178 M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS Ruxandra Boicu, Silvia Branea and Adriana Ștefănel (eds) POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AND EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN TIMES OF CRISIS: PERSPECTIVES FROM CENTRAL AND SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017, 295 pp ISBN 978-1-137-58590-5 Political Communication is the lifeblood of democracies. Communication is particularly important where democracy is in flux, fragile, or indeed in crisis as is the case across many of the newer, Central and South-Eastern European (CSE) EU Member nations. This edited collection of empirical research papers focuses on understanding democratic processes through a study of the election campaign communication and its impact. Authors exploit the opportunities for comparative research offered by the 2014 European parliamentary election and so are able to encompass an exploration of the campaigns in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. While this does not represent all nations it offers insights across countries of varying sizes, population densities, cultural and political experiences and so provides an overview of the electoral terrain of the area. The collection is usefully divided into four sections. The first section ‘Media Coverage and Political Marketing’ of six chapters explores electioneering strategies and tactics with the main focus being on how media outlets covered the campaign. The second section broadens the focus of tactics to explore the question of whether these represent second- order campaigns. The three chapters collectively find mixed results suggesting the European parliamentary contests can be both a tactical testing ground as well as a contest of marginal importance. The third section develops this debate to explore how contests are framed around either a European or National political agenda. The four chapters in this section similarly offer mixed findings, where some parties focus purely on national issues where others promote a European agenda. The final section, entitled ‘Ideological premises, candidate recruitment, and vote results’ contains five chapters which link tactics to outcomes, here the issues of the role the elections play within democratic culture are explored. The volume highlights a variety of challenges for the development of democracy, raising important questions for scholars of elections. In particular the role of media, with coverage largely focusing on the mainstream broadcast media, is explored and the studies show the varying interest, style of coverage and editorialisation which occurs. With these media consistently being the primary source of information on politics to many citizens, and particularly those least interested in politics, this focus is justified and insightful offering a salutary reminder of the potential political power of a minority of editors and, in some cases, the political actors to which they align. Similarly we also see a range of questions posed regarding engagement with the European project, an issue that many of the nations of the EU face. European parliamentary elections often can be used as a platform to attack the idea of the EU and so lead to the election of right-wing Eurosceptic party representatives. This phenomenon undermines the functioning of the European parliament and so the relationship between the EU, its member nations and their citizens. While this proves problematic within countries with fragile and at points corrupt democratic institutions, it also undermines the external M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 179 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS forces of democracy which attempt to raise the average level of democratic standards across the continent. In raising these issues, and many others relating to the conduct, reporting and impact of election campaigns across the CSE nations, this collection is important for understanding the progress of democratization in a more global perspective. While the EU has its own specific challenges, the issues relating to the conduct of campaigns and the reporting of politics by media are universal to democracies globally. Overall this collection of essays offers unique snapshots of national contests within nations facing challenges for the embedding of democracy. Each of the chapter authors provide the reader with rich insights into the diversity of the campaigns and common issues and challenges faced by campaign managers, journalists and voters. The studies also adopt a multi-disciplinary perspective, so the volume interweaves work from political marketing, psephology, media analysis and electoral sociology to offer a rich series of insights into the study of this election. These insights make Boicu et al’s volume an important addition to the fields of election campaigning, the CSE nations, broader EU politics as well as offering lessons for all scholars interested in the interplay between elections and democratic culture. The rich coverage and insightful data within the essays raise particularly important questions for consideration for the study of the future of democracy in Europe. Hence this work represents a must read for scholars and practitioners in this important field of human endeavour and the book