"Indigenous Digital Life offers a broad, wide-ranging account of how social media has become embedded in the lives of indigenous Australians. Centring on ten core themes-including identity, community, hate, desire and death-we seek to understand both the practice and broader politics of being Indige
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nous on social media. Rather than reproducing settler narratives of Indigenous 'deficiency', we approach Indigenous social media as a space of Indigenous action, production, and creativity; we see Indigenous social media users as powerful agents, who interact with and shape their immediate worlds with skill, flair and nous; and instead of being 'a people of the past', we show that indigenous digital life is often future-orientated, working towards building better relations, communities and worlds." (Publisher description)
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"Many people connected to the internet for the first time as they adapted to the challenges of COVID-19, while existing users embraced new digital tools and rediscovered old favourites. As a result, many of the indicators in our Global Digital Reports have seen remarkable levels of growth over the p
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ast 12 months. Social media delivered some of the most impressive numbers, with users increasing by more than 13 percent since our 2020 reports. Almost half a billion users joined social media in the past year, taking the global total to 4.2 billion in early 2021. Growth hasn’t just been about user numbers, though. The world’s mobile users now spend more time on their phones than they do watching television, clearly positioning the smartphone as today’s ‘first screen’. Ecommerce is another area that saw rapid growth in 2020, with many people moving their shopping online to mitigate the health risks associated with COVID-19. However, research suggests that the new ecommerce habits people adopted during lockdown will last well beyond the pandemic." (Page 3)
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"Wir leben in einer zunehmend digitalen Welt. Weltweit nutzen über vier Milliarden Menschen das Internet – seit 2011 hat sich die Zahl fast verdoppelt. Nach aktuellen Schätzungen werden im Jahr 2023 weltweit rund 30 Milliarden Geräte an das Internet angeschlossen sein. Die fortschreitende Digit
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alisierung kann den wirtschaftlichen Aufschwung in unseren Partnerländern massiv beschleunigen und das Leben von Millionen Menschen verbessern. Die Beseitigung der Armut, die Sicherstellung der Welternährung, mehr Bildung und die Bekämpfung des Klimawandels – nur mit echten Entwicklungssprüngen können wir die Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung noch erreichen. Die digitale Transformation kann das Fundament dafür bilden. Deshalb hat die Weltgemeinschaft die Chancen digitaler Innovationen auch in vier der 17 Ziele der Agenda 2030 explizit hervorgehoben – SDGs: hochwertige Bildung (4), Geschlechtergleichheit (5), Industrie, Innovation und Infrastruktur (9) und Partnerschaft zur Erreichung der Ziele (17). Auch die COVID-19-Pandemie hat die Bedeutung und Notwendigkeit der digitalen Transformation aufgezeigt. Digitale Lösungen sind ein wichtiges Instrument, um die aktuellen Herausforderungen zu meistern – aber auch um für zukünftige Krisen gewappnet und schnell reaktionsfähig zu sein. Die vom BMZ geförderte Plattform SORMAS vernetzt beispielsweise in Echtzeit alle relevanten Akteure im Bereich Epidemie-Management wie etwa Kliniken, Labore und Behörden. SORMAS lässt sich auch per Smartphone oder Tablet nutzen und hilft so 100 Millionen Menschen weltweit bei der Bekämpfung der Pandemie – in Entwicklungsländern und zunehmend auch in Deutschland." (Seite 4)
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"The connection between digital and inequality has traditionally been understood in terms of the digital divide or of forms of digital inequality whose core conceptualisation is exclusion. This paper argues that, as the global South moves into a digital development paradigm of growing breadth and de
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pth of digital engagement, an exclusion worldview is no longer sufficient. Drawing from ideas in the development studies literature on chronic poverty, the paper argues the need for a new concept: “adverse digital incorporation”, meaning inclusion in a digital system that enables a more-advantaged group to extract disproportionate value from the work or resources of another, less-advantaged group. This explains why inequality persists – even grows – in a digital development paradigm. To help ground future research and practice on this issue, the paper inductively builds a conceptual model of adverse digital incorporation with three main component sets: the processes, the drivers, and the causes of adverse digital incorporation. The paper concludes with thoughts on a future research and practice agenda that seeks to deliver digital justice in the global South: a necessary reconfiguration of the broader components of power that currently shape the inclusionary connection between digital and inequality." (Abstract)
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"Although AI solutions have the potential to drive growth and development across major sectors such as finance, agriculture, and healthcare, the AI industry is currently still based in North America, Europe, and Asia, with Africa, unfortunately, still underrepresented (Jungblut, 2020). This is a thr
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ee-part series that will explore the landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across the African continent through a feminist lens. This first part outlines existing AI applications on the continent, factors that drive or hinder AI innovation, and ethical concerns surrounding the impact of AI on women in the African context." (Executive summary)
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"El análisis revela los desafíos al proceso de construcción de soluciones reguladoras que protejan derechos y sean efectivas para promover el acceso a información confiable. La desinformación está profundamente entrelazada con los procesos políticos y sociales, y no es posible pensar en soluc
