Media capture is a useful concept for understanding the state of the media today, describing a situation in which governments or vested interests networked with politics control the media. Who controls the media today? This is the question that a newly released book about media capture tries to answer. Anya Schiffrin spoke to MediaPowerMonitor about…
Major digital platforms, such as Facebook and Google, are in a dominant position in several areas. They have a crucial role in controlling what information and opinions reach billions of users and what do not. They have the power to influence public debate, or even decide the result of elections through their hidden algorithms. They…
Disinformation and calls to violence clearly helped fuel the recent assault on our nation’s capitol, and an ongoing flood of disinformation now continues to subvert the reality of what happened. Yet as we assign blame for that destructive stream of disinformation, a deeply complicit stakeholder has largely been ignored — advertisers. Obviously, President Trump has received a substantial…
Reporting on the pandemic in Latin America is proving riskier than in any other region of the world. Figures recorded by non-governmental organizations show that media outlets in countries such as Mexico, Brazil or Peru have not introduced safety measures for their journalists to help them avoid possible infection while covering the Coronavirus crisis. In…
Conspiracy theories need an outside actor to place blame, an actor who bolsters the “us vs them” aspects, and wealthy, influential figures like George Soros and Bill Gates fit the stereotype of a powerful, shadowy figure manipulating events. EURACTIV.ro spoke with experts from the News Literacy Project, a nonprofit that seeks to develop smart news consuming…
When journalists team up with university researchers, only good things can come of it. With scale and structure, this type of collaboration can solve many, if not all, of the woes both journalism and academia are faced with. When a team of British journalists and academics met in the fall of 2011 with staff from…
Claiming that they wanted to support journalism and correctly inform the public throughout the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, the Romanian government has decided to dole out some €40m to media outlets across the country. Some outlets rushed to put their name on the application form, but others refrained from it, refusing to accept the financial aid…
Ricardo Salinas Pliego, owner of TV Azteca, has in recent months used his television station to pressure the Mexican government to lift the quarantine imposed by the country’s health authority in its attempt to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic. True to his nature, Mr. Salinas Pliego put again his business interests above public health. “Every night…
Fiel a su historia, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, dueño de TV Azteca usó la pantalla de su empresa para presionar al gobierno mexicano a que levantara la cuarentena ordenada por la autoridad sanitaria con el fin de mitigar la pandemia de COVID 19. TV Azteca es la segunda televisora más importante en México, su dueño, Ricardo…
Access to accurate information is essential to fighting a pandemic. However, many governments hide behind the emergency to restrict media freedom. On January 26, Malaysian journalist Wan Noor Hayati Wan Alias wrote three posts on Facebook. In one of them, Hayati warned about the potential threat posed by 1,000 Chinese nationals that were allegedly arriving…