; the growth of new media platforms as sources of news; and the convergence of traditional broadcasting with telecommunications. These changes redefine the ways that media can operate sustainably whi...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

Проект Карта Цифровых СМИ (Mapping Digital Media), ставящий целью изучение глубинных причин изменений, служит делу наведения в глобальном масштабе мостов между исследователя- ми и политиками, активистами, представителями академической среды и теми, кто задает стан- дарты. Тем странам, где процесс цифровизации медиа менее активен, он дает новые возм...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

El proyecto Trazando el Mapa de los Medios Digitales examina a profundidad estos cambios y se propone tender puentes entre investigadores y gestores de políticas, activistas, académicos y entes reguladores de todo el mundo. El proyecto impulsa igualmente capacidades en gestión de políticas en países donde éstas se encuentran menos desarrolladas, es...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics, and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time,...

El Proyecto los medios digitales analiza en profundidad los cambios del proceso de digitalización y pretende establecer puentes entre investigadores y políticos, tomadores de decisiones, activistas, académicos e instituciones de regulación en todo el mundo. También construye una capacidad política en los países donde está menos desarrollado el proc...

The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and influence change. At the same time, t...