1. MACRO FIELD: ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, CULTURAL VARIABLES
1.1 History and political-economic development of Malta from the Independence up to the present date
1.1.1 Independence and Republic
Malta has a rich history spanning 7000 years which have seen a succession of foreign conquerors ruling the islands. After the Knights of Malta had ruled for almost 300 years, and later on a brief French interlude of only two years since 1800, the British liberated the country. In 1814, Malta voluntarily became part of the British Empire and started a 160 year period of British rule that led the land turn into a military and naval fortress, the headquarters of the British Mediterranean fleet, also supporting the UK through both World Wars. This condition lasted until 1964, when Malta achieved its Independence.
Under its 1964 constitution, Malta became a parliamentary democracy within the Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II was Malta's sovereign, and a general governor exercised executive authority on her behalf, while the actual direction and control of the government and the nation's affairs were in the hands of the Cabinet under the leadership of a Maltese Prime Minister. In December 1974, the constitution was revised, and Malta became a republic within the Commonwealth, with executive authority vested in a Maltese President, which can be exercised directly or through officers subordinate to him. Being a member of the Commonwealth, a intergovernmental organization and not a political union, has enabled Malta to enjoy benefits in the form of developmental support and collaboration towards the achievement of international
goals, which includes the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace.1
The global recession of the 1980s led to the collapse of Malta's shipbuilding industry. The country underwent a major structural adjustment to its economy in the 1990s, when the public sector was reduced and state-owned enterprises were privatized. As a matter of fact, expansion of tourism and liberalization of investment, international trade, fiscal policy and the financial-services sector led to steady growth, averaging nearly 5% over the decade. A long period of good, steady growth came to an end in 2001, as export demand fell and the economy stalled during 2001-2005. After four years of stagnation, growth resumed at 2.4% in 2005.
From the political point of view instead, since its independence the party electoral system has shown similar characteristics to the British model. Two parties have dominated Malta’s polarized and evenly divided politics: the Christian democratic Partit Nazzjonalista (Nationalist Party) and the social democratic Partit Laburista (Labour Party). There are a number of smaller political parties in Malta that presently have no parliamentary representation.
Finally, in 2003 there was called a national referendum that ratified, with 53.65% consensus, Malta’s accession to the European Union, which Adhesion Treaty came into force in 2004, and consequently it adopted euro as currency in 2008. This fact further enhances the country’s attractiveness as a centre for international business in the Euro-Mediterranean region, although it is the smallest state member in terms of dimensions. As well as being a member of the EU and of its related embodies (Schengen Agreement since 2007, Eurozone since 2008), Malta continues to be an active participant in the United Nation (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).2
1
<www.thecommonweatlh.org/what_we_do/> 2
1.1.2 Government and politics
As mentioned above, Malta is a parliamentary representative democratic republic, modeled on the Westminster system. Every Maltese citizen who is over 18 years of age has the right to vote.
Legislative power is vested both in the Parliament of Malta, which consists of the President and the unicameral House of Representatives, and in the executive. The House of Representatives is made up of between 65 and 69 Members of Parliament. Elections to the House of Representatives are based on direct universal suffrage through single transferable vote - where the surplus votes of an elected candidate are transferred to the candidate receiving the second preference votes- every five years, unless the House is dissolved earlier by the President on advice of the Prime Minister. However, where a party wins an absolute majority of votes, but does not have a majority of seats, that party is given additional seats to ensure a parliamentary majority.
The President of Malta is the constitutional Head of State, who is appointed by the House of Representative every five years, with executive powers remaining with the Prime Minister of Malta, who is the Head of Government and the Cabinet. The Constitution of Malta provides that the President appoints as Prime Minister the member of the House who is best able to command a governing majority in the House. The president also nominally appoints, upon recommendation of the Prime Minister, the individual Ministers to head each of the Government Departments.
As the third power, Malta's judiciary is independent. The Chief justice and 18 judges, one of whom is currently serving in an international court, are appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister after consultation with the leader of the opposition. The highest court, the Constitutional Court, judges cases involving violations of human rights, interpretation of the constitution, and invalidity of laws. It also has jurisdiction in cases concerning disputed parliamentary elections and electoral corrupt practices. There is a civil court, a family court, and a criminal court.
