Manuel Puppis

Prof. Dr.

photo

 manuel.puppis@unifr.ch
 +41 26 300 8425
 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4139-251X

media policy, regulation and governance; media economics; media organizations and journalism; media change and digitization; Swiss media system and international comparison of media systems
 

Biography

Manuel Puppis is Full Professor of Media Structures and Governance in the Department of Communication and Media Research DCM, University of Fribourg and serves as vice-chair of the Swiss Federal Media Commission (FMEC).

 

Puppis holds a PhD in Communication Science and an M.A. in Communication Science, Political Science as well as Economic and Social History from the University of Zurich. His research interests include media policy, media regulation and media governance, media systems in a comparative perspective, the digitalization and platformization of the public sphere, media organizations and journalism, as well as media economics and critical political economy.

 

He has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam (2023), the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt School, New York University (2018), the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institute in Hamburg (2023, 2012) and the Centre for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania (2011). For fall term 2012 Puppis was appointed as a Visiting Resident Scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. From 2020 to 2023 he also served as a member of the Council of Europe MSI-REF and MSI-RES committees of experts.  

 

In 2024, Puppis received the «C. Edwin Baker Award for the Advancement of Scholarship on Media, Markets and Democracy» from the International Communication Association (ICA).

 

Complete CV

 

Research and publications

  • Publications
    161 publications

    Handbook of Media and Communication Governance
    Puppis, Manuel and Mansell, Robin and Van den Bulck, Hilde (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2024), ISBN: 9781800887190 | Edited book

    Empfehlungen , in Deepfakes und manipulierte Realitäten. Technologiefolgenabschätzung und Handlungsempfehlungen für die Schweiz
    Karaboga, Murat and Frei, Nula and Puppis, Manuel and Vogler, Daniel and Raemy, Patric and Ebbers, Frank and Runge, Greta and Rauchfleisch, Adrian and Seta, Gabriele de and Gurr, Gwendolyn and Friedewald, Michael and Rovelli, Sophia, ed. by Karaboga, Murat and Frei, Nula and Puppis, Manuel and Vogler, Daniel and Raemy, Patric and Ebbers, Frank and Runge, Greta and Rauchfleisch, Adrian and Seta, Gabriele de and Gurr, Gwendolyn and Friedewald, Michael and Rovelli, Sophia (Zollikon: vdf, 2024), ISBN: 9783728141866 | Book chapter

    Deepfakes im Journalismus , in Deepfakes und manipulierte Realitäten. Technologiefolgenabschätzung und Handlungsempfehlungen für die Schweiz
    Raemy, Patric and Puppis, Manuel and Gurr, Gwendolyn, ed. by Karaboga, Murat and Frei, Nula and Puppis, Manuel and Vogler, Daniel and Raemy, Patric and Ebbers, Frank and Runge, Greta and Rauchfleisch, Adrian and Seta, Gabriele de and Gurr, Gwendolyn and Friedewald, Michael and Rovelli, Sophia (Zollikon: vdf, 2024), ISBN: 9783728141866 | Book chapter

    Deepfakes und manipulierte Realitäten: Technologiefolgenabschätzung und Handlungsempfehlungen für die Schweiz
    Karaboga, Murat and Frei, Nula and Puppis, Manuel and Vogler, Daniel and Raemy, Patric and Ebbers, Frank and Runge, Greta and Rauchfleisch, Adrian and Seta, Gabriele de and Gurr, Gwendolyn and Friedewald, Michael and Rovelli, Sophia (Zollikon: vdf, 2024), ISBN: 9783728141866 | Edited book

    La trasformazione digitale, una sfida per la politica dei media , in ch Blog
    Manuel Puppis (19.3.2024) | Press article

    Quelle politique des medias appliquer face à la transformation numérique? , in ch Blog
    Manuel Puppis (19.3.2024) | Press article

    Digitale Transformation als Herausforderung für die Medienpolitik , in ch Blog
    Manuel Puppis (19.3.2024) | Press article

