Journalism in Azerbaijan: A Study of the Media in a Controlled, Post-Soviet Environment

• In Event: News Effects in Contexts

Abstract

This study seeks to fill a gap in knowledge about the practice of journalism in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic where freedom of expression is limited and government control is strong. To the knowledge of this researcher, the study proposed here represents the first time Azerbaijan has been studied in a systematic fashion consistent with the literature of comparative journalism. "Journalism in Azerbaijan” has three primary goals. First, this study will construct a demographic profile of journalists in Azerbaijan. Second, this study will explore the roles these journalists believe they play in the controlled, post-Soviet environment in which they operate. Finally, this study will consider the extent to which the theoretical foundation typically employed in the aforementioned literature, that is, the Theory of Influences on Media Content (Shoemaker & Reese, 2014), is applicable to the environment of Azerbaijan. Data will be collected through an online survey of journalists in Azerbaijan.

Author

• Rashad Mammadov, Suffolk University Boston