a timely and welcome contribution to the Palgrave Political Communication and Campaigning series. Darren G. Lilleker Toril Aalberg, Frank Esser, Carsten Reinemann, Jesper Strömbäck and Claes H. de Vreese (eds) POPULIST POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN EUROPE Routledge, London, 2017, 402 pp ISBN 978-1-138-65479-2 Populism has been increasingly pervasive phenomenon that has reached its crescendo with the vote in the UK to exit the EU and the victory of Donald Trump in the USA. The term has been used in public discourse to describe a plethora of different political actors (candidates, parties, movements) who come both from political left and right and who claim to speak in the name of the people and against the political elites. Common to all of them is the use of simple and direct language that is aiming at the common sense of average people and that is rejecting the intellectualism of elites. Contrary to the fluidity of colloquial uses of the term, scholars have been struggling to introduce more structure and clarity into the research of populism. The growing amount of literature on populism has been primarily focused on providing a solid definition of the phenomenon, identifying and measuring different types of populism, discussing its relation to democracy and understanding causes for its rise. One of the key academic debates evolves around the issue of ideology: is it justified to treat populism as a coherent political ideology or is populism just a political communication style? The book Populist Communication in Europe edited by Toril Aalberg, Frank Esser, Carsten Reinemann, Jesper Strömbäck and Claes H. de Vreese focuses on communicative aspects 180 M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS of populism. This dimension has been unjustifiably neglected in the research of populism even though “communication plays a significant role in the rise of populism” (p. 3). Aside from the discursive nature of populism, which has been the focus of numerous studies, authors of this book provide several other reasons why populist communication should be given serious attention in the studies of populism. First, populist actors are dependent on the media that serve as their ”oxygen of publicity”; second, media give attention to populists because they represent attractive and ‘sellable’ media products, as was the case with Donald Trump; third, populist communication is not to be studied only with political actors but also with the media who gladly adopt populist frames when reporting about certain issues, such as immigration; finally, mainstream leaders also resort to populist rhetoric when reaching out for voters (p. 4-5). The book provides 24 country cases and groups them geographically. In the introductory part the authors outline key discussions in existing research of populism. They align with the scholars who consider populism a ‘thin’ ideology (e.g. Mudde, 2004; Freeden, 1996) and they single out three key elements of populist communication: references to the people, anti-elitism and anti-group messages (p. 15). ‘Anti-group messages’ are in the literature also known as the references to ‘dangerous others’ (see Grbeša and Šalaj, 2016). These ‘dangerous groups’ pose a threat to the efforts to bring power back to the people. For instance, resentment towards immigrants who might take away jobs from the domestic populace or hostility towards ethnic and religious minorities, who threaten the way of life of the domestic people, are common features of right-wing populism. On the other hand, dangerous others may also be detected among financial elites; when we talk about left populism. The authors lay down their conceptualization of populism by proposing that construction of “the people” should be regarded as the central component of populist messages while anti-elitism and identification of “anti-out-groups” should serve as “optional additional elements” (p. 24). Various combinations of these elements can point to “different types of populism” (p. 24). The second part of the book focuses on Northern Europe and contains cases of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The third part deals with Western Europe and contains cases of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Switzerland and The United Kingdom. The fourth part is about populist communication in Southern Europe, specifically in France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The fifth part is concerned with Eastern Europe and contains the cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovenia. The final, sixth part, brings conclusions. Stanyer et al. first sum up the results of country- specific analyses and conclude that ‘in Europe, populist actors are often equated with extreme-right, anti-immigration attitudes and nationalism’ (p. 356). However, populist actors position themselves across the political spectrum, from right to left, which is why Stanyer et al. conclude that ‘a clear, distinctive ideology is (...) not a distinctive feature of populist political actors across Europe” (p. 356). Esser et al. in their concluding remarks come up with a challenging threefold conceptualization of “media populism”. The first dimension is “populism by the media” which captures the way in which media engage in “their own kind of