    Methods for Global Media and Communication Governance Research , in Global Communication Governance at the Crossroads
    Puppis, Manuel and Van den Bulck, Hilde, ed. by Padovani, Claudia and Wavre, Véronique and Hintz, Arne and Goggin, Gerard and Iosifidis, Petros (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), ISBN: 9783031296154 | Book chapter

    Digitale Öffentlichkeit und Medienpolitik: Von Media Governance zu Mediation Governance , in Regulierung, Governance und Medienethik in der digitalen Gesellschaft
    Puppis, Manuel, ed. by Prinzing, Marlis and Seethaler, Josef and Eisenegger, Mark and Ettinger, Patrik (Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2024), ISBN: 9783658424770 | Book chapter

    Introduction to Media and Communication Governance: From Labelling to Theorizing and Practice , in Handbook of Media and Communication Governance
    Puppis, Manuel and Mansell, Robin and Van den Bulck, Hilde, ed. by Puppis, Manuel and Mansell, Robin and Van den Bulck, Hilde (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2024) | Book chapter

    Sociological Institutionalism: Conceptualizing Media Governance as Institution and Organization , in Handbook of Media and Communication Governance
    Puppis, Manuel, ed. by Puppis, Manuel and Mansell, Robin and Van den Bulck, Hilde (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2024) | Book chapter

  • Research projects

    Understanding ALGorithmic gatekeepers to promote EPIstemic welfare (ALGEPI)
    Status: Ongoing

    Start 01.05.2023
    End 30.04.2027
    Funding SNSF  Open project sheet
    Technological and economic developments have led to the availability of an overwhelming quantity of digital content. Therefore, it has become crucial, in particular for media content providers, to incorporate algorithmic gatekeepers, which filter, rank and recommend content. Are these algorithmic gatekeepers undermining media’s contribution to epistemic welfare? In ALGEPI, we start from the novel concept of epistemic welfare, defined as the individuals’ right to know and be exposed to trustworthy, independent and diverse information while respecting individual rights to their own data. By connecting legal, political, technological and sociocultural perspectives, we will develop a conceptual framework for epistemic welfare. This framework will allow us to understand the effects of algorithmic gatekeepers on epistemic welfare. The new interdisciplinary research program will build on multi-method empirical research applied to algorithmic gatekeepers. Thanks to the theoretical and empirical findings, we will be able to develop normative instruments to align algorithmic gatekeeping with epistemic welfare. Taking the novel concept of epistemic welfare as a starting point allows all project partners to embark on a joint, integrated exploration of the concept. This may lead to a paradigmatic shift in the conceptualization of the impact of algorithmic gatekeepers in media sectors, proposing to expand the notions of media pluralism and consumer welfare to epistemic welfare.

    Valorisation grant for SCOPES project "The prospect and development of public service media: Comparative study of PSB development in Western Balkans in light of EU integration"
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.11.2016
    End 30.04.2017
    Funding SNSF  Open project sheet
    The politicization of the state, the ongoing commercialization of the media sector combined with an economic crisis, financial instability, strong clientelistic ties, and the rapid proliferation of new media platforms and outlets have resulted in a failure to produce an environment conducive to independent public service broadcasting (PSB) in Western Balkan countries. As a result, their role, remit, and survival have been continuously put into question. The SCOPES project "The prospect and development of public service media: Comparative study of PSB development in Western Balkans in light of EU integration" aimed at discussing the position, role, functioning, and the future of public service broadcasters in seven countries in the region of the Western Balkans – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Albania and Montenegro – taking into account the above-mentioned challenges. The country studies and policy briefs, as project outputs, will fill the gap in existing literature on democratization and media developments in the Western Balkans and indicate specific patterns of development and possible options for improvement in order to support decision-making processes in the countries under scrutiny. However, the project was mainly focused on extensive field research in order to shed light on PSB transformation processes in the countries of the Western Balkans. Thus, the promotional activities related to the project are rather limited and the team considers it important to develop additional activities in order to promote the project results and to disseminate the findings and recommendations both locally and internationally. This valorization grant would allow to present and discuss the results at the most important international conference in Europe as well as to strengthen partnerships with local and international stakeholders. In the original project proposal it was neither envisaged that team members will be supported to participate in international events nor that policy briefs would be translated for advocacy activities in local contexts. Moreover, it is planned to publish an edited volume with a renowned Western publisher in order to advance the academic profile of the authors from the Western Balkans.