With regard to the local government, since 1993 Malta is divided into 68 elected local councils, with each council responsible for the administration of cities or regions of varying sizes. Administrative responsibility is distributed between the local councils and the central government in Valletta. There are no intermediate levels between local government and national government. Local councils are responsible for the general
upkeep and embellishment of the locality, allocation of local wardens and refuse collection; they also carry out general administrative duties for the central government such as collection of government rents and funds and answer government-related public inquiries.3
Concerning the political conditions, the party system is characterized for its unique polarity, which is also reflected on the media contest, as it will be noticed later on the analysis in this chapter and in the following one.
The main political parties are the Nationalist Party, that is currently at the helm of the government with the Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, and the Labour Party in opposition, with Joseph Muscat as its leader. The margin between the two parties is so narrow that a 52% share of the votes is considered a "landslide" for the winning party. Considering its restricted number of voters, elections invariably generate a widespread turnout; in March 2008 the turnout was 93%. Therefore, for its peculiar political setting, Malta is one of the country with the highest turnout in Europe.
This polarity is unchanged since 1964 and third parties have always failed to score any electoral success. Just to mention the next-to-last elections, in March 2008 the Nationalist Party won reelection with 49.3% of the vote, earning 35 seats, while the Labor Party received 48.8% of the vote (and 34 seats).
While the two main parties dominate, two other parties were on the ballot, Alternativa Demokratika (Green Party) and Azzjoni Nazzjonali (National Action); neither managed to secure a seat in parliament. Alternativa Demokratika (a Green Party established in 1989) managed to secure only 1.31% of the first preference votes nationwide, as you can observe from the following table.
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Figure 1. Summary of the March 2008 House of Representatives of Malta election result4
Parties Votes % Seats
Nationalist Party 143368 49.34 35
Malta Labour Party 141888 48.79 34
Alternativa Demokratika 3810 1.31
National Action 1461 0.50
Imperium Europa 84 0.03
Gozitan Party 37 0.01
Independents 22 0.01
Alpha Liberal Democrats 21 0.02
Forward Malta 8 0.00
Total (turnout 93.3%) 290799 100.00 69
The first elections of European Parliament were held on June 2004 and resulted in the election of two candidates from the governing Nationalist Party and three from the opposition Malta Labor Party. The next elections for the European Parliament took place in June 2009. 5
Owing to these data, it is feasible to get an early sense of the peculiar Maltese political scenery and it becomes clear that being a member of the British Empire and the Commonwealth has allowed Malta, on the one hand, often to play a crucial role in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea for more than a century, but, on the other hand, has avoided an autonomous dawn and development of the political-economic system, as reflecting the Westminster model.
4
Source: Department of Information (DOI)
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1.2 Demographic-economic variables analysis
Due to the size of the island and of the population, demographic-economic and social-cultural Maltese situations are strictly interconnected and influence each other in deep. All official population and economic data are provided by the National Statistics Office (NSO), unless otherwise stated.
1.2.1 Population and migration
Malta is the most densely populated country in the EU and one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The last census was held over four years ago, in November 2005, and managed to count an estimated 96% of the population. The census registered a population density of 1298 per square kilometer, on a surface of 316 km², and 404962 inhabitants, including foreign residents. According to these data, the population estimated for 2008 was 413609 and is expected to reach 424028 by 2025. The only census year showing a fall in population was that of 1967, with a 1.7% total decrease, attributable to a substantial number of Maltese residents who emigrated. It is possible to observe the trend indicating the population growth staring at the diagram below.
Figure 2. Evolution of demography in Malta (1961-2003)6
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Native Maltese people make up the majority of the island, representing 95.3% of the population. However there are minorities, the largest of which are British people, many of whom retired on the island (1.6%). Other ethnic groups are totally estimated about 3.1% of the population.
The population’s age composition is similar to the age structure prevalent in the EU. The 0-14 years group constitutes 17.1% of the population, whereas the 15-64 years group represents 69.1%. The over 65 years forms 13.7% of the inhabitants. Malta’s old-age-dependency ratio is expected to continue rising steadily in the coming years, due to British pensioners.
The distinguishing characteristics of the overall population are the religion and the bilingualism, as formerly mentioned, but these are social-cultural features which will be deepened in the next paragraph.
As regards to migration, the island has seen emigration of a large portion of their people to live elsewhere, and Maltese communities exist throughout Europe (Italy, Spain, United Kingdom), while larger Maltese immigrant communities are in Australia, Canada and United States. The main Maltese migration patterns are resumed in the table below.