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iones legales y reguladoras aisladamente del entendimiento de estos procesos y de los contextos nacionales y locales." (Resumen)
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"In the mid-20th century, when media research came into its own, this task was more straightforward. There were only a few different ways to get news, and all were clearly distinct – print publications, radio or television. But over the past decades, in addition to a plethora of new forms of news
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(from 24-hour news channels to news websites), many news outlets no longer stay confined to producing content on only one platform. For instance, to meet the growing digital audience, newspapers like The New York Times also produce audio podcasts, which can be heard on radio stations through a smart speaker, and video series, which can be seen on a cable TV network through a streaming device (such as a Roku or Fire Stick). And cable news outlets and other news providers have an active presence on Facebook, YouTube and other social media sites, further blurring the line between platforms. Finally, there is an industry-wide concern that news consumption habits are overestimated in surveys where respondents self-report their behavior. Given the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of this news landscape and concerns around overreporting of news consumption, Pew Research Center wanted to explore how best to measure news consumption: Where do currently used survey practices still work and where might changes be in order? This report is the culmination of this effort and is organized into three sections: Chapter 1 looks at the U.S. public’s familiarity with newer concepts related to news; Chapter 2 examines possible ways to improve survey-based measures of news consumption; and Chapter 3 compares survey results to the use of passive data that comes straight from tracking software news consumers downloaded to their digital devices." (Pages 5-6)
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"Social media sites allow students particularly in tertiary institutions to adopt different types of social networking sites to interact; keep in touch with their families and friends and keep up with their academic assignments. Conversely, there has been a growing concern that students at the terti
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ary level in Nigeria have devoted much of their time to communication through social networking sites at the expense of serious academic work. Thus, the study investigated how the undergraduate students of the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria make use of social media sites for academic purposes. It also examined how much time the students allotted to socialisation and academic work in the use of online media. Anchored on the Uses and Gratification Theory, the survey research design was adopted while questionnaire was used as the instrument of data collections. Data were generated from a sample of 600 respondents randomly selected from six faculties from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Findings showed that most undergraduate students devoted more time to social networking sites mainly for socialisation and only used the sites for academic purposes when they were given assignments or when researching on a particular topic. The findings also revealed that the length of time spent on social networking sites socialising reduced the respondents’ ability to concentrate on academic work and eventually led to poor performance of undergraduate students. Based on the findings and conclusion, it was recommended among others, that media literacy education as a course should be introduced and integrated into the tertiary institutions’ progammes, especially at the undergraduate level." (Abstract)
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"Young Ivorians are adept at using digital media. They are creative when it comes to using digital media and many have developed strategies to cope with media malpractices such as cyberbullying or hate speech. These are two significant, indicative findings from the present MIL INDEX country study. B
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oth seem very impressive considering the challenges of high illiteracy rates and the strongly politicized national media landscape in Côte d’Ivoire. The results of the study are drawn from eight focus groups conducted in the beginning of 2019 in Abidjan and Bouaké and interviews with eight local experts. They confirm that young people are very good at using and creating content on social media but urgently need better critical, analytical, and reflective skills.
This MIL INDEX study is aimed at obtaining a concise picture of media- and information-related skills amongst youths under the age of 35 in Côte d’Ivoire. It addresses five dimensions of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) according to DW Akademie’s MIL model: access, analysis, reflection, creation, and action.
In terms of access the focus groups conducted for this study reveal that young urban and semi-urban Ivorians use a variety of different media for purposes such as consuming information, communication, entertainment, education, or business information. Digital media, particularly social media platforms and instant messengers, are the most used and most popular among this age group and are generally preferred over traditional media. Nonetheless, radio and television are still valued for their auditory and visual input which are significant characteristics considering the high illiteracy rates of about 40,4 % present in Côte d’Ivoire (UIS, 2018). A divide between more urban and more rural regions is visible in the case of radio programs, which are more popular in more rural settings. The focus groups suggest this is due to the fact that local radio stations are often the only media which provide news relevant to more remote areas. Most other media show a tendency to focus only on news from the capital. Printed media are widely regarded as too costly and outdated by Ivorian youths.