populism” (p. 367). This perspective builds on the in-built media “anti- establishment bias” detected in several analysed countries (p. 356). The second dimension is the “populism through the media” (p. 369) which focuses on the attractiveness of populist messages and inclination of the media to promote populist players to catch the M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 181 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS attention of the audiences. The third dimension is “populist citizen journalism” (p. 371) which refers to the tendency of the media to open the gate to populism through readers’ comments which are often populist in nature. Finally, in the last chapter of the book Reinemann et al. sketch the uses and effects of populist political communication (p. 386) which calls for integrated research of populist messages and their effects. This book is a valuable contribution to studying populist political communication. Its biggest value, aside from being a very useful and thorough overview of the state of populism in Europe, is that it points to a number of communication-related topics that have been emerging in the studies of populism but so far have not been given adequate scholarly attention. Although all concluding chapters build on comparative findings, they do not say much about differences between different groups of countries with similar socio-political background or for that matter, between the countries with similar background. This type of comparative insight might have contributed to the discussion on foundations and nature of populism. Nevertheless, this does not undermine the quality of this important reading. References >Freeden, Michael (1996) Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press. >Grbeša, Marijana and Šalaj, Berto (2016) Textual Analysis of Populist Discourse in 2014/2015 Presidential Election in Croatia. Contemporary Southeastern Europe 3 (1): 106-127. >Mudde, Cas (2004) The Populist Zeitgeist. Government and Opposition 39 (4): 541-63. Marijana Grbeša Kristin Skare Orgeret and William Tayeebwa (eds) JOURNALISM IN CONFLICT AND POST-CONFLICT CONDITIONS: WORLDWIDE PERSPECTIVES NORDICOM, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, 2016, 202 pp ISBN: 978-91-87957-24-6 The book Journalism in Conflict and Post-Conflict Conditions: Worldwide Perspectives, edited by Kristin Skare Orgeret and William Tayeebwa, consists of ten articles related to different post-conflict areas, media reporting and journalists’ experiences from conflict and post- conflict areas. Skare Orgeret states that the aim of this book “is to provide both empirical and theoretical input to the discussions of the role of journalism and media in conflict and post-conflict situations and in the often rather muddy waters between them” (p. 16). The first chapter of the book, Elisabeth Eide’s “Afghanistan: Journalism in pseudo post- conflict. A clash of definitions?” explores the concept of post-conflict using Afghanistan as an example. Eides discusses the development of journalism as an institution and analyses the stories published by two important websites – NAI (Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan) and IWPR (Institute for War and Peace Reporting) in 2014. Both media organizations “seem to strike a balance between reporting ongoing conflicts and war activities and reporting which takes citizens’ concerns in the everyday seriously”, seeking a peaceful solution in a war-ridden country (p. 36). In her chapter “Justified mission? Press coverage of Uganda’s military intervention in the South Sudan conflict” (Chapter 182 M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS Two), Charlotte Ntulume discusses neighbouring Uganda’s press coverage of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF)’s involvement in the conflict in South Sudan using the frame theory, indexing and the notion of the fourth estate. The majority (72%) of manifest frames portrayed UPDF’s involvement in the war as justified (p. 48), and 85% of the sources identified in the coverage were official sources (p. 55). “The New Vision and Daily Monitor coverage of the UPDF intervention in the South Sudan conflict in the early days following the deployment toed the government line on the justifications” (p. 57). In the chapter “Who’s to blame for the chaos in Syria? The coverage of Syria in Aftenposten, with the war in Libya as doxa” (Chapter Three), Rune Ottosen and Sjur Øvrebø examine how the civil war in Syria can be discussed as a post-crisis-crisis. Using the dichotomy between war journalism and peace journalism the article analyses frames used in reporting on the gas attack in Ghouta and examines which of the parties involved were blamed for its escalation. Ottosen and Øvrebø claim that Aftenposten’s coverage leans towards a war journalism approach, with some elements of peace journalism and mostly blames the Assad regime for the attacks (p. 68). The peace journalism frames were found in only 15% of the articles. In 12 of the 72 examined articles, where the word “Libya” is mentioned in the text, there is a willingness to draw historical lines to the Libyan war as at least a contributing factor to the War in Syria. Chapter Four “Framing peace building: Discourses of United Nations radio in Burundi” by William Tayeebwa discusses