Contemporary research shows that despite common trends shaping media systems across countries, geographical, sociopolitical, economic, linguistic, and national-cultural characteristics continue to exert significant influence on national media systems. It is now critically important to analyze the development patterns of ethnic media — media in the national languages of a country's ethnic groups — in the context of broader national media system trends, while accounting for the linguistic, cultural, economic, and territorial specificities of each region.

At the Moscow Readings 2026 conference we welcome a cross-cultural discussion aimed at identifying how digital inequality and other technological challenges influence communication processes among ethnic groups in Global North and Global South countries, and at finding promising pathways for the development of ethnic media in the context of digitalization.