The results of the analysis dimension indicate that most focus group participants possess a good digital and media knowledge while at the same time many lack awareness of their rights to freedom of expression and access to information. Striking was that youths generally consider content provided by traditional media to be more trustworthy, but mainly consume social media content. This and often very loose definitions of what media quality means showed that there is still room for improvement when it comes to the young people’s analytical skills. Overall, urbanites seem to question the trustworthiness of media content slightly more than youths from more rural regions.
Results from the reflection dimension confirm that Ivorian youths are constantly exposed to malevolent forms of communication and media malpractices such as cyberbullying, hate speech, sexual harassment, and disinformation. Most young people show strong abilities when it comes to recognizing media problems and using prevention or coping strategies to handle them. Exceptions are politically motivated disinformation and biased reporting which are taken as normal in the Ivorian context. Due to this tendency towards normalization only very few young people reflect critically upon this media malpractice. Reflection on a deeper level such as on the impact of media messages or motivations of news outlets is often missing among young people." (Executive summary)
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"Young Namibians are embracing the digital transformation, according to indicative findings from the present MIL INDEX country study. Interestingly, the youths that took part in eight focus groups conducted at the end of 2018 in Windhoek and Rundu are immersed in digital communication but are aware
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of the ambivalent nature of the news and information sources they find on social media and related Internet services. The importance of a critical mindset when navigating the World Wide Web was stressed by the eight experts interviewed as part of the study.
This MIL INDEX study addresses five dimensions of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) according to DW Akademie’s MIL model: access, analysis, reflection, creation, and action. The focus groups conducted for this study reveal that there is a rural/urban divide in terms of access and use of media. The more rural (and older) groups use radio and television on a regular basis, while the more urban (and younger) groups tend to regard traditional media as yesterday’s media. This shift is in line with the rise of social media. Information uptake is coincidental and journalistic content is intermingled with all sorts of trivia when consumed in social networks. Smartphones are regarded by many as a substitute for newspapers, radio, and television. Amongst those who continue using traditional media, radio is turned to more often for information while TV is regarded more as an entertainment medium.
Considering analytical skills, there is a certain disenchantment of the Namibian youths with journalistic media, the reporting being considered not close enough to the interests and issues of the youth. But it was interesting to find that the focus group participants’ appraisal of media in terms of trustworthiness is the exact opposite of their consumption patterns. While the discussions documented frequent use of social media these are evaluated as least trustworthy, whereas newspapers are rated highly on the trustworthiness scale but were hardly ever read. There is an awareness of the ambivalent quality of news and information on social media, but the youths cannot always name sources they consider produce high-quality information.
The results in the reflection dimension are ambivalent. The youths can recount numerous cases of cyberbullying and disinformation (“fake news”). But the accompanying survey shows that while they reject hate speech and disinformation, there is a certain willingness to accept cyberbullying as given. This is echoed in the focus groups where participants’ advice is often to ignore hateful messages, rather than do something about them. However, the groups do discuss many other strategies in coming to terms with and combatting cyberbullying and disinformation. Rarely do they reflect the motivations that lie behind such behavior. It was also interesting to note that disinformation is mainly discussed with regards to online rather than traditional media." (Executive summary)
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"In 2019, the United States' trade war with China expanded to blacklist the Chinese tech titan Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. The resulting attention showed the information and communications technology (ICT) firm entwined with China's political-economic transformation. But the question remained: why
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does Huawei matter? Yun Wen uses the Huawei story as a microcosm to understand China's evolving digital economy and the global rise of the nation's corporate power. Rejecting the idea of the transnational corporation as a static institution, she explains Huawei's formation and restructuring as a historical process replete with contradictions and complex consequences. She places Huawei within the international political economic framework to capture the dynamics of power structure and social relations underlying corporate China's globalization. As she explores the contradictions of Huawei's development, she also shows the ICT firm's complicated interactions with other political-economic forces. Comprehensive and timely, The Huawei Model offers an essential analysis of China's dynamic development of digital economy and the global technology powerhouse at its core." (Publisher description)
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"Subgranting is a readily accessible source of short- to medium-term financial support for organisations. It offers a flexibility in disbursing funds that is not often found in donors. It catalyses change in organisations. It can serve as “seed funding”, allowing new organisations to become know
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n in an advocacy space. It allows for experimentation, innovation, and unpredictability. It allows organisations to strengthen the work they are already doing, and empowers them to seek funding elsewhere based on new experiences and knowledge.
