The Influence of the Internet on European Journalism

This study investigates how European journalists evaluate the changes that have occurred in their profession since the Internet has been integrated in newsrooms. How do journalists perceive the features and innovations associated with the Internet? What are the principal changes in the profession? Do practitioners believe that the quality of journalism has been raised or lowered? To answer to these research questions, we carried out a survey across 11 European countries–Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden–of 239 journalists, working for 40 of the most-read print/online news outlets in these countries. The survey shows that the opportunity to use the Internet to reinforce the social functions of journalism has not been fully recognised

ESTONIA. Risks and Opportunities Related to Media and Journalism Studies (2000–2020). Case Study on the National Research and Monitoring Capabilities.

Estonian media research was institutionalized in the 1970s and until the first decade of the 21st century media and journalism research was steadily improving. In 2013 communication and media studies at University of Tartu was ranked between 51 and 100 (QS World University Rankings 2021), in 2020 between 201-220. After 2014/2015 the media monitoring capabilities have signs of degradation. Above all, the decrease in research and monitoring resources is caused by the worsening of the financing situation of Estonian science and higher education. Secondly, Estonian policy makers’ interest in media usage and media developments has been small and random. Therefore, the media usage data is mainly collected by commercial monitoring organizations, the data is not accessible for public institutions. In the 21st century, journalism and communication research has been carried out, to a large extent, under the umbrella of various European research projects, in which Estonian researchers have successfully participated. Journalism, media accountability and media usage domains are relatively well covered with studies and data, while in case of legal regulation and media competencies domains the RO analysis can only lean on fragmentary case studies. Key actors concerning data collection and knowledge producers are individual researchers, courts, Data Protection Inspectorate, Statistics Estonia, media monitoring companies, and media organizations

ESTONIA. Critical junctures in the media transformation process.

The structural conditions (media laws and organizations, general and professional education) provide good preconditions for deliberative communication in Estonia. Since the 1990s, Estonia has been characterized by a high degree of freedom of expression and information, rapid tech-nological development in terms of media consumers as well as news providers, and a relatively high degree of media literacy as well as efficient education system (e.g., high results in Pisa tests; University of Tartu has reached among the top 250 universities in the world in 2022). The critical junctures that have the strongest impact on the developments in journalism domain relate to Estonia’s independence in 1991 and consecutive transformation of the whole media system. The next critical juncture took place in 2004 when Estonia joined the European Union. There are also other major changes concerning journalism and media, that have determined the Estonian path of development. Estonia's small media system and journalists’ job market are vulnerable as the number of em-ployers is limited; resources are also scarce for investigative journalism and thorough data processing. In the second half of the second decade of the 21st century, pressure on freedom of expression and transparency has increased step by step. Changes occur gradually and may go unnoticed. In particular, journalists are standing for the transparency of society. The risks are increased by a situation where data on the situation is collected not in the public interest but in private interests. The data on media usage are collected by private companies with the purpose of selling it to advertisers and media companies. Therefore, the existing data consist of the statistics about the consumption of various programmes and channels. There is no knowledge about the other aspects of media usage, for example, the composition of media rep-ertoires of diverse groups of media users, which is vitally important from the perspective of deliberative communication. At the same time, since the second half of the second decade of the 21st century, the press has overcome the economic crisis, the number of digital orders has risen, and many agents are involved in supporting the development of children's and young people's media literacy

The Influence of the internet on European Journalism

This study investigates how European journalists evaluate the changes that have occurred in their profession since the Internet has been integrated in newsrooms. How do journalists perceive the features and innovations associated with the Internet? What are the principal changes in the profession? Do practitioners believe that the quality of journalism has been raised or lowered? To answer to these research questions, we carried out a survey across 11 European countries\u2013Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden\u2013of 239 journalists, working for 40 of the most-read print/online news outlets in these countries. The survey shows that the opportunity to use the Internet to reinforce the social functions of journalism has not been fully recognised