Consortium
Austria – Medienhaus Wien GmbH (MHW)
Brief description of the legal entity
The Medienhaus Wien is an independent media research and training company based in Vienna. It contributes to professionalisation and quality of media. The Medienhaus Wien puts an emphasis on research projects related to practise as well as on qualification and professional training for journalists. The team of Medienhaus Wien consists of experts in journalism, media research and journalism education, and operates in a multidisciplinary national and international network.
Main tasks/previous experience relevant to those tasks
One of the main research interests of the Medienhaus Wien is the support of the development of a media accountability system in Austria. The Medienhaus Wien has carried out all the relevant studies in this field. With the help of comparative data and the analysis of international models and scientific analysis, the experts want to pave the way to an improved media accountability system in Austria. Based on general reflections about media ethics, Medienhaus Wien identified prerequisites for successful forms of media self-regulation and self-organisation in the media sector, also via discussions with central stakeholders.
As the Medienhaus Wien is experienced with research about media self-regulation, its team will be occupied with the development of the methodological design and instruments to analyse the different status of media accountability systems. Another main task of Matthias Karmasin and his team will be the development of a best practise guidebook. Given its operating experience with media representatives, the Austrian team will organise the workshop with media managers on MAS.
Short profile of the staff member
Matthias Karmasin, PhD, is the academic director of Medienhaus Wien. Furthermore, he is a full professor and chair for media and communications sciences at the University of Klagenfurt. He is an expert for media accountability and he has published extensively on media ethics and media management, political communication, communication theory and media practise. Karmasin has developed the media stakeholders’ theory. Recently, he has published an empirical study about the Austrian media and their managers. His professional experiences include business consultancy as well as several stations abroad.
Daniela Kraus (born 1972) historian, co-founder and managing director of “Medienhaus Wien”. After several scholarships and working for different media companies she was a coworker at Kaltenbrunner Media Consulting having her emphasis on media and market evaluation, media training and media education. Since 2005 she is managining director of „Medienhaus Wien”, an independent media research and training company based in Vienna with an emphasis on research projects related to practise as well as on qualification and professional training for journalists. Kraus has been managing several research projects on the development of journalism and on journalism training; she is lecturing at the Universities of Vienna and Klagenfurt. Among her recent publications: “Der Journalisten-Report II. Österreichs Medienmacher und ihre Motive.” (together with Kaltenbrunner/ Karmasin/ Zimmermann, 2008) and „Austria: The Success Story of Separate Newsrooms“ (in: Fioretti, Natascha (ed.): Merging Media,Converging Newsrooms, 2009). For a full list of publications see www.medienhaus-wien.at
Andy Kaltenbrunner (born 1962), political scientist, is co-founder of Medienhaus Wien. Kaltenbrunner worked as a political journalist and editor-in-chief for newspapers and magazines (e.g. the weekly “Profil”) since the early 1980s. He has developed several media-projects, print and online. Today is a media-advisor, researcher and lecturer in Austria, Germany and Spain. He initiated and led various educational and research projects, among them “Selbstregulierung und Selbstorganisation in österreichischen Printmedien. Medienethische Überlegungen, internationale Best Practice-Modelle und Grundlagen für ein österreichisches Modell“ (2006) on Media Accountability in Austria. For a full list of projects and publications see www.medienhaus-wien.at
Judith Leitner (born 1982), pedagogue. She has been working for Frauennetzwerk Medien – Austrian Network for Female Journalists, ORF Mediaresearch and Kaltenbrunner Media Consulting. She has also been in various schools for practical trainings. She is working as a scientific assistent at "Medienhaus Wien" since 2005.
Klaus Bichler (born 1984), is a communication researcher. After working as a journalist for TV and radio stations in Austria, he started to work as a scientific assistent at „Medienhaus Wien“. He is also working as a tutor at the Institute for Journalism and Communication Research at University of Vienna.