• Transparency in deciding how funds are disbursed is essential. APC has tried different models for subgranting, including a centralised decision-making model, which offers autonomy for member organisations to decide on a project’s focus within a broad framework of shared objectives; a decentralised model with a thematic focus, working with members and new partners; and a collective decision-making model, that is issue based, working with a network of like-minded activists. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and the most appropriate mechanisms for transparency might depend on the size of the project or initiative, and the overall objectives of the subgranting work.
• Clear communication is necessary for meeting concrete deliverables, for growing a community or network, and for transparency. Make sure meanings are aligned and shared, even in like-minded networks. This streamlines the process, avoids disappointment, and ensures clearer outcomes.
• Subgranting can be used effectively for outreach to meet and work with new organisations at the local level, growing a network or membership base, and increasing the profile of an organisation at the grassroots level.
• Thematically focused or issue-based subgranting programmes can encourage a greater level of interaction between organisations, and allow cross-border advocacy with the potential of amplifying advocacy impact. However, collaboration needs to be created – it does not happen on its own. It requires processes and specific considerations, such as the type of decision-making structure to follow, thatcreate the context for cooperation to happen." (Key lessons from APC’s subgranting work, pgae 50)
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"Afrobarometer findings show that radio and television are the most widely accessible platforms for students seeking to participate in MoE/GES e-learning programs, although rural and poor households are at a disadvantage when it comes to owning these devices. The data show relatively low rates of ac
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cess to the Internet via mobile phone, ownership of computers, and regular use of the Internet, particularly among respondents in rural and poor households, highlighting the difficulties that many students will face in engaging with online learning programs. While most households are connected to the electric grid, more than four in 10 rural and poor households do not have a power supply that works most or all of the time. For both government and civil society, these findings indicate potential learning gaps, as not all students will be able to access e-learning programs from all platforms. This points to the need for strategies to increase students’ participation, particularly targeting rural and poor families, by raising awareness of available televised programs and launching radio-based remote-learning programs as soon as possible. To ensure inclusion and participation in online platforms such as icampus, the government and schools should initiate longer-term plans and investments capable of spreading e-learning infrastructure, irrespective of settlement types and poverty levels, to facilitate access for all students." (Conclusion)
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"The Forum on Information & Democracy proposes a number of policy steps to democratic governments and their supporters. Transparency and accountability need to be shored up and content moderation should be done according to democratic mandates and oversight. The impact of new platforms where disinfo
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rmation can go viral, such as private messenger services, needs to be understood. Through a global democratic coalition, a meaningful alternative should be offered instead of the two dominant models of technology governance: the privatized and the authoritarian. Through the intergovernmental Partnership on Information & Democracy, democratic leaders recognize the information and communication space as a ‘public good’. Now they have to implement their commitments in policies on the national and international level. Our recommendations are designed to shape and support their policy agenda." (Foreword, page 13)
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"On average across 34 countries, one in five adults (20%) have access to both a smartphone and a computer, while 43% only have access to a basic cell phone. In 15 out of 34 countries, at least half of adults have access to a smartphone or a computer or both. About three in 10 respondents (31%) use t
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heir cell phones and the Internet at least several times a week. This form of basic digital literacy is widespread (at least 50% of adults) in Mauritius, Gabon, Tunisia, Sudan, South Africa, and Morocco but rare (10% or less) in Mali, Niger, and Madagascar. One-fifth of adults (20%) are well prepared to participate in or assist members of their household with a transition to an online learning environment. In contrast, 55% are likely to be ill prepared for remote learning, while 25% of respondents form a middle category representing those who could participate in e-learning given sufficient resources such as devices and/or training. Citizens’ readiness to engage in remote learning is primarily shaped by their level of formal education and access to electricity, rather than by their overall level of wealth or geographic location." (Key findings, page 3)
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"The Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) supports civil society actors worldwide in their advocacy for democracy and peace, encourages dialogue within civil society and contributes to the protection of minorities and persons at risk. With the fellowships of the CrossCulture Programme (CCP), ifa
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supports the interlacing of German and foreign civil society actors from the cultural, educational, scientific, artistic and medial sectors from more than 40 partner countries. The goals for the participating fellows and organisations are to broaden and deepen their expertise, share and acquire intercultural skills, learn from each other and impart their own knowledge. »Digital Civil Society« is one of the focal topics of the programme which is treated within the scope of CCP Fellowships and thematic workshops. In 2019, CCP fellows, alumni and experts came together in a workshop to exchange ideas, share practices and seek solutions in the fields of digital inclusion and digital security. This publication is the product of this global cross-cultural cooperation and collects personal commentaries, best-practice examples and recommendations for action." (Back cover)
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