# Media and Journalism Research Center

The Media and Journalism Research Center is a think tank that produces scholarly and practice-oriented research about journalism, media freedom, and internet policy. The organization maintains a cooperation agreement with the University of Santiago de Compostela.

## History

The center was founded as the Center for Media and Communication Studies at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary. It began in 2004, and was designed to serve as a focal point an international network of scholars and academic institutions, whose research ranges from media and communications policy, fundamental communications rights through media and civil society and new media and digital technology to media in transition. In September 2014 it was relaunched as the Center for Media, Data and Society to represent new interests in technology policy, and big data. Media expert, journalist and scholar Marius Dragomir led the center starting in September 2016. Most of CMDS' projects are continued by the Media and Journalism Research Center, a research institute established by Marius Dragomir in October 2022 that is independent of CEU.

## Projects

The center's research projects focused on identifying trends and challenges in the use of information technologies and advancing policy discussions about the regulation of data and media. Projects of CMDS included Creative Approaches to Living Cultural Archives, Ranking Digital Rights, Strengthening Journalism in Europe, Research on Violent Online Political Extremism. Its projects have been funded by the Open Society Foundations, National Endowment for Democracy, European Union, Media Development Investment Fund, Internews Network, Thomson Foundation, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and the Prague Civil Society Center.
The center was also known for its monitoring work on media policy in Central and Eastern Europe and Hungary in particular. Since its launch in 2017, the Media Influence Matrix project designed by Dragomir expanded to over 50 countries. The center is also known for its research on media capture. Dragomir published studies that attempted to define and analyze the media capture phenomenon. The MJRC's research on public service media and state media was cited in articles published by the European Journal of Communication and The Political Quarterly in 2024, and Dragomir has co-authored multiple academic journal articles about public service media and online disinformation. Dragomir also authored a report for UNESCO in 2020 on editorial independence and state-captured private media that was used to prepare a broader report released in 2022 on global trends on freedom of expression and media development, and has also written chapters in edited volumes about private media capture by states and journalism in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

### State Media Monitor

The State Media Monitor explores the nuances of different types of public and state media, including serving as a database that analyzes many outlets around the world based on factors like editorial independence, funding, and ownership/governance. The 2024 State Media Monitor list, including the evaluation of new sources, was released in September.
State Media Monitor ratings :
| Rating | Official description | Funding | Governance | Editorial control |
| Independent public (IP) | Public service media whose funding and governing mechanisms are designed in such a way as to fully insulate them from government interference. | No | No | No |
| Independent state-funded (ISF) | Public service media whose main funding source is the state, which, however, does not own them or control their governing bodies, and does not attempt to control their editorial agenda. | Yes | No | No |
| Independent state-managed/state-owned (ISM) | Public service media not predominantly funded from state budget resources that are either owned by the state or whose governing bodies are controlled by the government, which, however, does not attempt to control their editorial agenda. | No | Yes | No |
| Independent state-funded and state-managed (ISFM) | Public service media whose main funding source is the state, which owns them or controls their governing bodies, without, however, attempting to control their editorial agenda. | Yes | Yes | No |
| Captured private (CaPr) | Privately owned media outlets dependent to a large degree on the government for funding or other privileges (i.e. state advertising or public procurement contracts for other businesses run by their owners). | Maybe | No | Yes |
| Captured public/state-managed (CaPu) | Public service or state-owned media not predominantly financed through state budget resources, where the state is using its status as owner and/or its control over the management of these outlets to influence their editorial agenda. | No | Yes | Yes |
| State-controlled (SC) | State media created as propaganda channels, typical for authoritarian regimes, or failed public media in which the government retains a major role, funding and owning them, controlling their management and closely supervising their editorial agenda. | Yes | Yes | Yes |