Journalism, Media and Communication

The enhancement of technology has led to a faster and more accurate informing than before. Almost every one of them has a cell phone comprised of various programs installed in it creates them the opportunity to browse a wide range of different newspapers and magazines and in the vast majority of languages in the world. Due to the fact that the media is an industry which constantly produces information, an as matter of a fact it’s function is to inform the public, and that their activity is regulated by law, it implies that they are or at least should be in function of fulfilling the obligation which implies conyeing fair information to the public in compliance with the legal acts governing the media. Based on the reduced number of newspapers printed over the years in Kosovo, the small number of copies printed and sold, as well as the increase in online newspapers. Consequently, this hypothesis been raised due to convergence ( voice, image, writing) and owing to the speed of news dissemination, the number of followers of the portals-electronic newsletters has increased and the number of followers of the printed newspapers has decreased, as well as the followers of TV and fixed radios. In this regard, Information Technology is one of the main factors in this development of print media, which at the same time, readers, listeners and viewers send the written news, recorded and filmed.

Kosovo policymakers, in addition to infantile cooperation with internationals, have created cohabitation with their local subordinates. The logic that for the Kosovar society the submissive poltroons are better and more useful than the dignified, honest, proud, critical, open- minded, hard-working and responsible citizens who have remained straightforward, is also prevailing in media. This cooperation in public political life is being articulated as an authoritarian-poltroon binomial. Unfortunately, media is not treating this serious danger that is causing consequences today and is degrading the future of national values and the rule of law, at the height of the risk with professional responsibility they should have, although the degree of spread and intensity of this the phenomenon depends not only on the level of political culture and social relations, but also on whether we are dealing with authoritarian or democratic, liberal or totalitarian societies. Authoritarianism and poltroons have intensified two-way communication. A great danger for the society and the statehood of Kosovo is their “converging ability"! On one hand, there are more poltroons that bow to authoritarian leaders such as "leaders", "bosses", "the powerful" .... on the other hand, it is the authoritarian leaders who consider fawning and bowing, as support as they want to be "important", "loved", "respected" ... in positions where they are, or want to reach even higher. Authoritarians promote poltroons with many privileges by taking advantage and promoting their loyalty, while the importance and benefits of poltroons are so great that servility is convincing to prove loyalty. Governance ruled by authoritarianism and servility is imposing the authoritarian will of leader supported by the will of the poltroons who oversee and control the party, the justice system, the public administration, the labor market and institutions, ostensibly independently.

The history of COVID-19 has profoundly affected both the professional and personal level of journalists, from psychological trauma and refined investigations, to the health risks to their families. But experts say planning, daily habits can make work manageable - the very fact of working and the feeling of doing something good can turn into a factor of strength and motivation that journalists can use. The advice given by media experts is this: learn, plan, relax and communicate. Therefore, to report on such a situation, such as the already global spread of Coronavirus, you need to know many things and principles on how to report on this sensitive and challenging situation for the Kosovar media. The print media, television, radio and portals in particular have made initial mistakes, not to mention those social networks that have not even made headlines and have no information about who is behind them. Sensitive situations require high professionalism, prudence, knowledge and courage to face the unexpected and avoid the impact of misinformation spread by false news. Unfortunately in Kosovo we have very few journalists who had been able to perform this task with conscience and professionalism from the field. Therefore, the attention we must show towards this phenomenon obliges us to be really good and smart professionals to calmly face the way Covid- 19 is reported. The editorial offices of portals, but also of televisions, radios and newspapers must urgently engage journalists who are mature, who have experience and knowledge on the danger posed by distorted or inaccurate information. It is not only the journalists who should be in charge because the statements of the institutionally responsible persons are also vital here. My topic addresses precisely these journalistic differences and nuances in the report or toward any global pandemic.

When the Director-General of WHO (World Health Organization) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared that: “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic. Fake news spreads faster and more easily than this virus and is just as dangerous!” nobody opposed him. What is called the “social media” has contributed a lot to this INFODEMIA. This presentation is an attempt to have a closer look at “behind the scenes” of not the “how”s but the “why”s of this phenomenon in a precarious time when all humankind is facing one of the most important dangers in history and trying to make a forecast of the possible the aftermaths of it.

Given that at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, everything stopped working. Journalists within the media they represented, remained historical in this period of isolation for the whole world. To bring information from the scene despite risking their lives. On the other hand the interest in accurate and impartial information was what was most required after by the public at this time. But, even this time, the dilemma arose as to whether we have credible news, especially when false or fake news has become a well-known term for the public. Also, in addition to this, there is another dilemma, how much the media adhered to the observance of ethics at the time of news production, but also the challenge to bring news with research topics in this period. Therefore, based on a monitoring and analysis of Kosovar televisions, respectively main news, what has dominated are the events for COVID-19, which are also in the focus of this paper. Meantime, all monitoring was done for a period of one month (March 13 - April 13, 2020).