    Journalistic Role Performance around the Globe: Switzerland
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.11.2015
    End 31.12.2018
    Funding SNSF  Open project sheet
    The aim of our project is to explore the role performance of journalists. Journalists have ideals in form of role conceptions: They see themselves, for instance, either as neutral disseminators, investigators, analysts, promoters or entertainers. However, they are likely to make compromises in their everyday work due to personal, financial, political or other restrictions. As a consequence of these restrictions, role conceptions do not necessarily unfold in media content. Thus, in order to investigate role performance, we connect journalists’ output back to their role conceptions. Therefore a content analysis of newspapers will be performed, based on operationalization models recently developed in journalism studies, in order to reveal references to particular role conceptions in news content. At the same time a standardized online survey will be conducted among the authors of the analyzed articles in order to investigate their own conceptions of their professional role and of their level of autonomy. This combination of methods will allow comparisons between the role conceptions as seen by the journalists and the conceptions which are traceable in their articles, i.e. in their role performance. The project will concentrate on journalists and their work in Switzerland but is part of a bigger international project (see http://www.journalisticperformance.org). Researchers in 27 other countries around the globe are in the process of conducting equivalent analyses of their national print media, using the same codebook and questionnaire. Findings from the Swiss study will thus be discussed along with the results from the other participating countries in publications dealing with the international comparison of journalistic role performance. The special situation of Switzerland as a multilingual and multicultural country offers the opportunity for more in-depth analyses about common grounds and differences of journalistic role performance in different cultural entities within the same political system.

    Gender und Medien im Vorfeld der eidgenössischen Wahlen 2015
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.03.2015
    End 30.06.2016
    Funding Other 

    Service public im internationalen Vergleich
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.03.2015
    End 31.10.2015
    Funding Other 

    Medien und Meinungsmacht
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.02.2015
    End 30.04.2016
    Funding Other 
    Die Medienlandschaft der Schweiz befindet sich in einer tief greifenden Transformation. Eine Auseinandersetzung mit den Folgen dieser durch die Digitalisierung ausgelösten Veränderungen ist von höchster gesellschaftlicher wie politischer Bedeutung. Das Projekt „Medien und Meinungs-macht“ widmet sich deshalb der Erforschung des Zusammenspiels traditioneller und „neuer“ Medien bei der Informationsvermittlung und Meinungsbildung der Bürgerinnen und Bürger in der Schweiz. Konkret werden die Auswirkungen technologischer Veränderungen auf die Setzung von Themenschwerpunkten (Agenda-Setting), die Geschäftsmodelle, Strategien und Investitionen von Medienunternehmen und die Bedeutung neuer Akteure für die politische Informationsvermittlung und Meinungsbildung untersucht. Dabei wird ein besonderer Schwerpunkt auf junge Bürgerinnen und Bürger gelegt.

