The Media and Journalism Research Center is a think tank that produces scholarly and practice-oriented research about journalism, media freedom, and internet policy. The organization maintains a cooperation agreement with the

University of Santiago de Compostela The University of Santiago de Compostela - USC (, ) is a public university located in the city of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. A second campus is located in Lugo, Galicia. It is one of the world's oldest universities in continuous o ...

History

The center was founded as the Center for Media and Communication Studies at

Central European University Central European University (CEU; , ) is a private research university in Vienna. The university offers graduate and undergraduate programs in the social sciences and humanities, which are accredited in Austria and the United States. The univ ...

(CEU) in Budapest, Hungary. It began in 2004, and was designed to serve as a focal point an international network of scholars and academic institutions, whose research ranges from media and communications policy, fundamental communications rights through media and civil society and new media and digital technology to media in transition. In September 2014 it was relaunched as the Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) to represent new interests in technology policy and big data. Philip N. Howard led the Center from 2013-2015. Media expert, journalist and scholar Marius Dragomir led the center starting in September 2016. Most of CMDS' projects are continued by the Media and Journalism Research Center, a research institute established by Marius Dragomir in October 2022 that is independent of CEU.

Projects

The CMDS' research projects focused on identifying trends and challenges in the use of information technologies and advancing policy discussions about the regulation of data and media. Projects of CMDS included Creative Approaches to Living Cultural Archives, Ranking Digital Rights, Strengthening Journalism in Europe, Research on Violent Online Political Extremism. Its projects have been funded by the

Open Society Foundations Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...

National Endowment for Democracy The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization in the United States founded in 1983 with the stated aim of advancing democracy worldwide and counter communism, communist influence abroad, by prom ...

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Media Development Investment Fund Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), formerly Media Development Loan Fund, is a New York-registered non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and mission-driven investment fund that provides low-cost financing to independent news and information bus ...

, Internews Network,

Thomson Foundation The Thomson Foundation is a media development not-for-profit organisation based in London, United Kingdom but operating worldwide. It was founded in 1962 and was the first charitable foundation with the specific aim of training journalists in deve ...

Thomson Reuters Foundation Thomson Reuters Foundation is a London-based charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, a Canadian news conglomerate. The Foundation is registered as a charity in the United States and United Kingdom and is headquartered in Canary Wharf, London. Ant ...

, and the Prague Civil Society Center. The center has also been known for its monitoring work on

media policy Media policy or media politics refers to decisions regarding legislation and political actions that organize, support, or regulate the media, particularly mass media and the media industry. These actions are typically driven by pressures from pub ...

. Since its launch in 2017, the Media Influence Matrix project designed by Dragomir expanded to over 50 countries. The center is also known for its research on media capture, co-funded by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

. Dragomir has published studies that attempted to define and analyze the media capture phenomenon occurring in both public and private media outlets. In 2018, CMDS joined the Journalism Trust Initiative. The MJRC's research on public service media and

state media State media are typically understood as media outlets that are owned, operated, or significantly influenced by the government. They are distinguished from public service media, which are designed to serve the public interest, operate independent ...

was cited in articles published by the ''

European Journal of Communication ''European Journal of Communication'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers research on communications and media. The journal was established in 1986 and covers all aspects of communication research and theory. Abstracting and ...

'' and ''

The Political Quarterly ''The Political Quarterly'' is an academic journal of political science that first appeared from 1914 to 1916 and was revived by Leonard Woolf, Kingsley Martin, and William A. Robson in 1930. Its editors-in-chief are Ben Jackson (University of ...

'' in 2024, and Dragomir has co-authored academic journal articles about public service media and online disinformation. Dragomir also authored a report for

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

in 2020 on

editorial independence An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about ...

and state-captured private media that was used to prepare a broader report released in 2022 on global trends on

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

and

media development Media development involves capacity building for institutions or individuals related to freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity of media, as well as transparency of media ownership. Media development plays a role in democracy and effective ...

, and has also written chapters in

edited volume Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written language, written, Image editing, visual, Audio engineer, audible, or Film editing, cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing p ...

s about private media capture by states and journalism in the digital age.

State Media Monitor

The State Media Monitor explores the nuances of different types of public and state media, including serving as a database that analyzes many outlets around the world based on factors like editorial independence, funding, and ownership/governance. The 2024 State Media Monitor list, including the evaluation of new sources, was released in September.

References

External links

* {{Official website Central European University Internet-related activism Internet governance advocacy groups 2004 establishments in Hungary Journalism organizations

History

Projects

State Media Monitor

See also

References

External links