Public media service media in countries with fragile democracy in Europe: the case of Kosovo

In the era of the internet, with the rapid evolvement of innovative technologies, digitalisation continues to affect the media industry. Meanwhile, platform regulation, which has been at the center of the debate of policymakers and digital scholars (Gorwa, 2019), still has loopholes, despite regulations in place, mainly by European Institutions. Regulating the digital space has proven to be hardly answered only through vertical governance. Public Service Media (PSM) has a public responsibility and a strong role to play in democratic practices on freedom of media and the right to be informed. This policy brief discusses the need to safeguard the independence of PSM within the current trends and technologies. It discusses the new form of tailoring content accordingly to audience needs by having in target the generation of Zillennials, known as Gen-Z. Kosovo is the specific case in this brief, because of its specifics of a country with the youngest population in Europe, with multiple social and political that challenge on country’s path to building a sustainable democracy. It discusses what role can the public broadcaster play in a smallsized and divided ethnicities environment, while providing a vibrant and pluralist media market.