    The prospect and development of public service media: Comparative study of PSB development in Western Balkans in light of EU integration
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.07.2014
    End 30.09.2016
    Funding SNSF  Open project sheet
    The institutionalization of independent public service broadcasting (PSB) represents a fundamental element of the (Western) European model of media policy (van Cuilenburg and McQuail, 2003). As part of the democratization process, post-Communist societies, including the countries of the Western Balkans, were expected to transform their state-controlled broadcasters into public service broadcasters. While transformation theorists initially distinguished three models of transformation – paternalistic, democratic, and systemic – a fourth type – mimetic or imitative – has been introduced to describe the nature of transformation due to the different and specific socio-political circumstances in post-Communist countries (Splichal, 2001; Jakubowicz, 1990, 2007, 2008; Boyle, 1992, 1994). In other words: The countries in transition aimed at imitating what McQuail (2000: 208-9) called the “public service phase” of media policy in Western Europe which put a strong emphasis on independent and non-commercial public service broadcasting. Yet this ‘mimetic’ model was never based on naïve presumptions about the possibilities of policy transfer. The assumption was that “transplantation of the legal and institutional frameworks of PSB would have to be followed by a long period of development of the kind of political and journalistic culture required for PSB to be able to flourish” (Jakubowicz and Sükösd, 2008: 19). Yet some authors claim that what really happened in the countries of the former Yugoslavia cold be explained with the ‘atavistic’ orientation: partitocratic systems emerged in the post-Communist countries as result of transition with political and public life dominated – or indeed ‘colonized’ – by political parties (Hausner and Marody, 2000: 24). As a consequence, there emerged an opaque imitation of external models, as much of the media legislation adopted alongside the process of consolidation of these democracies reflects solutions borrowed from other countries (Zielonka and Mancini 2011). The process of transformation in Western Balkan countries has faced many obstacles and problems: A politicized state, the subordination of the media to government in pursuit of economic goals, the paternalism of the state and strong clientelistic ties resulted in a failure to produce an environment conducive to independent public service media. Usually, in these countries PSBs were created in order to formally satisfy the requirements of EU accession process and European integration (European Commission, Council of Europe). However, these broadcasters are largely unable to fulfill their mission. Political elites seek to retain as much discretionary power over transformed public media as possible. Due to the lack of independence and financial stability, their expected role is reduced and their existence and survival have been continuously questioned. Taking into account the external streams and pressures caused by technological development and digitalization, which require thorough changes in the way that PSB organizes and operates, current reforms of regulatory frameworks related to PSB make the future prospects for reconstruction and development of these institutions in the region of Western Balkans very uncertain. An additional problem for countries of the Western Balkans is a significant policy overload (Jakubowicz, 2007). Policy overload refers to the fact that these countries are expected to consume, accept, and implement the best of legal and policy traditions of the Western states – from 17th-century issues of freedom of speech all the way to the 21st century issues of the Information Society – in little more than two decades. “This cannot easily be done, either on a policy level, or – and primarily – on a practical level, when a country is expected to leap over several stages in the development of its media industry in order to meet mostly economic and telecommunications policy goals formulated. Equally difficult is the job of catching up on a decades of media market development” (Jakubowicz, 2007). At the same time, models that were presented as best-practice (PSB, regulatory bodies, press councils, etc.) at the beginning of the transition in the 1990s, are nowadays scrutinized and even questioned in developed countries. For instance, the role public service media should play online is heavily disputed and the success of press self-regulation is questionable, as the example of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) in the UK shows. The EU made its own contribution to the installment of public service broadcasting in the countries of former Yugoslavia, insisting on its introduction, assisting the process of drafting media legislation, offering various forms of expertise in the field of PSB reforms, and regularly monitoring the process of transformation of PSB. However, the EU’s own recent communication policy is mainly shaped by an economic and technological logic, marginalizing social, cultural or political goals. Thus, the EU approaches PSB from the point of view of competition policy and state aid regulation, “determined to prevent public funding from being used to distort competition within the private sector” (Jakubowicz, 2011). This controversial approach of the EU could create additional problems for PSBs in analyzed countries. Due to the fact that their operations are dependent on state funding – either direct (budget financing in Montenegro and in Serbia from 2014) or indirect through various forms of state aid – this competition policy approach could significantly weaken PSBs. However, it could also help in liberating public service media from unduly governmental influence. This project attempts to discuss the position, role, functioning, and the future of public service broadcasters in six countries in the region of Western Balkans – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Albania and Montenegro – taking into account the above-mentioned challenges, and especially the new paradigm promoted recently by the EU. It will yield a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the performance and impact of public service broadcasting in transitional societies of the Western Balkans. It aims at making a substantial step on the analysis of contextually dependent paths of media development and the role that EU is playing in these processes. Moreover, the project will add to existing research by focusing on a region traditionally neglected in comparative media research. The analysis of the current state and future development of PSBs will focus on the following areas – politics and PSB, EU accession and PSB regulation, markets and financial models for PSB, digitalization and technologic development, and providing public services in ethnically plural and divided societies. It is envisaged that the project lasts two years, with a total budget of 103.436 CHF. The main project partners are the Department of Mass Media and Communication Research of the University of Fribourg (hereinafter Swiss Partner), and Center for Social Research Analitika from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    Arbeitsbedingungen und Berichterstattungsfreiheit in journalistischen Organisationen
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.12.2013
    End 31.10.2014
    Funding Other 
    Der Mediensektor durchläuft einen fundamentalen Wandlungsprozess: Aufgrund von Finanzierungsproblemen stehen bei traditionellen Medien für Journalismus nur noch in beschränkterem Umfang Ressourcen zur Verfügung. Als potenzielle Lösung für diese sogenannte Medienkrise wird vermehrt eine Medien- oder Journalismusförderung ins Spiel gebracht. Das vorgeschlagene Projekt hat sich als Ziel gesetzt, die Arbeitsbedingungen von Journalistinnen und Journalisten sowie Einschränkungen deren professioneller Freiheit bei Schweizer Medienhäusern zu untersuchen. Der Fokus liegt erstens darauf, inwiefern sich die Arbeitsbedingungen (zur Verfügung stehende Ressourcen, Zeit für Recherche etc.) in den vergangenen Jahren aus Sicht der Betroffenen verändert haben. Zweitens wird das Verhältnis zwischen Medienorganisation (Verlag) und journalistischer Organisation (Redaktion) hinsichtlich der Berichterstattungsfreiheit über Werbekunden, das eigene Unternehmen sowie das Mediensystem und die Medienpolitik thematisiert. Die Erhellung dieser Aspekte, an denen sich die Fähigkeit eines Mediums zur kritischen und unbeeinflussten Berichterstattung ablesen lässt, bietet eine wichtige Grundlage für die Debatten um Medienförderung. Das Projekt arbeitet in einem ersten Schritt mit einer Sekundärauswertung von vorliegenden Interviewdaten sowie noch durchzuführenden Gruppendiskussionen mit Medienschaffenden. Auf Basis dieser Ergebnisse, die zeitnah vorliegen sollen, ist in einem zweiten Schritt eine quantitative Befragung der Mitglieder des Journalistenverbandes impressum vorgesehen.

