MediaACT - Media Accountability and Transparency in Europe

The project "Media Accountability and Transparency in Europe" is a comparative research effort on media accountability systems (MAS) in EU member states as indicators for media pluralism in Europe. In recent years, "the voluntary approach and co-regulation" have been mentioned more and more by the European Commission and other international political institutions as potential tools for the monitoring of media pluralism. The project analyzes the development and impact of established media accountability systems (e.g. press councils, codes of ethics) as well as new media accountability systems emerging in the Internet (e.g. media criticism in blogs). The main goals of this research project are:- to investigate the quantity and quality of media accountability systems as prerequisites for pluralistic debates about media independence in times of growing media concentration, - to compare the impact of established and innovative media accountability systems online on different media systems and journalism cultures in Europe and beyond, - to develop policy recommendations for EU media policy makers, as well as incentives for media professionals and media users alike to actively engage in media accountability systems.The project is a joint interdisciplinary effort of a team of 11 partners from Eastern and Western Europe as well as one partner from the Arab World, using a multi-method approach (survey, desk studies and expert interviews) for the analysis. The project aims at analyzing the potential of media accountability systems for media accountability and transparency and thus carries the acronym MediaAcT.