The Civic Media Observatory is a method to investigate and decode how people understand information and create knowledge in complex and seemingly chaotic media ecosystems.
Global Voices’ Civic Media Observatory research identifies and tracks key themes and narrative frames that emerge around events, trends and other phenomena, and explains the context and subtext of local, vernacular, and multilingual media. Researchers use an expansive definition of “media” that includes items appearing in mass media, social media platforms, open internet sources, and offline sources.
Observatory research explores the civic impact of media items, offering insight into the effect of narratives on audiences’ understanding of events and social phenomena, and identifies themes of urgent public interest. A key feature of the method is the assigning to media items a civic impact score based on international human rights standards. Using this score, we make claims about the potential effects of narratives on audience behavior and on civic discourse.
Follow our work in Undertones, our weekly newsletter. In each edition we’ll analyze an event, emerging trend, or a complex story, identifying key narratives of urgent public interest, and delving deep into the context and subtext of local, vernacular and multilingual media. Undertones also offers an entry point into the public datasets that underpin our Observatory work.
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The Observatory method also suggests actions to be taken on the basis of civic impact scores. Project teams work as trusted partners with organizations such as media and tech companies and nonprofit advocacy organizations, to identify and recommend actions for certain categories of content, including recommendations for monitoring of narratives, keywords and phrases that have the potential to cause harm.
Observatory work is focused in part on questions of misinformation, disinformation, disruption and confusion, but goes beyond fact-checking. Our larger goal is to identify information that has civic value in given contexts, and around specific events and trends. The Observatory is also deployable as a method for rapid identification, sorting and analyzing of media items and their effects.
Researchers work in Airtable, a relational database, which allows for rich interlinking of media sources, themes, narrative frames, media items, and languages, as well as granular analysis of dozens of metadata fields we use to analyze media items. This approach helps us to build consistent responses to questions about the accuracy, truthfulness, verifiability, and ideological leaning underlying media items, as well as deeper analysis of context and subtext, when warranted.
Observatory research feeds into our editorial work as well, helping us to tell stories about underlying narratives, perspectives, and claims.
Since the launch of the Observatory in the middle of 2019, we have run large transnational investigations on the topics of EU Accession, COVID-19, Taiwan’s presidential election, conflict in Ethiopia, and China’s Belt & Road Initiative, as well as focused investigations into elections in Myanmar, Brazil, Bolivia, and Venezuela and country monitoring projects in India, Myanmar, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Haiti, Ethiopia, Russia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mali, and Nicaragua.
Slide presentation on the Civic Media Observatory methodology.
Observatory projects
Community Civic Media Observatory
The Community CMO employs an innovative methodology to analyze local media ecosystems, for which our community’s insights are invaluable.
Unfreedom Monitor
The Unfreedom Monitor is an Advox initiative to deepen our understanding of the relationship between technology and authoritarian power.
Country monitor observatories 2021-2022
Monitoring of emerging themes and narratives in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Russia, Mali, and Nicaragua in 2020-2021.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Deal or steal?
As China expands and advances its interests as a global power, we explore its influence in other countries.
A clash of narratives: National identity and violent conflict in Ethiopia
Long-standing conflicts over the contours of the Ethiopian state have once more exploded into violence. Unreconciled disagreements between the state and regional powers in Oromia and Tigray threaten to tear Ethiopia apart.
Country monitor observatories 2020-2021
Monitoring of emerging themes and narratives in Myanmar, India, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, and Haiti in 2020-2021.
Narratives of COVID-19
Global Voices decodes narratives of COVID-19 in 10 countries as it spreads around the world in 2020.
Taiwan elections 2020
Taiwan held presidential elections on January 11th, 2020 to determine the course of its political and economic orientation for the next four years.
EU in the Balkans: An accession too far
North Macedonia and Albania have long sought to become members of the EU. The debate over their application pitted ideas of nationalism, corruption, EU reform and future relations with regional powers.
Stories from the Observatory
Stories about Civic Media Observatory
Undertones: How extremist Hindu nationalists use Instagram
See these examples of memes, photos, and videos on Instagram promoting electoral propaganda and violence as a means to create a Hindu state.