how in its post-conflict, peace-building operations in Africa the United Nations has been accused of promoting the Western model of “liberal peace building” as opposed to exploring alternative approaches proposed by national actors. Tayeeba uses the “conflict-sensitive-journalism” and “peace building” concepts to analyse six selected programs broadcast from national RTNB, from October to December 2009. Tayeeba states that principles of conflict-sensitive reporting and peace journalism found in the analysed content is the kind of model of journalistic practice that should see conflict-prone countries (such as Burundi) transition to a stable nation that aspires to play a more prominent role in the peace-building architecture (p. 95). Chapter five “Women making news – conflict and post-conflict in the field” is based on the experiences of female reporters and journalists from seven countries around the world. “Kristin Skare Orgeret discusses what challenges and opportunities women journalists face when covering conflict related issues either at home or in a foreign context where gender roles may be very different from those of their home country” (p. 20). First, the author states the role of journalists in the conflict area and gives a definition of two central strands of feminism – equality feminism (or liberal feminism) which focuses on the basic similarities between men and women, and difference feminism (or cultural feminism) which accentuates the inherent differences between men and women. Female reporters interviewed in this chapter agreed that men and women cover the war and conflict differently. An awareness of cultural norms and practices is considered to be particularly important along with the need to fight the victimisation of women. Through two case studies Chapter Six “Experiences of female journalists in post-conflict Nepal”, by Samiksha Koirala, explores the participation of women journalists in Nepali media, including their experience of reporting during and after the conflict. Babita Basnet felt isolated the first few years she worked, and as the only female reporter she was often questioned about the credibility of her reports. Maina Dhital, “being one of the few women working in Kantipur, was often subject to gossip and subtle harassment” (p. 123). Data presented in this chapter M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 183 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS show an increase of women journalists in Katmandu-based media by 100%, from 12% in 2005 to 24% in 2014. “The case studies presented suggest that women journalists in media organisations (and female sources) are more highly valued than previously. It seems that the growing number of female journalists make women feel more comfortable with their occupation.” (p. 125) In Chapter Seven, “Intercultural Indigenous Communication of the Indigenous Communities of Cauca in the Context of the Armed Conflict”, Henry Caballero Fula explains and analyses the emergence of a diverse indigenous media in Columbia, answering questions of representation, debate and indigenous autonomy. Local media groups, some their own radio stations, were formed in the 1990s giving a voice to the community and their organisations. Caballero Fula argues that “when it comes to a position diverging from that of their organisation and/or community, a healthy aspiration for a collective indigenous communication would be to generate an internal debate to seek a solution” (p. 144). Claiming that the Norwegian media were not capable of producing independent, quality journalism on the significance and meaning of the killings in relation to the conflict and the peace process in Colombia, Roy Krøvel states that the “Global and Local Journalism and the Norwegian Collective Imagination of “Post-Conflict” Colombia” (Chapter Eight) seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between Norwegian foreign policy and Norwegian journalism. The chapter explores how global media made sense of the assassinations of indigenous leaders in Toribio. Opposite to an indigenous media which put associations in historical and social context, media around the world used frames and narratives considered to be suitable for their audience (p. 148). “Media coverage was entirely subsumed within the dominating narratives and discourses produced by the state department and the NGOs. Only much later did a few critical voices begin to be heard.” (p. 156) Krøvel concludes that education, knowledge and willingness are an important part of the production of creative and critical journalism on peace-related issues. Chapter Nine “Improving post-conflict journalism through three dances of trauma studies”, by Elsebeth Frey, explores the possibilities for interaction between post-conflict journalism and trauma studies. The study is based on qualitative in-depth interviews with two Tunisian journalists and two Norwegian journalists. Using Newman and Nelson’s framework of three tensions, Frey shows how the concepts of crisis journalism, conflict sensitive journalism and post-conflict journalism may overlap. The three tensions or so-called dances are based on traumatic stress studies: the dance of approach and avoidance, the dance of fragmentation and integration, and the dance of resilience and vulnerability. Frey