Figure 3. Maltese migration patterns (1946-1996)7
Country To From Net migration Return %
Australia 86787 17847 68940 21.56 Canada 19792 4798 14997 24.24 UK 31489 12659 18830 40.20 USA 11601 2580 9021 22.24 Other 1647 907 740 55.07 Total 155060 39087 115973 25.21
Familiarity with the English language assisted Maltese migrants to assimilate in their adopted countries: extensive interaction between Maltese emigrants in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, and their relatives in Malta, has brought Maltese culture closer to the English speaking world. As a consequence,
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English-speaking population, an increase in the number of foreign expatriates moving to Malta, especially British retirees, and a fairly-good emigrants return rate to homeland (between 20-40%) strengthen the role of this language in the country economy and in politics, creating an increasingly cosmopolitan environment in the towns and villages of Malta.
Alike relevant to the analysis are, instead, immigrants who have reached Malta in the last years, as the island forms a part on the central Mediterranean route for irregular immigration. From 2005, Maltese government sought EU aids in relation to reception of irregular immigrants, repatriation of those denied refugee status, resettlement of refugees into EU countries and maritime security. Since the same year, around 45% of immigrants landed in Malta have been granted refugee (5%) or protected humanitarian status (40%).
Lately, many immigrants have perished in the journey across the Mediterranean, with one notable incident being the May 2007 Malta migrant boat disaster. As noticed from the latest summer news in 2009, Maltese government is asking again for help from other EU countries. If the current influx of illegal immigrants is maintained next years, Malta will find itself in big difficulties and it cannot handle this situation on its own, even because the new arrivals are having a disturbing affect on national politics, causing the emerging of a new far-right and anti-immigrant party (National Action). The government attitude has put the island in an awkward position in respect to other EU countries, especially Italy, as regards the respect for human rights.
1.2.2 Economy
Presently, Malta’s main resources are limestone, a favorable geographic location in the Mediterranean, at one of the southernmost points of the European Union, and a productive labor force. With the help of a propitious international economic climate and industrial policies that support foreign export-oriented investments, the economy has been able to sustain a period of rapid growth. During the 1990s, Malta’s economic growth has generally continued, although it produces only about 20% of its food need, has limited fresh water supplies, and has few domestic energy sources, even if it has great potential for solar and wind power.
At present, the economy is dependent on foreign trade, manufacturing and tourism. During the first months of 2008, the country maintained a rate of economic growth of about 3.5%. High-educated, English-speaking population, Malta has became a strong manufacturing base for high value-added products, such as electronics and pharmaceuticals, and this sector has more than 250 foreign-owned, export-oriented enterprises. In 2008, the island has ranked as the 32nd country in the Human Development Index of the ONU, as it has a very advanced system of education and wealth, among others.
Moreover, the Maltese right-side government has pursued a policy of gradual economic liberalization and privatization (e.g. Maltapost), in order to prepare for membership in the European Union, taking some steps to shift the emphasis in trade and financial policies from reliance on direct government intervention and control to policy regimes that allow a greater role for market mechanism.
Tourism arrivals, infrastructure and foreign exchange earnings derived from tourism have steadily increased over the years, thus overdevelopment and destruction of traditional housing is of growing concern.
Finally, film producing is another rising and growing industry (approximately 1400000 euro between 1997 and 2002) , despite stiff competition from other film locations in Eastern Europe and North Africa, with Malta Film Commission providing several big-budget foreign films (Gladiator, Troy, Munich and Count of Monte Cristo were shot in the island), commercials and television series shooting each year.8
In short, Malta’s demographic-economic setting is distinguished by a unique demographic situation, also influenced by the recent immigrations, which has impact on the parties organization and on the representative system, and is characterized by an economic stability.
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1.3 Social-cultural variables analysis
The culture of Malta is a reflection of various cultures that have come into contact with the Maltese Islands throughout the centuries, including neighboring Mediterranean cultures, and the cultures of the nations that ruled Malta for long periods of time prior to its independence in 1964. The distinguishing social-cultural features of Malta are the following.
1.3.1 Religion
As a result of the rule of the Knights, Malta became the devout Catholic nation that is today. The Constitution of Malta provides for freedom of religion, but establishes Roman Catholicism as the state religion. The Church of Malta reports that 98% of the population is Roman Catholic, making the nation one of the most Catholic countries in the world, even if the last census reports that, as of 2005, only 52.6% of the population attended religious services on a regular basis.9 However, the religious pride is manifested in spectacular fashion during the local village festas, which mark the day of the patron saint of each parish with marching bands, religious processions, special Masses and other festivities.