Undertones: What Russian media says about the Russia-Ukraine crisis
Inside Russia, mainstream media have treated the crisis as a joke, reminded their audience of Russia’s position as a nuclear superpower, or stated that Putin does not know how to retreat from the situation.
Hijab ban stirs protests in the Indian state of Karnataka
Protests have broken out in the southern state of Karnataka in India over the past months, after colleges in the state banned women students wearing hijabs from attending classes.
‘Rebel’ candidates risk it all: Elections in Bangladesh
Electoral violence in fact has flared up within the ranks of the Awami League itself, as prospective candidates compete to be nominated by the party.
Bulli Bai, Sulli Deals cases highlight rising communal misogyny in India
More than a hundred Muslim women in India woke up to find themselves up for auction on an app on the morning of January 1, 2022. It has since been taken down.
Undertones: From ‘Satanic’ QR codes and ‘public enemies’, navigating the pandemic in Russia
Protests erupted throughout the country in late 2021 and polarization is deepening, as government members and state media label anti-vaxxers “enemies of the people,” a term loaded with negative historical connotations.
The Civic Media Observatory in 2021
2021 was a big year for the Civic Media Observatory. Here’s a recap of our work.
Undertones: Online violence in Myanmar, Pakistan’s smog cover-up
Myanmar’s pro-military factions express themselves openly on social media, targeting pro-democracy supporters. And the government of Pakistan’s Punjab region clamps don on posts about poor air quality in the region.
Undertones: A deep-dive into Indian hyper-nationalism
Any critique of the government, the armed forces, or the Hindu religion and its socio-political project, known as Hindutva, is labeled “sedition,” and is treated as treason for attacking the sovereignty of India.
Undertones: Nicaragua's “sham” elections have cold shower effect on media
Journalists practice self-censorship, with propaganda channels dominating attention.
Introducing Undertones, Global Voices’ media analysis newsletter
This newsletter synthesizes Observatory research and analysis of key narratives and ideas circulating in the public sphere.
Global Voices seeks researchers to participate in our Civic Media Observatory projects
Researchers on the Civic Media Observatory analyze media items, narrative frames, themes, media sources, and creators, building an impressive constellation of information for public and partner consumption
China's reputation challenged by perceptions of low-quality projects and products in Ethiopia
In contrast to the official praise, the Ethiopian public is often critical about the quality of these projects, as well as Chinese products sold in Ethiopia.
Why are Czech elites being captured by Beijing narratives?
The ties between outgoing president Zeman as well as economic relationships over the past few years, especially in the media, raise concerns about the public narrative around Sino-Czech relations.
Arabophone Chinese influencer divides public opinion in Egypt
Along with growing traffic to her social media platforms came a new tone in Wang's posts. What seemed as sincere patriotic pride, gave way to a seemingly targeted propaganda.
Is China exporting its surveillance state to Venezuela?
One of the largest Chinese defense companies has been pointed out for providing the Venezuelan government software to block access to the Internet and to spy on its detractors.
China in Ethiopia: Between a savior and an exploiter?
Whereas some online commentaries celebrate China’s help and contributions to Ethiopia, other discussions on Chinese projects tend to emphasize their exploitative features
Turkey’s Uyghur dilemma in the context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative
As economic ties between Ankara and Beijing strengthened, Turkey's policies on the treatment of Uyghurs in China weakened.
Chinese firms in Nigeria face widespread labour abuse allegations, tainting bilateral relationship
Nigerians in that company are "mandated to call their Chinese employers master or mistress. Male Nigerian workers are physically assaulted, while their female counterparts are sexually assaulted,” writes a whistleblower.
China as a cultural threat in Ethiopia: From food to cultural appropriation
Public interest in Chinese exotic eating habits and in potential appropriation of Ethiopian traditional culture speaks of the larger rifts in Sino-Ethiopian encounters
Chinese higher education programs attract increasing numbers of students from Kazakhstan
Education abroad and study exchanges have become instruments for the Chinese government to attract foreign students, especially from Kazakhstan. Does studying in China trigger support among Kazakhstani students?