states that the knowledge learned from these three dances “could mean a more realistic perspective on post-conflict situations, and a better understanding of how journalism may help to strengthen resilience in people and society” (p. 184). Anne- Hege Simonsen’s “Moving forward, holding on. The role of photojournalistic images in the aftermath of crisis” shows how, in post-conflict situations, photographs may work as triggers of collective as well as individual emotions with their power depending on where in the post-conflict process their users find themselves and how far the process of negotiating the past has come (p. 20). Simonsen argues that the reading of the image is always individual and, using the example of Richard Drew’s “falling man”, photographed on 11 September, points out that the impact and the role of photography depends on the audience and the moment of publishing. “Photographic meaning is never fixed, but 184 M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS fluid and multivocal, and photographic agency is thus best studied through concrete photographs in concrete contexts.” (p. 198) The book offers an insight to the role of the media in post-conflict areas, “to report on the conflict but also to build a consensus on the way out of it” (p. 16) along with the discussion on the changing conditions for the journalistic profession in post-conflict areas. “At the same time, the contributions problematise the concept of post-conflict and powerfully illustrate that the phase between war/conflict and peace is neither unidirectional nor linear, as the use of the concept sometimes seems to imply.” (p. 16) Zrinka Viduka Jan Fredrik Hovden, Gunnar Nygren and Henrika Zilliacus-Tikkanen (eds) BECOMING A JOURNALIST. JOURNALISM EDUCATION IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES Nordicom, Göteborg, 2016, 334 pp ISBN 978-91-87957-34-5 Students’ motivation for journalism studies, their views on journalism as a profession and themselves as future journalists has lately been in the focus of scientific research. Ever changing technology and trends has made journalism a dynamic profession with circumstances and prospects that differ significantly from the situation just 10 years ago. All this justifies further research in terms of gathering valuable data for understanding as well as developing (improving) not just journalism studies but the practice as well. As pointed out by the editors, the book is “strongly rooted in the Nordic Conferences for Journalism Teachers” and the “research tradition on journalism education in the Nordic countries” which “by 2012 had become the largest survey of this kind in the world” since almost five thousand students at thirty institutions participated. This amount of data and experience should be of interest to a far reaching (scientific) audience. The book is divided into four sections that group individual papers (chapters) by different authors. The first one entitled A Nordic model offers four chapters, including an introduction written by the editors Jan Fredrik Hovden, Gunnar Nygren and Henrika Zilliacus-Tikkanen. Their chapter provides an insight into the “Nordic model” of journalism education – a product of similarities between the Nordic countries in terms of history, media systems and education as well as intense cooperation between (journalism) educators. The second paper written by Elin Gardeström entitled “Educating Journalists. The Who, When, How and Why of Early Journalism Programmes in the Nordic Countries” gives a comparison of journalism education systems in the Nordic countries, but also discusses the origins of this education and the way it was developed through the years. The paper ‘We All Think the Same’. Internship, Craft and Conservation” written by Ida Willig is about Danish journalism education and the specificity of a relatively few formal educational institutions and the focus on journalism as a craft. The fourth paper “New Times, New Journalists? Nordic Journalism Students Entering an Age of Uncertainty” by Jan Fredrik Hovden and Rune Ottosen gives a summary of a series of surveys conducted with journalism students (almost five thousand students in Nordic countries). The second section is entitled Professional (re)orientations and consists of six papers. The first paper “Journalism Education and the Profession. Socialization, Traditions and Change” M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 185 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS by Gunnar Nygren presents the results of two surveys conducted in Poland, Sweden and Russia to compare attitudes towards professional values and integrity between students and journalists. The paper “Perfect Profession. Swedish Journalism Students, Their Teachers, and Educational Goals” written by Gunilla Hultén and Antonia Wiklund provides insight into both students (survey about their future professional roles) and teachers’ reflections (interviews about their professional attitudes). “From Politics on Print to Online Entertainment? Ideals and Aspirations of Danish Journalism Students 2005-2012” by Jannie Møller Hartley and Maria Bendix Olsen is a survey about students’ ideal workplace and roles, and “Finnish Journalism Students. Stable Professional Ideals and Growing Critique of Practice” by Henrika