Objectivity is a key element in professional journalism as opposed to fake news that increasingly affects the media space in the Republic of North Macedonia. The irresponsible behavior of some media, especially social media, contributes to creating a climate in which the public is misled. The trend of misinformation suggests exactly that, misuse of the media space in order to lead the audience to wrong conclusions. The misinformation easily won the media space, in a way removing the position of professional media research. Many studies point to the fact that fake news travels faster than the real news. Responsible media must be the link that will strongly influence powerful propaganda attacks. The public must not be misled. The media have a responsibility to accurately research and interpret the facts. The finished product of journalistic analysis must not contain elements of business, personal or political interpretations that will affect the objectivity of presenting the processed information.

The protection of Children and Minors is the primary standard of a society. Children and Minors beyond human moral obligations must be protected through strict legislation in a democratic society. These rights are enshrined in various international documents and conventions ranging from the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Legislation across different states should draft legislation in the spirit of this Declaration and the local specifics of different states. In Kosovo these rights are mainly protected through the regulator (IMC) and other laws affecting the field of human rights. The courts play an important role in respecting these rights.

Information is considered the oxygen and barometer of democracy where the fair and correct information is achieved through free media. Freedom of the media is the main pillar for the functioning of a democratic society, and the media is rightly considered as the "fourth power" of a state, after the legislature, executive and judiciary. (Bacaj, 2010) But still, journalistic ethics in our case of shared social media portals and news takes the main focus of the review. Media professionals are solely responsible for drafting the code of ethics. Formal intervention would jeopardize the independence of such a project. (Wilkins, 2009) Journalists have a role to play in conveying information, ideas and opinions, and the right to comment. It is the right and obligation of journalists to try to prevent censorship and distortion of the news (Çausidis 2012). Methodology: quantitative, historical, and descriptive. Survey-based on valid references. (OSCE, 2017), (Progni, 2012), (Zotaj 2014) Samples: 501 citizens from 2/3 of Kosovo municipalities, with two focus groups-sociologists-political scientists and journalists- editors. 53% of respondents had a university degree, and 94% received the news from their smartphones and personal computers. Results and discussion: 16% of respondents perceive online news as effective, 1/3 think that cyber journalism does not have enough time for editing. 77% are disturbed by the news where anyone can be a publisher and 89% believe that politics has an impact on the media. 57% believe in media ethics and 90% of them think that news should have its limit. From the portals and online newspapers, the most read was the Express newspaper with 52.5% followed by Telegrafi 33% and the others, 19-10%. Conclusions and conclusions: the majority of opinions were that online news is read more because it is easy to access, and free even though very few trusts in efficacy. Focus study groups think the news can be bought or even copied. The data suggest that the government should regulate the status of journalism with criteria, be impartial, and respect the law on the issue of authorship.

Communication and transportation technologies continue to bring together different languages, religions, cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities, in an unprecedented scale in this huge interconnected network of interdependence, conflict, and common fate. As a result, we nowadays live in an era ripe with a clash of identities. Of paradoxical interest is the fact that the very forces that serve to dismantle physical, social, and cultural boundaries, also worsen group rivalries, painting a deep and irregular picture of the world of today. Intercultural communication is the value of offering people, but also the consequence of intolerance of cultural identities, and the “us-versus-them” mentality. Anthropologists see culture and ethnicity as a sort of temporary continuation or tradition which ties members to a common future, as reinforced by the models and practices of life in regards to language, conduct, behaviour, norms, beliefs, myths, and values as the shapes and practices of social institutions. Sociologists treat culture as a societal category with an ethnic element, defined by membership which varies from other groups due to a series of characteristics, qualities, or criteria, such as national origin, geography, language, religion, and race. Psychological studies, on the other hand, usually approach cultural identity in terms of one’s subjective orientation and attitudes towards one’s ethnic origin. A number of intercultural communication theories offer concepts of cultural identity which can be characterized as integrative in an ideological position. The interdependence of engagement, communication, the new needs of society cause for so-called “cultural exchange” to be offered “aggressively” until multiculturalism is reached, and in more in-depth cases, assimilation.

