The European Journalism Observatory is designed to build bridges connecting journalism cultures across Europe and the U.S., facilitating collaboration between media researchers and practitioners. By making the results of media research accessible to broader audiences, studying "best practices" in journalism and analyzing trends in the media industry, the European Journalism Observatory (EJO - http://www.eu-online.eu/ and www.ejo.ch) strives to improve the quality of journalism, contribute to a richer understanding of media, and to foster press freedom. The fundamental goal for EJO is to reduce the gap between communications research and the world beyond the Ivory Tower.
Established in the spring of 2004 as a non-profit institute of the Università della Svizzera italiana, EJO is a developing network of collaborating research institutes based in 12 countries (to date: Albania, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States). Support for EJO is provided by the Fondazione per il Corriere del Ticino, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Stiftung Pressehaus NRZ.

The China Media Observatory (CMO) was created in September 2006 by the Faculty of communication sciences at the Università della Svizzera italiana. It aims at systematically monitoring the transformation and evolution of the media industry and communication studies in China in the context of its modern transition with regards to the economic, political, social and cultural dimensions. The Observatory hosts a documentation center which collects materials including books published in Europe, North America and China with the topics about China in the media and communication field, China media industry yearbooks, academic/conference papers, Ph.D. dissertations, etc. Most of the materials are in English and Chinese, some in Italian and other languages as well, and all of them are free-available to students, researchers and other scholars in relevant fields. The Observatory also produces periodically dossiers (the CMO newsletter) on different specific aspects of the media and communication in China. In function of the activities it carries out, the Observatory not only favours scholar-exchanges for teaching and research purposes, but also fosters collaboration with European universities, which have started several academic activities about research on media in China, as well as with Chinese universities, which are interested in research projects cooperation, scholar-exchanges in scientific teaching field, and students exchanges for summer school. In 2007 CMO signed an agreement protocol with Communication University of China which lead to joint activities and events such as the conference and publication focused on the studies of "Communications in the Olympics"; another joint course "Swiss-China Media Summer/Winter Camp" which is financed by SSSTC (Sino Swiss Science & Technology Cooperation Program) will also start in the May of 2012.
Website http://www.chinamediaobs.org/