Zilliacus-Tikkanen, Jaana Hujanen and Maarit Jaakkola questions students’ motives for studying journalism along with their perceptions of the profession. Ulrika Andersson’s paper “The Media Use of Future Journalists and How it Changes During Journalism Education” deals with media forms students use and whether it changes as they progress in their education. The last paper in the second section written by Erik Eliasson and Maarit Jaakkola is entitled “More Mobile, More Flexible. Students’ Device Ownership and Cross-Media News Consumption, and Their Pedagogical Implications” and examines students’ media habits to see how educational institutions could adapt their teaching to build upon such habits. The third section Meeting the challenges offers six papers. The first “The Gap. J-School Syllabus Meets the Market” written by Arne H. Krumsvik talks about the development of journalism school syllabi in Norway. Why many women leave journalism just a few years on the job is discussed in Hege Lamark’s paper “Women Train In – and Out of – Journalism”. The paper “Burdens of Representation. Recruitment and Attitudes towards Journalism among Journalism Students with Ethnic Minority Backgrounds” written by Gunn Bjørnsen and Anders Graver Knudsen deals with the problems students and young journalists with minority backgrounds face when entering journalistic profession. Terje Skjerdal and Hans-Olav Hodøl’s paper “Tackling Global Learning in Nordic Journalism Education. The Lasting Impact of a Field Trip” analyses curricular profiles of journalism programmes in Nordic countries to trace the footprint of global learning, and “Dialogues and Difficulites. Transnational Cooperation in Journalism Education” by Kristin Skare Orgeret looks at the possible involvement of global learning in journalism through international cooperation. The last paper in the chapter bears a similar title to the book itself “Becoming Journalists. From Engaged to Balanced or from Balanced to Engaged?” Written by Roy Krøvel, it deals with the understanding of the role journalism education. The fourth section is entitled Meeting the field and consists of four papers. Jenny Wiik’s paper “Standardized new Providers or Creative Innovators? A New Generation of Journalists Entering the Business” provides an answer to how journalism (student) interns perceive the practices of professional journalism. “Is This a Good News Story? Developing Professional Competence in the Newsroom” by Gitte Gravengaard and Lene Rimestad questions the differences (discrepancies) in practices students learn during their education and at the beginning of their internship. In the paper “Internal Practical Training as a Teaching Method for Journalists Students” by Hilde Kristin Dahlstrøm focuses on internal practice training as the essential pedagogical tool for the training of journalism students. The last paper “Developing Journalism Skills through Informal Feedback Training” by Astrid Gynnild discusses the use of a new feedback tool to develop journalism skills. 186 M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS The importance of the book lies in the breathe of the tackled topics and all the collected experiences from different Nordic countries. It certainly provides interesting reading that could be of potential interest to any journalism teacher, professional or student. Dunja Majstorović Viktorija Car, Miroljub Radojković and Manuela Zlateva (eds) REQUIREMENTS FOR MODERN JOURNALISM EDUCATION – THE PERSPECTIVE OF STUDENTS IN SOUTH EAST EUROPE Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Sofia, 2016, 207 pp ISBN 978-3-95721-255-9 25 years after the seismic changes with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and Western Balkan, the question of adequate media policy and journalistic standards remains highly relevant in all of the countries in the region. To improve the situation and to solve some of the issues, the issue of quality journalistic education seems one of the key potential solutions. Therefore the programmes of journalistic education at universities in these countries present one of the potential ways to educate ethical and professional journalists of the next generation – but they might also represent an obstacle to evolution if these programmes are old-fashioned, out-of-date, or focused on wrong topics and problematic perspectives. The new book Requirements for Modern Journalism Education – The Perspective of Students in South East Europe therefore addresses a highly relevant and topical issue of processes in five different countries in SEE: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Serbia. There are similar patterns from the past: in most of these countries, the education of journalists developed only after the World War II and in some cases even decades after that. The education was in all of these countries during those years under extremely high control of ruling communist parties, emphasizing the role of journalists as ‘social-political workers’ (as in Yugoslavia) and as part of larger propaganda system. Only after the 1990s and the fall of communism did more open systems of journalistic education develop. There were certainly important differences between different countries, with Albania and Romania representing some of the harshest example of communistic hard-line systems