Published work
Published reports and news articles authored by Luba Kassova
Why are Bulgarians losing interest in the news and how can it be reignited? A gaze from a distance
This article was published by the Association of Bulgarian Journalists and is dedicated to exploring how journalism could change in Bulgaria and around the world for audiences to deepen their relationship with the news and, importantly, to stop escaping. The transformation that journalism must consider is one from being a scarecrow to becoming a travel guide.
Защо българите и хората по света обръщат гръб на новините и как да променим това?
This article examines why audiences in Bulgaria and around the world are turning away from the news and what the industry must do to reverse what sometimes feels like exodus. Luba Kassova wrote the piece following her speech on the topic at Dir.bg's 25 Online journalism conference held in Sofia in May 2023.
4 ways to improve global coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine
This piece offers a local Ukrainian perspective on what story angles are missing from global news coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Luba and AKAS were able to validate the ideas that the Ukrainian journalists shared by conducting content analysis of millions of news articles using GDELT online news database. The findings expose a clear delineation between the war angles emphasised by news outlets in the global south vs the global north.
UK news coverage of women-focused issues down a fifth in five years
In advance of International Women's Day Luba asked herself whose worries, stories and voices had been heard in the news in the UK and globally in recent years. To tackle this question she and AKAS turned to big [GDELT] data analysis. This article for the Press Gazette unveiled the surprising results.
How journalism can uncover women’s hidden stories within the cost of living crisis
This is the third in a three-part article series that Luba authored for IJNet dedicated to unearthing key findings in From Outrage to Opportunity. It explores the hidden story angles about women affected by the cost-of-living crisis. Too often women's unique and structural challenges remain hidden within macro story angles that news providers focus on when reporting the crisis-of-living crisis. This article opens the curtains to reveal some of them.
How to make room for the diverse perspectives of women in the news
How Ukrainian women`s stories became forgotten by the media
News coverage of systemic gender gaps is virtually nonexistent. We can change that.
In this first in a series of three solutions-based articles, Luba explores one of the news industry’s main blind spots: failing to recognize or report on the longstanding systemic gaps between men and women that grant men unfair advantages over women. She explains why this is the case and offers ideas about how to change it based on interviews with dozens of senior editors across the globe.
Women in Politics and Access to Media in Nigeria
This opinion piece for TVC News explores news media’s role in amplifying women’s severely marginalised voices in Nigeria ahead of the general elections. Luba finds that in all the countries researched, including Nigeria, news operates more as a mirror of society than a megaphone for marginalised voices. Audiences feel increasingly disenfranchised but there are solutions to changing this.
Why this song could never have been written about a man. The high price of being a woman in politics
This article, published by a leading online news provider in Bulgaria, tackles the asymmetrical treatment of women politicians by the news media and the media’s ability to undermine/destroy female politicians’ careers by amplifying pro-male/anti-female biases. Bulgarian news media has played a devastating role in Lena Borislavova’s political career. The article offers solutions for what can be done to intercept news reporting biases. You can find a version in English here.
