Round table on coverage of social issues

TIRANA, Feb. 28 – The Albanian Media Institute held a roundtable on coverage of social issues in print media with the participation of reporters and editors from mainstream media and civil society representatives.
This roundtable, held last week, marked the completion of a project that consisted in the monitoring of several social issues in mainstream print media, such as poverty, education, and health.
Based on conclusions from these monitoring reports, as well as on complimentary research, the participants were introduced to the findings and suggestions of a policy paper on improving social issues coverage in the media.
The roundtable discussion tackled such aspects as the lack of priority to social issues in the media, the occasional politicization of these topics, the absence of alternative sources of information apart from official sources, the practice of sufficient coverage of news and insufficient analysis of the phenomena, etc.
The participants also discussed their own challenges within the newsrooms or in communication with other actors when reporting on these important topics.
The round table marked the completion of a project on improving social issues in the media, implemented by Albanian Media Institute, with the support of Open Society Foundation, Albania.