We talk about online journalism, media on social networks, virtual communication, etc., but we have neglected and forgotten the essence of all this: writing, through which the text and communication are outlined. "If you are going to write, write"! - it is said in a "theorem" of the methodology of classical writing. But the question arises: How and for what to write? The purpose of this paper is to show that the main and most essential point of commonality is the fact that both of these areas have at their center the art and perfection of the way of writing by selecting genres. In this case we will definitely have to shape the idea of outlining the written material. Everyone in the foreground, in his field is a journalist or writer, because seeing and living the reality everyone is able to convey the truth in any way. It is known that the path to truth is not flat and to reflect this, the person engaged in its research must use all possible genres to bring it before the public.

Communication with the public as a concept is not new, as the discipline is. The twentieth century is decisive for the recognition of communication with the public as a special field that develops separately from linguistic, literary, psychological, sociological and political theories. Communication with the public is considered as a complex discipline that operates based on interdisciplinary research methods. The analysis of linguistic signs, discourses, messages, forms of communication, does not allow the discipline of communication to be separated from other disciplines that consist from words/language, the main elements for the discipline of communication. Therefore, in this paper we will present the forms of communication with the public and their aims.

Political parties in Kosovo randomly adhere to legal obligations to quotas for women in parliament. But, during campaigns, female candidates do not appear as leaders in debates and political activities. This paper focuses the campaign for parliamentary election in 2019. We have monitored the stories about campaign in three online media, presented on their Face book pages. The results obtained from the content analyses argue that women are presented only as integral part of the political parties’ lists and electoral activities. Consequently, during political campaigns, they are under presented within the parties and in media coverage.

Photography has had and continues to have a great impact on the communication that the media builds with the mass audience and has increased the level of credibility with the public. But the biggest difficulty in maintaining ethics lies in the images that are transmitted in the electronic media by anyone and anytime. In reporting cases of persons with special needs, crimes, accidents, cases of ill-treatment or abuse, the photographed subject loses privacy and the media interferes with the privacy of the person. Taking into consideration these elements, through this paper will be given recommendations on ethics in photojournalism and personal data protection, as well as conclusions will be presented through the treatment of various cases.

Public and Private Media in Kosovo operate on the basis of fragile legislation which does not provide proper solutions. Their regulation is to some extent satisfactory and is realized through the Independent Media Commission (IMC) but the problem is the Public Media which are challenged by the Private ones in many aspects. Public Broadcaster (RTK), audio/visual (television) and audio (radio) operate under a special law which in some cases is contrary to other laws. In the future, we should work with stakeholders to draft an adequate law in line with European standards and their directives (AVMS). A particular problem is the ownership of the media which has no legal basis yet. In the future, we need to work on a law on Media which in itself had included all legal aspects and had served as a basis for the proper functioning of Public and Private Media in Kosovo with special emphasis on On-line.

Among the important factors that directly contributed to the general social awareness is the revolutionization of the press as a means of communication. This process started very early, but in the form we know today, it dates since the time of the establishment of democratic systems when the industrial revolution had massive printing of books, newspapers, magazines, posters and others. So, it is about the nineteenth century, the time when the unequal development of capitalist relations created the need for cultural homogenization, which then led to the creation of nations, or the concept of the nation as a principle of modern political organization. In this process, the press has played an irreplaceable role in conceiving the unique national consciousness. We can say that the press became a necessity of national movements through which have spread the common culture, tradition and language. Such was the role of the press among Albanians in this period, which through various forms has influenced the formation of the Albanian national identity. The Albanian National Movement or as it was otherwise known the National Renaissance aimed at preserving the national territory through the development of national culture, with special emphasis on the common language as a link between different provincial groups. Thus, the printing of various books, newspapers, magazines and posters came from the writers of the National Renaissance who circulated illegally in the Albanian territories and aimed at making a nationwide awareness of the territories and a united Albanian state. Similar was the role of the Albanian press in Kosovo after the occupation of part of the Albanian territories by the former Yugoslavia. The Albanian press in Kosovo and in all occupied Albanian territories is characterized with addressing of the problems of political and ethnic nature by Albanians in the former Yugoslavia. Numerous newspapers, magazines, posters and materials in this period were published completely illegally by the Albanian illegal organizations of the time that operated mainly in the national spirit. In this paper a special focus will be on the illegal press in Kosovo in the period of 1945-1997, specifically their thoughts and attitudes in the patriotic education of the Albanian citizen under occupation. In this period, the illegal press massively propagated the need for national resistance for the liberation of Albanian lands, constantly bringing back the glorious Albanian national narration from the different historical periods. An important objective of this research will be the national spirit of addressing the problems that Albanians were preoccupied with, namely the ideo-political nature of illegal organizations, their political goals and other activities that were propagated through the press of the time in the conditions of occupation and oppression state. The violent activity, genocide and systematic discrimination of the Yugoslav state against the Albanians who were constantly treated in the illegal press of the time will also be analyzed. Thus, it will be addressed the importance of information-mass media in the political awareness of Albanians in the realization of the idea of freedom and the solution of the Albanian national issue.