There is also one Muslim mosque and a Muslim primary school recently opened, which existence remains a point of some controversy.
Some governmental policies reflect the teachings of Catholicism. The most relevant are a ban on divorce and prohibition of abortion. Together with Ireland and Poland, Malta is one of the last countries in EU which have not legalized abortion yet. Abortion in Malta was completely banned in 1981, changing a prior law which allowed it to be performed to save the lives of pregnant women. At the time when Malta joined the European Union, in 2004, the government signed an official paper in which is stated that any Treaty could influence the Maltese abortion policy.10 Therefore the Catholic Church makes its presence and its influence felt in everyday life.
9
<www.maltachurch.org.mt>
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1.3.2 Language and education
As previously indicated, Malta has two official language, Maltese and English. The former is the only Semitic language within the EU which is written in Roman alphabet, while the latter is a leftover of about 160 years of British colonization of the island, recognized by the Constitution as country’s language in 1934. Italian, too, is widely spoken among the younger generation, particularly due to the television programmes which are transmitted from nearby Italy.
The Eurobarometer states that 100% of the population speaks Maltese, 88% is able to speak English, 66% Italian and 17% French, showing a greater degree of linguistic capabilities than most other European countries11. As I could see in three months, most of the young people speak almost perfectly three languages, usually Maltese, English and Italian. In fact, multilingualism is a common phenomenon in the country, with these three languages used in everyday life. Thus, Maltese citizens take advantage of this situation for being more competitive and flexible in the labor market and in the networked information economy.
Education is likewise important. Due to its colonial past, Malta's state school sector draws its main inspiration from the British educational system: the institutions - State, private, and religious - provide an extensive system which caters for all requirements. Schooling is compulsory between the age of 5 and 16 years, but kindergarten classes are provided from the age of 3 and more than 54% of students continue with their education and training after the age of 16. English and Maltese are both used to teach students at primary and secondary school level, and both are also mandatory subjects. Public schools tend to use both Maltese and English in a balanced manner, while private ones, boasting about providing better education, prefer to use English for teaching, as it is also the case with most Departments of the University of Malta. This has a limiting effect on the capacity and development of the Maltese language. I ascertained this fact personally, as my tutor, Alexandra Bondi Cefai, a Junior Marketing Project Manager who has studied in private schools and University, is not able to write in Maltese properly but only to speak in a formal way, and she often switches language from Maltese to English, but not vice versa.
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Therefore, it is evident that Maltese government endorses a high, well-educated population as a fundamental labor force: it is demonstrated by the fact that more than half students continue studying after the compulsory age and that the literacy of the overall population is very high, touching 93%. In addition, on the contrary of our school system, the Maltese Department of Education promote and support literacy by providing scholars a financial grant during their course of study.
These three components (religion, languages and education), besides of being parts of the social-cultural system, are all interconnected key factors of the media landscape and economic-political setting, in which they reflect themselves and on which they have influence.
1.3.3 Communications
The media landscape is the most important variable for the purpose of my research work, especially because Malta has quite a unique setting when it comes to the mass media: few other democratic countries has such a strong media ownership from the political parties. The island has a dual system of public and commercial media. Contrary to other European countries, the two main political parties have their own media outlets: both the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party have their own television and radio stations, newspapers and news websites (apart from party websites).
Moreover, the country has an over-saturation of local media outlets, as there are 7 television stations, 38 national and community radio stations, 5 daily and 7 Sunday newspapers and a host of general readership and specialized magazines. Clearly, some of these outlets reach wider audiences and are better than others, but the fact remains that in terms of sheer numbers, Malta has more media outlets than the market can sustain. In fact, although most Maltese have been saying for a long time that airwaves are saturated, over the last decade the number of broadcasting organizations has increased, not decreased.
For these sections, all data are kindly provided by Malta Communication Authority and by Where’s Everybody databases, unless otherwise stated.
Press
The presence of the institutions – Church, political parties, unions – in the print media is not as large as their presence in the broadcasting media, as will be outlined below. In addition, and this is fundamental, they are also absent from the ownership of the newspapers published in English. Only the main Union, the General Workers Union, owns a newspaper but it is not represented in the broadcasting media, while the others have no newspaper, TV or radio stations.
Even if newspapers are definitively losing out to radio and television (and radio itself is losing to television) as preferred source of news, there is still a high number of daily and weekly newspapers. Due to bilingualism, half of the newspapers are published in English and the other half in Maltese. The most widely read and financially the strongest newspapers are published by Allied Newspapers Ltd., mainly The Times (27%), the oldest daily newspaper still on sale in the Maltese archipelago, and The Sunday Times (51.6%).