    Identifikation von Good Practice im Jugendmedienschutz im internationalen Vergleich
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.04.2013
    End 31.07.2014
    Funding Other 
    Ziel ist der Vergleich unterschiedlicher Regelungsmodelle in ausgewählten Ländern und auf europäischer Ebene, die Analyse ihrer Vor- und Nachteile und die Prüfung der Übertragbarkeit auf die Schweiz. Dazu wird ein vergleichendes Vorgehen gewählt, das auf den Methoden der Dokumentenanalyse und des Experteninterviews basiert und neben der formal-gesetzlichen Situation auch die praktischen Erfahrungen der Umsetzung und des Vollzugs berücksichtigt. Angesichts der teils fragmentierten Regelungsstrukturen in den zu untersuchenden Ländern, die an einzelnen Medientypen (Film, Fernsehen, Printmedien, Digitale Spiele, Onlinemedien) festmachen, werden nicht nur immer Gesamtstrukturen untersucht, sondern dort, wo es sinnvoll ist, auch lediglich die einschlägigen medienspezifischen Systeme. Im Fokus der Untersuchung steht der „negative“ Jugendmedienschutz, also gesetzlich-abwehrende Strukturen; „positiver“ Jugendmedienschutz (insbesondere die Förderung von Medienkompetenz) wird in die Betrachtung einbezogen, soweit sie abwehrende Maßnahmen präventiv flankieren (Erdemir 2008). Vielfach baut der abwehrende Jugendmedienschutz auf Wissen und Kompetenzen von Akteuren wie Eltern oder Erziehern auf, die aber nicht einfach unterstellt werden können. Insbesondere an dieser Stelle berühren sich fördernde und abwehrende Schutzkonzepte. Der Gang der Untersuchung orientiert sich an den Leitfragen der Ausschreibung: • Deskriptive Darstellung der bestehenden Regulierungsmodelle in ausgewählten Ländern: rechtliche Grundlagen, Regulierungskonzept, Akteurs- und Entscheidungsstrukturen, Präventionsmaßnahmen, aktuelle politische Diskussionen • Komparative Analyse der Modelle: Vergleich mit der Schweiz, Herausarbeitung von Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschieden, Entwicklung einer Typologie • Identifizierung von Good-Practice-Beispielen: steuerungstheoretisch basierte analytische Bewertung der Regulierungsmodelle; auf dieser Grundlage Identifizierung von Good-Practice-Beispielen (und ihrer nötigen Voraussetzungen im jeweiligen politischen und kulturellen Kontext) • Übertragbarkeit von Good-Practice-Modellen auf die Schweiz: Beurteilung aufgrund regulatorischer Herausforderungen sowie Kompatibilität mit dem schweizerischen politischen System; Erarbeitung eines Katalogs von Handlungsempfehlungen

