The Caucasus Institute has engaged in media studies since its establishment in 2002, placing them in a context of political science and sociology rather than just communication studies. We have conducted media research in a variety of formats and using various methods, including:
- Armenian Media Quality Assessment, 2004-2007, a joint study conducted by the CI and the Institute of Applied Media Studies, Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Тwo papers were published in English: one on print media and the other on broadcast media. The study focused on elaborating a methodology for assessing media quality in transition countries and the extent to which the media are fulfilling their role to promote democracy. The methodology was then given a test run using Armenian media as a case study.
- Post Soviet Media: From Propaganda To Journalism: an international conference and a volume edited by Vicken Cheterian and Nina Iskandaryan (Yerevan: CI, 2005. – 192 p.). The conference and the volume took forward the debate around the role played by news media in the post-totalitarian countries of the former USSR and Eastern Europe. Contributors included scholars from post-Soviet countries, Eastern and Western Europe.
- Monitoring of the media coverage of elections in 2007 using CoE methodology, and in 2012, using in-house CI methodology (content-analysis of socially relevant campaigning by political parties).
- Several studies based on media content analysis and aimed at understanding the quality and content of current discourses, including Tolerance in Armenian Mass Media. CI Policy Brief #1, 2009; Nationalism in Armenian Media. CI Policy Brief #4, 2011; and: Armenia and the Armenians, Turkey and the Turks in Armenian Media Coverage. CI Policy Brief #3, 2010 (all available online in Armenian and English).
- A sociological study of media markets and media sustainability strategies, called Media Environment And Attitudes To Media In Armenia and published as CI Policy Brief #2, 2010, in Armenian, English and Russian.
Apart from this, the CI produced research on the media published in its collections of papers, looking at media development trends, roles, post-Soviet history of the media etc.