The Sunday newspaper It-Torca (The Torch), subsidiary of the Labour Party, is the paper with the biggest circulation in the Maltese language. Its sister paper, L-Orizzont, is the Maltese daily with biggest circulation. The Nationalist Party owns the daily In-Nazzjon and the Sunday newspaper Il-Mument. Moreover, whilst The Times purports to be politically independent, it is perceived by section of the Maltese public as being conservative-leaning, an independent voice of the Nationalist Party, holding tight to its Christian values. These political media outlets do more than push an editorial line which leans towards the policies of the party which owns them: they are mouth pieces of that party. Clearly, as a reflection of the bipolar political system, the Maltese media scenario is appreciably politicized.
As in the rest of Europe, advertising, sales and subsidies are the three main methods of financing newspapers and magazines. However, most of the papers tied to institutions are subsidies by the same institutions, depending on advertising or subsidies from their owners.
The print media is characterized by self-regulation and, in addition, there is the Press Ethics Commission, set up by the Institute of Maltese Journalists in early ninety’s. However, in that setting resulted from the relatively small size of the industry and the intense competition, it sounds unusual that there are no Maltese news agencies: for the
coverage of the international news the media depends on foreign news agencies, mainly Reuters, followed by The Associated Press.
To give a general idea of the saturated Maltese print media framework, a summarizing table is findable below (Sundays newspapers are listed with their corresponding dailies).
Figure 4. Malta main Newspapers and Magazines
Title Type Media Focus Language Ownership
The Times (The Sunday Times)
News General
Interest
English Allied
Newspapers The Malta Independent
(The Malta Independent on Sunday)
News General
Interest
English Standard
Publications
Malta Today (Malta Today on Sunday)
News General
Interest
English Media Today
In-Nazzjon (Il-Mument) News General
Interest
Maltese Media Link
Communication
It-Torca (L-Orizzont) News General
Interest
Maltese One Productions
Manic! Magazine Music English Standard
Publications
Business Weekly Magazine Finance English Standard
Publications
Malta Right Now Magazine Culture English Media Link
Communication
Maltastar Magazine Culture English One Productions
Illum Magazine Politics Maltese Media Today Ltd
It is interesting to notice that, although sport events are diffusely discussed in all the newspapers, a specific sport daily or magazine does not exist yet.
Radio
The presence of radio stations is very high and concentrated. There are 12 national radio stations (including those broadcasted from Italy) and 26 community radio stations with a permanent license, so in all there are 38 stations for a little more than 400000 people. The state, the political parties, the Church and the University own radio and/or television stations: Radio 101 and Super One Radio belong to Right and Left respectively, while RTK is the Church-owned station and Campus FM, which forms part of the Malta University Broadcasting, is the University of Malta's radio station, broadcasting educational programmes of a formal and informal nature.
Bay Radio is, overall, the most preferred station (23.2 %) but, of significance, is that only Super One Radio and Calypso Radio have audiences that cover all the age groups, followed by Smash Radio, RTK and X-FM.
Television
This is only an overall look on the television framework: it will be thoroughly developed in the next chapter, while I will be discussing the micro field variables, as Where’s Everybody is mainly a TV production company that sells its programmes to the public and private sectors.
In spite of a growing raise in the use of Internet and ICT, as all the broadcasting and print media are present on the Web, television remains the most common and the wide-spreading mass media in Malta: just bear in mind that 99% of the houses have at least one TV set.
The main fact that leaps to the eye is that there are 7 main nationwide television channels, maybe more than in Italy: TVM, One Television, NET Television, Smash Television, Favourite Channel, ITV and Education22, currently transmitted by analogue terrestrial, free-to-air signals, since the Malta Communications Authority set the changeover date to digital TV at the end of 2010. Cable, terrestrial and satellite reception are all available, though the cable service is still the most diffused: cable subscriptions reached almost 80% of Maltese households in 2006, but an increasing number of houses are owning satellite dishes to receive other European TV networks, such as the BBC from Great Britain and RAI from Italy.
