Alina Dobreva / Andrea Calderaro http://cmpf.eui.eu/events/policy-conference.aspx

1. Social and Political Aspects of
Media Pluralism and Media
Freedom
Alina Dobreva, PhD

2. Communication and Democracy
From Aristotle… …to McLuhan

3. Normative expectations of citizens & media
“Rationality-activist model” of citizenship
Constant high level of awareness and being informed
Constant high level of engagement and involvement
Proactive in both forming and expressing their political will
Rational citizens
How to do it?
Free media and interpersonal communication:
Facilitates the flow of information about public events to citizens
Exposes politicians and governments to public scrutiny
Elucidates choices during elections
Urges people to participate in the political process
Leads to exposure to and exchange of different views (increased
political knowledge, understanding, and tolerance
Leads to better social orientation and therefore, informed
political choice
Legitimate democracy

4. Freedom of expression
Media freedom
Press
freedom

5. Media freedom and democracy
Media
producing Democracy
freedom
Media
Democracy producing
freedom
Democracy
Media
freedom

6. Market
concentration
Media
freedom
Media pluralism

7. Normative functions of media freedom &pluralism
Media freedom Media pluralism
Opportunity Outcome for all groups
(1) to provide a platform for … reflecting the plurality of voices
self-expression …
without misrepresentation
(2) to provide citizens with … by various, easily accessible
access to information (not to sources, presenting wide variety
‘truth’)…
of viewpoints
(3) to foster agonistic public … between all groups in a society
debate and deliberation …
(Czepek; McConnell & Becker)

8. Approaches towards media freedom &pluralism
Approach Risks of limitations
Normative rationale … simplification, turning into
Reasoning and motivation inapplicable &wishful political
slogans, value statements
Analytical tool … perceiving media freedom and
Depth and thoroughness pluralism as absolute values and
not means to an end
Regulatory instrument … simplification of benchmarks;
Applicability inflexible, unified formula;
practicality compromises

9. Definition of media freedom & pluralism
precondition
s
Media freedom Media pluralism
Independence from government, Independence from disproportionate
authorities’ control & intervention; no private control and influence of 1/few
governmental monopoly on economic, social and/or political
information power(s)
framed within the media-government based upon the tolerance and
relations inclusiveness in politics and society
European understanding: “freedom to”; proactively related to ensuring representation;
“positive right”, i.e., rights and freedoms to do things
American understanding: “freedom from”; liberal-market approach of small state

10. Media freedom
“Owner” of the freedom: ordinary citizens, journalists or editors/media owners?
Current de-professionalisation of journalists – tbd
Freedom at the level of media source or freedom at the level of the individual
journalist – depending on the particular media system and its emphasis on
internal/external pluralism
Emphasis on violations versus proactive overall view
Minimal definitions of democracy Social, political context &facilitating
Focus on the presence or absence of legislation
certain indicative problems, e.g., the Focus on overall performance, higher
killing of journalists standards of democratic functioning
• Reflecting closer the standards, ideals and specificities of the EU
• Outlining problematical areas and politically justifying intervention on EU
level (guarantor and facilitator of media freedom & pluralism in the Union)

11. Media pluralism
Variety, diversity and the plurality of media supply:
Ownership, media outlets, sources of information and range of contents, guaranteed by market rules
and regulations
Public sphere, general public and/or audience
Actual consumption cannot be regulated, but easy access to pluralistic information should be
guaranteed
Led by factors beyond commercial viability and profitability
Provided by free, independent and autonomous media
Media freedom as pre-requisite to media pluralism
Political and economic independence
Results in access and choice of opinions & representations, which reflect the citizens of the
state in question
The result however, depends on social and political factors beyond media as well

12. Measuring Media Pluralism
across Social & Political
Contexts
Andrea Calderaro, PhD
Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom

13. Measuring Media Pluralism
• International Institutions (CoE, 2008 & UNESCO 2007)
• Non Governmental Organizations (Ofcom 2012)
• Academic Research (Valcke et al. 2009)
There is no agreement about how to measure
Media Pluralism

14. Challenges
• Identifying the indicators:
media-ownership concentration, media market competition,
content diversity, freedom of journalists
• Framing a comparative research design
• Selection a research strategies:
Quantitative/Qualitative methodologies

15. Comparing
- to identify national peculiarities
- to explore the unequal behaviour of our observed
phenomenon
- as a component of a larger transnational system

16. Standardizing Vs Contextualizing
Quantitative Vs Qualitative
Benefits
• Focusing on the same national indicators
• Standardize research tools
• Collection of neutral empirical data
• Which can easily understood in different contexts

17. Independent Study on Indicators for Media
Pluralism in the Member States – Toward a Risk-
Based Report
Valcke, KU Leuven - 2009
3 level of analysis
• Legal Indicators
• Socio-Demographic Indicators
• Economic Indicators

18. Quantitative Approach
Criticism
• The lens that we use to observe and collect data in one
context, does not imply that is is equal valid in an other
contexts
(Adcock & Collier, 2001)
• By pursuing a neutral data, we risk to lose information
which is essential to understand the national context
(Peschar 1984)

19. Standardizing Vs Contextualizing
Quantitative Vs Qualitative
Qualitative methodologies
• Ethnographic approaches
• Interviews
• Observatory participation
Produce explanation,
instead of dry pictures of facts

20. Concluding
Standardization/Quantitative Contextualizing/Qualitative
Benefits Benefits
It generates neutral and easily More powerful tool to develop a
comparable data deep knowledge of local
Limits contexts, in order to understand
local Media Pluralism
It risks to loose information on Limits
national peculiarities, which It makes a transnational
might be the goal of the research comparison more difficult

21. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!