With the development of technology access to information has become much easier. In Kosovo, online portals have become the main sources of information, while social networks serve more than socialising platforms, and are used for promotion and mobilization as well. These websites are designed in such a way as to provide easy access to information. However, the functioning of the portals is a challenge due to the fact that they are not even supervised and there is no regulatory framework for them. Portals in Kosovo are registered only as businesses, although they should not be treated as such because of their influence on the formation of public opinion. There is a lot of debate about how the media reflects gender representation, but this topic leaves much to be desired for the fact that gender representation is not sufficiently included in online media. Articles presented in online media do not meet any standard of journalism. The paper will analyze examples of reporting on gender representation in Kosovo, with a particular focus on reporting cases of domestic violence and their psychological effects on society.

Since their appearance in Albanian society, the print media have played an important role in the representation of Albanian CUSTOMARY Law. In the first newspapers and magazines in the 1920s, customary law was treated as an attempt to raise public awareness by making the Kanun the norm of the rules of Albanian society that regulated social life better than the laws of state mostly discriminatory occupiers on the one hand and on the other hand generally gave priority to the alienation of the Albanians. In this regard, customary law has long been the subject of treatment in the print media and has served this right. While with the liberation of the country or with the approval of Albanian laws, the print media re-treated customary law in the press, but now from a different perspective, where there were often signs of gunfire. From this point of view, we will deal in this topic with the attitude of the media, which was written in the periods of the late nineteenth and early twentieth and late twentieth centuries to see the function of common law in shaping and dealing with national identity media in this function.

The media and state leadership have a strong and inseparable link in the history of the media. In totalitarian regimes, the government finances and controls the media, in regimes with apartheid elements the government closes the media that does not like, persecutes and kills journalists. In democratic societies, state leadership and the media have a financial connection in most of the cases. This paper will address a very specific media situation, that of Montenegro in 1999. Montenegro was part of the former Yugoslavia, which was committing genocide against Kosovo Albanians. But the main media in Montenegro, starting with the public broadcaster, the radio as part of it, and the main newspapers, marked a rare case when the media does not obey the government but takes the side of people in need - Kosovar refugees who, fleeing extermination, sought refuge in Montenegro.

Digital communication or electronic media are now an indisputable part of our daily lives and consequently an important means of disseminating and exchanging information. This paper provides an analysis from the point of view of the connection between theory and practical work taking as a case study the work of the media office of UBT, with a special focus on the role of digital communication in public relations and the promotion of UBT. The existing literature framework has an increased emphasis on conventional media, and their impact but this paper made an important correlation with recent academic papers on digital communication by providing a context of how the media office has adapted to the technologies and online platforms that have formed the main communication base of the institution.

The research will analyze the central news editions during a given month, on four national frequency televisions (RTK, KTV RTV21 and KLAN KOSOVA). This paper will highlight the percentage of news that has been devoted to the pandemic and the percentage of other news that have been broadcast during this time. Also, the research will show whether the structure of an edition with the usual columns has been respected, while specifically addressing the news rankings for the pandemic.

Environmental education is an area that includes many disciplines, which develops knowledge, awareness, critical attitude, values and skills that will enable individuals and society to maintain and improve the quality of the environment in which they live. Environmental education teaches critical thinking, raises public awareness, directs the solution of environmental problems. It is the cornerstone of growing a society responsible for the future of our planet. And such encourages us to cooperate with national and international partners to acquire new techniques and methods in this regard. Environmental education, especially for students and young people, helps us to create a new relationship with the environment and nature. This teaching discipline is as important as mathematics, language, literature, etc. Students at school learn about great writers who have described nature in wonderful words; about painters who have presented extraordinary landscapes, but the students themselves have the opportunity to contribute individually to the preservation of the environment, and nature itself. The environment is also linked to sports and medicine because the nature is closely linked to public health. A clean environment brings more energy and less disease. Harmony with the environment brings harmony even within the community itself. The environment unites us with each other and is the legacy that connects us to future generations. Therefore, the younger generation needs to be more educated about the environment, because the nature that surrounds us, determines who we are as citizens, students, and human beings. The need for a more complete and multidimensional education is posed today not only as an alternative to having more civilized individuals, but often also as a single solution to challenge the various problems we face. Environmental problems at the local and global level make environmental education, and wider education, a criterion for developing sustainable lifestyles. Today more than ever, environmental education is being seen as a priority in national and international discussions of environmental issues and beyond.