As for the press, the state and the political parties grant most of the fundings of these television stations. The Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) is the state-owned station (as the Italian RAI), it is a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and it airs TVM and Education22, a kids TV channel. Media Link Communications Ltd, broadcasting NET Television, and One Productions Ltd are affiliated with the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party respectively. While the former channels are state or parties owned, the latter are privately owned: Smash TV is a a neutral TV station whereby different opinions on politics inter alia are expressed, Favourite Channel is the local Gozitan TV channel and, at least, ITV is a 24-hour shopping channel. According to statistics of 2008,while TVM attains the highest amount of consumers (34.87%), One TV maintains the second ranking in customers’ reach (11.20%). It is to underline the widespread broadcasting of Italian TV programmes, as Italia 1 reaches a fairly good position amongst the most watched TV channels (6.67%), followed by that of Rai 1 (6.50%).
The Broadcasting Authority supervises all national and local broadcasting stations and ensures that these services consist of public, private and community broadcasts that offer varied and comprehensive programming to cater for all interests and tastes.
It is evident that mostly owners of the TV stations are the same of the radio and the press outlets. Therefore it is possible to affirm that the media market is entrusted to few companies. The main authorities – state, Church and political parties – all retain more than one media outlets each. It should be noted that, although the Maltese government in office is Right wing, the most read newspaper in local language and the second ranking radio and TV stations are those belonging to the Labour Party. This confirms that the margin between the two is so fleeting that, in fact, the Left could be considered as an opposition government.
Figure 5 gives a clear evidence of the comprehensive over-saturated Maltese media landscape and of the main ownerships.
Figure 5. Malta main media ownerships
Company Affiliation TV channels Radio
stations Newspapers & Magazines Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) State-owned TVM Education22 Radjumalta Magic - Media Link Communication Right party-owned
NET TV Radio 101 In-Nazzjon
Il-Mument Malta Right Now
One Productions Left
party-owned
One TV Super One It-Torca
L-Orizzont Maltastar
RTK Church-owned - RTK -
Smash Communication
Private-owned Smash TV Smash Radio -
Melita Private-owned Favourite channel
ITV Bay Radio X-FM - Calypso Media Communication Private-owned - Radio Calypso -
Allied Newspapers Private-owned - - The Times
Standard Publications
Private-owned - - The Malta
Independent Business Weekly
First Manic!
Media Today Private-owned - - Malta Today
Business Today Illum
Internet
There has been a rapid increase in the use of Internet broadband among the island. Over the last few years, the government has made the development of its ICT capacities and connectivity into a major policy platform, opening up new possibilities following this
expansion and the introduction of digital transmissions. As a result, the country has made great strides forward in this sector.
In one of the latest i2010 EU mid-term reviews (April 2008) Malta placed as follows, more than the EU average and amongst the technologically advanced:
Figure 6. Malta ICT capacities compared to EU average12
ICT capacities and connectivity Malta
%
EU % average
Malta’s ranking amongst EU 27
Households with broadband as a % of households with Internet
82% 77% 11th
Households with an Internet connection 54% 54% 12th
Enterprises with broadband access 89% 77% 4th
Basic public services for citizens online 92% 51% 2nd
Basic public services for enterprises fully available online
100% 72% 1st
People employed having ICT skills 21.3% 18.2% 5th
Persons employed having ICT specialist skills 3.3% 3.1% 9th
In addition, on the technological readiness pillar of the Global Competitiveness Report (WEF, 2008), Malta altogether ranks 27th out of 134 countries.
Figure 7. Malta’s connectedness13
Malta’s Technological Readiness Global ranking (134 countries)
Availability of latest technology 26th
Firm-level technology absorption 43rd
Laws relating to ICT 24th
Foreign Direct Investments and Technology Transfer
5th
Mobile telephone subscribers 44th
Internet users 44th
Broadband Internet Subscribers 31st
12
<http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/mid_term_review_2008>
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In view of Malta’s exceptional ICT connectedness, Internet is becoming more a part of the people’s way of life, at home and at work: the possibilities of the news technologies combined with the more traditional ones are expected to keep changing the Maltese mediascape and the media usage patterns of the Maltese.
Finally, from all these data it is obviously evident that Malta represents a peculiar setting rare to the point of being unique, under the demographic-economic perspective but especially from the social-cultural point of view. On the one hand, the strong Church influence in everyday life and the bilingual frame of the scholar and university system. On the other hand, the particular media landscape with whom they are strictly interrelated, defined by a highly concentration of ownerships in few hands, but also by an over-saturated market and a rapid increase of the broadband.
Briefly, all these features make Malta a favored laboratory for an approach from the mass media point of view and for a desirable transformation and evolution of the marketing tools.
