The Development of Functional Media Institutions in the Western Balkans

Kristina Irion is the Scientific Advisor to a new collaborative research project which studies the development of independent and functional media institutions in the Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia. The project aims to enhance the knowledge and understanding of conditions and factors that influence the creation of sustainable, functional media institutions in democratizing countries, especially in contexts where there is strong presence of international assistance programs and conditionality mechanisms. The project „The Development of Functional Media Institutions in the Western Balkans - A Comparative Study“ is coordinated by the Center for Social Research Analitika and implemented in cooperation with the Center for Research and Policy Making from Macedonia, the Albanian Media Institute and Democracy for Development from Kosovo.

In particular, the research is concerned with media institutions that have emerged through significant involvement of international actors. The questions we ask: Can external intervention result in the creation sustainable independent institutions? How the context influences the development of independent institutions that have been established by external influences? How the interaction between domestic and international actors shapes the outcome of institutional building? Can new institutions influence the context, thus creating the preconditions for their sustainability from within?

Expected Outputs:
• An edited book will be produced
• 2 papers will be published in peer-reviewed journals
• Policy brief will be prepared and published.
• Organizing a seminar for 20 graduate students and junior faculty.
• Project website
• 3 project workshops

The project is funded by the Regional Research Promotion Programme (RRPP) in the Western Balkans, a programme that is fully funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.