Local and community media in Europe : comparative analysis of the Media Pluralism Monitor data between 2020 and 2023

Local and community media have essential roles in a functioning democracy and in fostering inclusive communities. Over the past two decades, however, these sectors have encountered significant challenges due to digital transformation and economic downturns that have hindered their capacity to fulfil their political and social functions. This report offers a comparative analysis of key issues in local and community media across 27 EU member states and five candidate countries (Albania, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey) based on data gathered as part of the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM) project by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the European University Institute between 2020 and 2023

Places and Spaces Without News: The Contested Phenomenon of News Deserts

News deserts have gained prominence both in academic literature and policy discussions about local news in recent years. Although there is no agreed definition of the term, it usually refers to the lack of or diminishing availability, access, or use of local news or media in a community. It is seen as a significant phenomenon that highlights inequalities in local news provisions, challenges of local media operations in the digital environment, and issues around the quality of local journalism and the critical information needs of communities. This thematic issue aims to contribute to the field by bringing together different approaches to the topic, considering varied empirical studies and methodological designs, and providing perspectives from countries around the world with different media systems and cultures. The articles in the thematic issue address three broad issues: approaches to studying news deserts, local news production and news deserts, and the impact of news deserts on communities. Overall, the contributions reveal that the presence of a news desert is not a simple question of a locality having or not having a local media outlet. The concept is better understood as processes affecting access and quality of local news involving places, news media outlets and production, communities, and audiences. We end the editorial highlighting areas for further research, including the need for more holistic, conceptual, and comparative work on the topic

Real-life experience with switching TNF-α inhibitors in ankylosing spondylitis

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, reasons for switching and drug survival of TNF-α inhibitors (TNFis) used as first- and second-line drugs in ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods: Data on patients suffering from AS and treated with at least one TNFi between November 2005 and 2013 were extracted retrospectively from the database of a single clinical centre. Beside demographic data, the disease activity measured by the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI), the response rates (BASDAI50), reasons for switching and survival curves of TNFis were analysed in general and in subgroups of patients treated with each of the available TNFis. The reasons for switching were defined as inefficacy, side effects of the given drug, patient's request and occurrence of extra-articular manifestations. Results: Altogether, 175 patients were on TNFis and 77 of them received at least two TNFis. The patients' age at the initiation of the first TNFi was higher among switchers compared to non-switchers (42.5 ± 12.6 vs. 38.8 ± 11.2 years, p = 0.049); otherwise, gender, disease duration and initial disease activity had no influence on the risk of switching. The decrease of the BASDAI was similar among non-switchers and switchers using either the first or second TNFi, but the response rates to the first and second TNFi were worse in switchers than in non-switchers. Following the failure of the first TNFi, the retention on therapy was unfavourable, especially in patients on infliximab after 1 year of treatment. The main reason for switching from the first drug was inefficacy. The frequency of side effects that led to switching was higher in the infliximab group than in patients treated with other agents. Conclusion: Although the retention rate to a second-line TNFi was somewhat worse than that to the first-line TNFi, the switching of TNFis is a good therapeutic option in AS patients who failed to respond to the first TNFi. © Springer-Verlag 2014

Mediamorphosis The political economy of the print media in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland during the first decade of the post-communist era

Includes bibliographical referencesSIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DX220045 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

What does the audience experience as valuable local Journalism? Approaching local news quality from a user's perspective: Approaching local news quality from a user's perspective

This chapter addresses local news habits and preferences from an audience perspective. Drawing upon audience research done over a period of ten years in the Netherlands and placed in context using international research results, the notion of ‘valuable journalism’ is suggested as a conceptual bridge between what is usually defined as quality journalism (by journalists and users) and what users actually experience as local news quality. The findings suggest that giving more attention to specific topics (nature, environmental issues, history, safety and quality of care) and putting more emphasis on five news approaches (reciprocity and audience responsiveness as core to local news organisations’ business model, learning about the area, telling stories from within, facilitating regional orientation and honouring complexity) will provide news users with a more satisfying news experience for which they are willing to pay in money and/or attention

What Does the Audience Experience as Valuable Local Journalism?: Approaching local news quality from a user’s perspective

This chapter addresses local news habits and preferences from an audience perspective. Drawing upon audience research done over a period of ten years in the Netherlands and placed in context using international research results, the notion of ‘valuable journalism’ is suggested as a conceptual bridge between what is usually defined as quality journalism (by journalists and users) and what users actually experience as local news quality. The findings suggest that giving more attention to specific topics (nature, environmental issues, history, safety and quality of care) and putting more emphasis on five news approaches (reciprocity and audience responsiveness as core to local news organisations’ business model, learning about the area, telling stories from within, facilitating regional orientation and honouring complexity) will provide news users with a more satisfying news experience for which they are willing to pay in money and/or attention

Sourcing the Sources : An analysis of the use of Twitter and Facebook as a journalistic source over 10 years in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Süddeutsche Zeitung

Social media today are playing a more important role as a news source than ever before. Yet, there have been no longitudinal studies on journalists’ sourcing practices in recent years that allow us to consider the mechanisms of innovation diffusion. Comparative studies of different social platforms in different media systems are just as rare. We therefore examine the use of Facebook and Twitter as journalistic sources in newspapers of three countries. A main finding is that, after a period of stagnation at the beginning of this decade, the use of social media sources has resurged massively in recent years. The patterns of this second rise of social media in journalism are almost identical in the analyzed newspapers. A comparison of the platforms has shown that Twitter is more commonly used as a news source than Facebook. Compared to Facebook, Twitter is primarily used as an elite channel. An unsupervised topic clustering approach (LDA) also revealed that the issues on which social media are sourced and the quantities of social media references are similar in The New York Times and The Guardian. In Süddeutsche Zeitung, however, journalists source social media considerably less, and in different thematic contexts