This is a magazine project from Scandinavia which has one of the best records on democracy and human social service:

Projects
Italian Journalism in the Age of Silvio Berlusconi

What's happened to Italian news media in the last two decades, and what was it like before?
Reporting China

Chinese journalism after market reforms: the possibility and dangers of investigation.
Russian News is Good News

The remaking of Russian journalism, and Russian journalists, in the age of Vladimir Putin.
Independent Journalism in Post-Independence States

The perils and possibilities of holding power to account in different African countries.
The Pipers and the Tunes

A comparative perspective on the power of proprietors, public service and people to influence the content and limits of journalism.
The Peripheral Vision of Central Issues

How good is the coverage of matters essential to public welfare and the public interest? And who cares about it?

Axess Programme on Journalism and Democracy
Submitted by Janice Winter on September 9, 2009 - 9:39 AM
journalist.jpg

The Axess Programme on Journalism and Democracy began in June 2009, born out of the perceived need for a comprehensive study of the relationship between journalism and democracy in the contemporary - and rapidly transforming - media landscape.

Two main issues frame the programme:

* how should journalism serve the public?
* what effect will the changing nature of journalism have on its ability to hold power to account?

The programme consists of a range of projects, based in different parts of the world, which address these issues in differing ways. These include, or will include, projects in China, Russia, Italy, the European Union, Sweden, the UK, South Africa and elsewhere.

In each case the projects will develop an accessible narrative. The aim is to combine a rigorous approach to research with the ability to tell a vivid and illuminating story. The end product of this three-year programme will be a unique, world-wide story of the way in which journalism, democracy and power affect each other.

The Axess Programme on Journalism and Democracy is funded by the Ax:son Johnson Foundation. Its director is John Lloyd.

We invite our readers to submit blogs similar to those posted on the website by our researchers. If you have strong views about journalism and politics that you'd like to share, submit your writing to us by emailing janice.winter@axessjournalism.com
Comments (9)
To all involved in this project

Good luck! It's a huge undertaking, but should prove to be extremely interesting and of immense value.

Posted by Simon Winter on October 8, 2009 - 3:33 PM
Hello -

What a great initiative, it will be interesting to follow.

Wait a minute - good heavens! Where is your RSS feed?

If you really want to chart the "development of the internet" which "is revolutionising the ecology of journalism" you might want to show some grasp of its fundamentals.

Please inform your webmaster about RSS feeds, the most important web technology of the past ten years. And please ask your webmaster to implement it.

Sincerely,

C.L.

Posted by Computer Literate on October 15, 2009 - 6:01 PM
Thank you for the encouragement! We are already onto our webmaster about an RSS feed, so it should be implemented soon!

Posted by Janice on October 16, 2009 - 12:56 PM
Thank you for your quick response. I am looking forward to subscribing to some probing and daring analyses.

Posted by Computer Literate on October 19, 2009 - 2:30 PM
And there it is. Thank you.

Now all you need to do is to provide full-text coverage and image inclusion in your RSS feed - and your site will climb even higher on the accessibility mountain.

Posted by Computer Literate on October 28, 2009 - 5:02 PM
The quality of democracy depends on the quality of the political communication - where mmedia is important. In Stockholms Community PopVox.info is an organization developing a new relation between poltiics and media.

Posted by Peter Ahlm on November 17, 2009 - 4:49 PM
Hi,
How long have you been in this field? You seem to know a lot more than I do, I'd love to know your sources!

Posted by cheap printer ink on Janurary 29, 2010 - 7:16 AM
The quality of democracy depends on the level of education of the constituents. Communication is important, of course, but the more educated voter will be far more capable of reading between the lines in the verbal play that is journalism and politics. A reporter's job, initially, was to report the facts, just the facts, all of it, unpleasant or not and the reader was left to make up his own mind as to the circumstances or intentions of those involved. Then the newspaper industry became big business and started hobnobbing with politicians and other businessmen and these days, it seems, the reporter's job is to sell the paper, paying lip service to readers. The real problem starts when journalists start taking the game of politics so serious that they figure they are best qualified to become politicians. That is when the reader, who is also the voter, will start getting the news the politicians and businessmen want them to know. I recommend reading Terry Pratchet's "The Truth" for his history of the journalist and press. Well worth the real perspective on life.

Posted by X Cepting on February 15, 2010 - 2:09 PM
Democracy depends on communication...do we have to educate ourselves to know how we want to live???? You might need education to understand how educated people is trying to justify their ideologies (religions)!

Posted by Peter Ahlm on February 16, 2010 - 11:51 AM