[FoME] MeCoDEM: Journalism Ethics and Practice

[Christoph Dietz]

>>> MeCoDEM <info at mecodem.eu> 14.10.2014 10:12 >>>
 
MeCoDEM Enters Next Research Phase: Journalism Ethics and Practice

The EU-funded project “Media, Conflict and Democratisation”
(MeCoDEM) has kicked off its research on journalism ethics and
practices. Interviews with 100 journalists from Egypt, Kenya, Serbia and
South Africa are scheduled for the next six months. The MeCoDEM research
team worked with external experts to finalise the research plan and
methodological approach at a fieldwork planning meeting in Hamburg,
Germany on 6-7 October 2014. 

The working practices and conditions, role perceptions and ethical
orientations of journalists who covered democratisation conflicts in
Egypt, Kenya, Serbia and South Africa will be central to MeCoDEM’s
forthcoming fieldwork activity. Starting from November 2014, MeCoDEM’s
country teams will use semi-structured interviews to investigate these
areas. Research data will be analyzed by mid-2015 and used to inform a
series of impact workshops for local stakeholders. Distinguished guests
contributed to discussions at MeCoDEM’s recent fieldwork planning
meeting. 

Dirk Asendorpf covers Africa topics for DIE ZEIT and ARD radio
stations. He lived and worked in South Africa for three years. Arjen van
Dalen is an expert in political journalism, journalistic role
perceptions, and comparative methods from the University of Southern
Denmark. PhD candidates Bettina Haasen, Swenja Kopp, Mahmud Shameem and
Ann-Mabel Sanyu specialize in international research. Their
first-hand experience served as a valuable resource.

“It is a great pleasure to welcome these specialists to our
meeting”, said Irene Neverla (University of Hamburg), host of the
meeting and leader of the work package “Journalism Ethics and
Practices”. “Their expertise will bring enormous benefits to
MeCoDEM’s work on the ground.” “Our aim is to produce results that
make a difference to emerging democracies and so it is crucial that we
tie up our research activities with what is happening on the ground from
the very beginning,” added Katrin Voltmer, MeCoDEM’s coordinator. 

About MeCoDEM: 
MeCoDEM began on 1 February 2014 and will run over three years. The
project investigates the interplay of communication and democratisation
conflicts in four emerging democracies, Egypt, Kenya, Serbia and South
Africa, each of them representing unique aspects of transitional /
post-transitional divisions. Based on a comparative case study design,
the research covers constitutional conflicts, civic conflicts and
conflicts surrounding accountability and good governance. These
conflicts constitute arenas of dispute where the media interact with the
communicative strategies of governments on the one hand, and political
activists and political movements struggling for recognition on the
other. MeCoDEM is funded by the European Union within the EU’s Seventh
Framework Programme. With a budget of 2.2 million Euros, the project
consortium includes eight partner institutions from six countries:
University of Leeds (coordinating institution), University of Belgrade,
University of Hamburg, University of Cape Town, University of Oxford,
Stockholm University, Ruhr University Bochum and American University in
Cairo.

MeCoDEM Contact: 
Barbara Thomass | Barbara.Thomass at rub.de 
Website: www.mecodem.eu | Twitter:@MeCoDEM 
( https://twitter.com/MeCoDEM)