which did not leave space for any sort of democracy, open discussion, watch-dog function and other characteristics of critical journalism. On the other hand, journalism and journalism education in Croatia and Serbia as former parts of Yugoslavia was more open to critical perspectives and Western influences, due to the softer version of socialistic rule. These countries thus had some similar starting points in 1990 and 1991, but also faced some different historical and political circumstances which led to quicker or slower democratization, both in politics and in media and journalism. This is reflected also in todays situation, with Croatia, Rumania, and Bulgaria being members of European Union, and Serbia and Albania not. However many of the issues in their media and journalism are similar. The five national reports and final comparative chapter show many similar problems, including political capture, high levels of corruption, lack of transparency in many aspects of societies etc., resulting in media that is connected or often intertwined with political actors, particularly ruling parties; media that is financially weak and thus M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 187 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS more prone to political or economic (advertising) pressure; and journalists that have weak social and financial position in a society, that are often threatened or that function less as a watchdogs and more as PR representatives of partial interests. This specific position of journalists and media results also in specific expectations of young students who decide to study journalism: a relatively high percentage of them is seeking fame and recognition, and would like to work on television, but very few of them talk about financial motives for their study and profession. A number of countries report the feminization of this profession which can also be seen as a result of weak financial position of todays’ journalists in these, but also many other countries. And in most of the countries, post-graduate students show higher level of scepticism about the potential or power of their profession, confirming that older students with more practice in the media identify the weak position of journalists and their media compared to the owners, advertisers, or politicians. The research in five different countries shows also some similar problems of todays’ journalistic education – for example in all of the analysed countries, one of the key issues as identified by students is a technical one: a modern, up-to-date media equipment that allows students to produce content on their own. In all of these countries, students emphasize the need for more equipment and for more practical knowledge or experience. In all of these countries, state owned universities generally have weaker economic position, however some countries (Croatia, Albania) also show that private faculties or universities did not provide quality education or positive feedback from their students due to lack of staff and low quality. It seems thus that private faculties at least in the area of journalistic education did not reach an adequate level that would enable the high-quality education of new generations of journalists, showing that state owned universities remain highly relevant in keeping or upping the standard and influencing the future of countries’ journalism. All five country studies use same framework of research based on questionnaire among the undergraduate and post-graduate students, looking for their opinion and experience with their studies. The book thus offers significant contribution and insight to the complex picture of todays’ media, journalism, but particularly future generations of journalists and what can be expected from them. It packs this answers in a context of country history and wider social and political framework, explaining country particularities and experiences. It also shows differences from the ‘enthusiastic’ 1990s when the promise of democratic change led to extremely high and obviously quite naïve expectations about the brave new world of media and journalism in such new democracy. Todays’ picture is much more down to earth, showing the potential but also the wider obstacles (from finances to political system and international influences, including the role of EU and international organizations and donors). The area of journalistic education thus represents the area of continuous changes and continuous need for research. And of course a research of students and their perceptions and expectations represents one part of the wider educational landscape. A further research on other issues would also contribute to the SWOT analysis of journalistic education: what are the strengths and weaknesses, what are opportunities and troubles? Semi-structured in-depth interviews with specific students might provide additional insight and provide clues to improvement. A research among the journalistic professors 188 M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS and educators would be another potential area of further research, showing the problems and dilemmas that educators face (some aspects are mentioned in the research, but to hear about these issues from educators themselves would enable more complex picture). And a research