At the time of writing this panel proposal, the research project Media for Democracy Monitor (MDM) 2020 is collecting data in the field for 24 countries. In May 2020, all country teams will meet in a workshop and discuss country-by-country findings, as well as umbrella topics from a comparative analysis. Country authors present at the IAMCR Conference will report these findings in the proposed panel for the first time. So far, only preliminary results on Austria are available. However, the paper will focus on the most salient and characteristic similarities and differences of Austria compared to the other countries in the sample. In addition, the paper will focus on one specific topic which will be determined in a workshop in May 2020, which is significant for all 24 countries in the MDM 2020.
The paper presentation on Austria will focus on the ongoing media ownership concentration and the economic implications of the digital platforms serving as news providers for a growing share of the population. Compared to 2010, the newsrooms in Austria are smaller and have to be more efficient. While some inequalities, such as gender imbalances in the newsrooms, are on the retreat, new challenges occur with regard to digital representation of the leading news media online. First results show that Austrian newsrooms are not well prepared for these digital challenges.