    Regulierungs-Monitoring Ergänzungsprojekt 2013
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.12.2012
    End 30.09.2013
    Funding Other 
    Nachdem im ersten, noch bis Sommer 2013 laufenden Teil des Regulierungs-Monitorings die Themenbereiche „Lizenzierung von Privatrundfunk“ und „Finanzierung des öffentlichen Rundfunks“ untersucht wurden, wird mit diesem Projekt ergänzend der Regulierungsbereich „Medienförderung“ untersucht. Dieser Themenbereich ist sowohl von grosser praktischer/medienpolitischer als auch wissenschaftlicher Relevanz. So ist eine Neuordnung der Medienförderung in der Schweiz ein aktuell wichtiges und kontrovers diskutiertes Thema: Im Juni 2012 überwies das Parlament eine Motion zur Prüfung von Medien-Förderkonzepten. Auch in anderen Ländern inner- und ausserhalb Europas wird – angeregt durch die derzeitige Finanzierungskrise insbesondere von Tageszeitungen – über Medienförderung nachgedacht: In Österreich etwa wird momentan die Presseförderung evaluiert und in einigen deutschen Bundesländern wird über eine öffentliche Förderung von Privatrundfunk diskutiert (u. a. Bayern und Nordrhein-Westfalen). Der bisherige Forschungsstand bietet nur einen unzureichenden Überblick über existierende Modelle der Medienförderung. Zwar existieren theoretisch detailreich ausgearbeitete Typologien der Presseförderung (z. B. Puppis 2010: 172-176). Vergleichende empirische Analysen der tatsächlich eingesetzten Förderungsinstrumente sind jedoch rar und mit Ausnahme der vom BAKOM finanzierten Ecoplan-Studie zur Presseförderung (vgl. Ecoplan 2012) zumeist veraltet (vgl. Holtz-Bacha 1994; Humphreys 1996, AfK 1978; jährlich aktualisiert aber ohne Detailinformationen WAN-IFRA 2012). Die meisten Studien widmen sich der Analyse von Fördermodellen in einem einzelnen Land, wobei viele dieser Studien ebenfalls älteren Datums sind und die aktuelle Entwicklung nicht berücksichtigen (zu Österreich vgl. u. a. Trappel 2005; Dünser 1979; zur Schweiz vgl. Saxer 1992; Hugentobler 2003; zu Finnland vgl. Picard/Grönlund 2003; zu Deutschland vgl. Seufert/Gundlach 2012). Noch weniger ist über die Förderung von privatem Rundfunk in anderen Ländern bekannt, obwohl Formen des „Gebührensplittings“ beispielsweise auch in Österreich und Irland existieren (vgl. Künzler 2009).

Teaching and courses

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