Since 2012, Media4Change analysts have been monitoring and analyzing how Lithuanian media portrays the most stigmatised groups of society. We deliver results and a summary of analysis to the public, give feedback, and invite media actors to discuss their practices. One of the media monitoring goals is to ensure that there are no silenced people in the media, and no cases of incitement to hatred, or escalated myths in the media that posses a challenge to the integration of those stigmatised groups. 

Every month, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Lithuanian media is conducted, meeting the international standards of media monitoring. The analysis aims to show how the media is covering topics of migration, mental health, sexual orientation, and religious and ethnic minorities, i.e., how and in what contexts people belonging to these social groups are portrayed, and how they are depicted.

In the research process, analysts monitor national and regional press and online media, as well as television and radio shows.

Criteria of the analysis:

• Contextual: In what context (positive, negative, or neutral) these groups are portrayed?
• Giving voice to the group: Was a representative of the group interviewed or the group is represented by others (e.g., experts)

In 2020 our research team monitored and analysed public political communication in the light of Lithuanian parliamentary elections. At the time of their campaign, politicians tend to talk more about various social problems. Questions related to human rights are also an integral part of the campaign before the election. In order to analyze politicians’ statements on human rights, our team researched and monitored their political communication both in traditional media and social media channels – national and regional press, online media, television and radio shows, and content on social media network Facebook. Information was categorized by topics: ethnic minorities, religion, mental health, social and socio-economic problems, sexual orientation, migration, racism, and addictions.