Media Landscapes (2002-2003)

Media Landscapes Project, together with ACCESS’ Balkan Neighbours Project (1994-2001), State Media and Democracy in Bulgaria, Albania and Macedonia Project (1997-1999), Civic Network for Cultural Pluralism and Intercultural Integration in Southeastern Europe Project (1997–1999) etc. form the foundation’s long track record in comparative media research in the South-Eastern European region on various topics.

The project takes into consideration the great variety and specificity of the media scenes in the different countries of the region, and it aims to present a regional media perspective rather than serve individual media communities in each country. This prompts the elaboration of methodology, which tries to offer comparative and compatible information in regional perspective, on the one hand, and to provide possibility for presentation of the local peculiarities, on the other. The methodology also aims at constructing an adequate picture of the media scene in the region, combining quantitative and qualitative information.

Thus, this project approach introduces the element of adequate expert evaluation in comparative media research practices, which has, so far, built primarily on bare statistics. The expert evaluation of the initial information promises to be very important, since it can correct and improve the interpretation of the data and also provide valuable insight into trends and developments.

The project results will be summed up in a final publication. Its contents structured in two main parts (data part and analytical part) will follow the project methodology. The data part will present standardized parameters defined in questionnaires. The analytical part will have broader scope, providing explanation of specific aspects of the media scene in each country. The reports presented in it will be organized along the topics, not along the examined countries, in order to provide for better comparativeness and more reader-friendly format of the final product.