among the faculty managers, financiers (state, donors) would offer an insight into the management and financial aspects of journalistic education. Finally, the perspectives and experiences of media companies who later employ or offer contracts to new journalists would add another stone to the mosaic of different perceptions with journalistic education in South East Europe – a more practical aspect that is often controversial and ethically problematic (due to political or economic pressures and controversial practices or relationships), but would still help researchers (and wider society) to gain new set of results and opinions. The book on journalistic education in South East Europe, researching attitudes and expectations of students, represents a significant contribution to such wider picture. It is highly important that this sort of research (and reflections) from the region continues to be produced, as the media and journalism itself is affected by economic, political, and technological changes and disruptions, changing the role of future journalists, their identity, and particularly their expected knowledge. Marko Milosavljević Edgar Gómez Cruz and Asko Lehmuskallio (eds) DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND EVERYDAY LIFE: EMPIRICAL STUDIES ON MATERIAL VISUAL PRACTICES ECREA, Routledge, London and New York, 2016, 296 pp ISBN 978-1-138-89981-0 The book Digital Photography and Everyday Life: Empirical studies on material visual practices does exactly what its title asserts. It investigates practices by people around the world that revolve around the use of photography in the digital age. Comprised of three parts: “Variance in use in everyday photography”, “Cameras, connectivity and transformed localities” and the final section “Camera as the extension of the photographer”, this interdisciplinary book has the visual social sciences as the common denominator for all of its chapters. As the editors Edgar Gómez Cruz and Asko Lehmuskallio write in the introduction, the core of this volume is in the “pictoral practices” that ground the use of digital photography in everyday life. It is no novelty that sight is our most important sense (Jenks, 2002)2. What is new, however, is the massive proliferation of images in our world, whether on posters, billboards and ads or in the digital realm – on various websites, applications and social media especially. As Paolo Favero states in this book, every two minutes our contemporary world produces more images than the entire 19th century accumulated throughout its course! (p. 209). Possessing a camera equipped phone is the norm nowadays, and coincidentally, the onset of 2016 had the iconic Kodak launch a first primarily camera-oriented smartphone, dubbed Kodak Ektra. Besides social media such as Facebook and the primarily visual Instagram, 2 Jenks, Chris (2002) The Centralit y of the Eye in Western Culture: An Introduction, pp. 11-47 in Jenks, Chris (ed.) Visual Culture. Zagreb: Naklada Jesenki i Turk, Hrvatsko sociološko društ vo. M E D IJ S K E S T U D IJ E M ED IA S TU D IE S 2 01 6 . 7 . ( 14 ) . 17 8 -1 89 189 PRIKAZI I ANOTACIJE BOOK REVIEWS special websites have constituted online communities that revolve around photography: Flickr, Tumblr and National Geographic's Your Shot, to name the most popular ones. BBC, the British public service media has too converged its services and now offers a Visual Radio Production and short Instagram news videos. In such a mediascape, where the visual has asserted itself quietly, but abundantly as the norm, this book is a welcomed collection of texts that begins to uncover the usage and meaning of photographs in our daily lives. Ethnography is an often mentioned method here, as case studies on pictorial practices from Ireland, Austria, Tanzania, Portugal and the United Kingdom are presented by the authors, each with a different take, a different niche on the usage of photography. The chapters of this book analyse the shaping of long-distance relationships by communicating visually on messaging platforms and applications, the notions of space and locality related to photography, the selfie culture that has taken the world by storm, as well as the political and activist dimensions that comprise picture taking/making but also the mere presence of the camera itself. The notion of age is touched as well: as it would seem to be common sense to assume that the elderly are not quite apt to the technological pace (the 'digital natives' versus the 'digital immigrants'), research in this book uncovers that this is not exactly the case. It also investigates how digital photography communicates a myriad of topics, from raising awareness on mental health issues to selling clothes on Facebook. It is quite common (and taken for granted) that people keep pictures in family photo albums, hang them on the wall and post them on Instagram. Besides the academic community and media studies and visual culture scholars, this book is the right one for every person that has ever pondered why people take pictures of their meals served in restaurants and post them online. Scientifically, yet cleverly written and straight forward, it is welcomed at just the right time, as the interest in the visual that surrounds us has never been higher. A wonderfully exciting read. Emil Čančar