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"A pilot edition of a new, freely accessible reference resource, Publishing & Book Culture in Africa: A Repository of Selected Resources, was launched in April 2022, and subsequently updated and expanded in October of that year. A final edition is to appear on the soon to be launched website of the ... more

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Sonic Engagement: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Community Engaged Audio Practice

Sarah Woodland, Wolfgang Vachon (eds.)

New York; London: Routledge (2023), xiv, 332 pp.

"This edited collection investigates the use of sound and audio production in community engaged participatory arts practice and research. The popularity of podcast and audio drama, combined with the accessibility and portability of affordable field recording and home studio equipment, makes audio a ... more

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Film Practice in the Context of War in Greater North Kivu Region of the Democratic Republic of Congo: The Film Message as a Tool for Peace

Jean-Paul Paluku Kamili

Nairobi: Daystar University, Doctoral Thesis (2023), xii, 348 pp.

"Greater North Kivu is a region in the East of the DRC characterized by an unending socio-cultural and political crisis that has brought about insecurity, war, massacres, and land conflicts since 1996. Efforts to resolve this war crisis to restore justice and peace have not been successful. The aim ... of this research was to evaluate the film practice in the Greater North Kivu region in the context of this war situation and if those films which were set against this reality had messages that focused on sustainable peace. The specific research questions of the study were: What could be the varying contexts of war and related conflicts from which each of the selected films acquires its character? In what way do the cinematographic messages reflect the context of war in the Greater North Kivu? How do the thematic messages aim to sensitize the population towards peace in the region? What are the opportunities and challenges of film making for peace in the region? What construct emerges as a typology of context and types of persuasion messages that may emerge from selected films of the study. The study adopted a qualitative research design, and constructivism and interpretivism philosophical research paradigms. The target population consisted of film makers in the Greater North Kivu, civil society, community and government leaders. The study concluded that the multiple contexts of the war manifest in the character of the variety of films produced but that the film codes reflecting this reality aim to break and change it thereby creating a new grammar for a new context. In addition, the film for sensitizing works with strategies of arousing emotions that are carefully selected with great sensitivity because of the fragile context of the war situation in its causes, consequences, and what is to be done. The thesis of this study is that the many contexts of the war situation in the region of study manifest themselves in the selected films chosen for the research. In a simultaneous manner the film maker’s codes aim to break the existing contexts to new beginnings. While the film codes may be of the grammar of existing context, their very ambition and motivation is to introduce a new grammar for a vision of a new context, transforming the old one. Based on the findings of the current study, the study recommends the film makers to continue to use potent symbolism in their stories to effectively sensitize the population to the situation and promote the necessary actions. The study recommends to the government and policymakers makers to allocate resources towards the Ministry of Arts and Culture to support local film production, recognizing its potential as a tool for peacebuilding and societal change." (Abstract) more

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African Language Media

Phillip Mpofu, Israel A. Fadipe, Thulani Tshabangu (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2023), xxi, 317 pp.

"This book outlines how African language media is affected by politics, technology, culture, and the economy and how this media is creatively produced and appropriated by audiences across cultures and contexts. African language media can be considered as a tool for communication, socialization, and ... more

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Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials

Gillian Rose

Los Angeles: Sage, 5th ed. (2023), xv, 454 pp.

"Whatever level of experience you have, this classic text will provide you with the key skills you need to complete a visual methods research project, understand the rationale behind each step, and engage with the contexts and power relations that shape our interpretation of visual images. With a cl ... more

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Small Cinemas of the Andes: New Aesthetics, Practices and Platforms

Diana Coryat, Christian León, Noah Zweig (eds.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2023), xix, 378 pp.

"This book examines the emergence of small cinemas of the Andes, covering digital peripheries in Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. The volume critically assesses heterogeneous audiovisual practices and subaltern agents, elucidating existing tensions, contradictions and resistances with respect to ... more

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Grauen ohne Grenzen: Horror in Film & Literatur

iz3w, issue 394 (2023), pp. 22-41

"Wie einst im ursprünglichen Gothic die verlassenen Schlösser des Feudalismus als Orte des Spuks in die bürgerliche Ära hineinragten, so sind es heute die globalen Ruinen des geplatzten Traums von Freiheit, Gleichheit und Brüderlichkeit, in denen das Grauen haust: Von den vom Immobiliencrash ge ... more

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Tactical publishing: Using senses, software, and archives in the twenty-first century

Alessandro Ludovico

Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press (2023), XII, 324 pp.

"Publishing is experiencing one of the most transformative phases in its history. In Tactical Publishing, a sequel to Post-Digital Print, Alessandro Ludovico explores the forces driving this historical phase, highlighting the tremendous opportunities it presents. Our task, he believes, is to develop ... more

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The Future of Television in the Global South: Reflections from Selected Countries

George Ogola (ed.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2023), xv, 233 pp.

"This book explores how television in the global South is 'future-proofing' its continued relevance, addressing its commercial, social and political viability in a constantly changing information ecosystem. The chapter contributions in the book are drawn from countries in East, South and West Africa ... more

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Digital platforms as socio-cultural artifacts: Developing digital methods for cultural research

Stefania Vicari, Daniel Kirby

Information, Communication & Society, volume 26, issue 9 (2023), pp. 1733-1755

"Social media platforms are increasingly looked at as means to investigate social phenomena like collective events, issues or causes. Digital methods – techniques exclusively focused on online data and shaped by the environment hosting these data – have become part and parcel of these investigat ... more

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Nachhaltig drucken: Gestaltung umweltgerechter Druckprojekte. Anregungen, Empfehlungen, Inspirationen

Marko Hanecke

Mainz: Verlag Hermann Schmidt (2023), 287 pp.

"Als Kreative:r gestalten und realisieren Sie professionell Druckobjekte. Sie stehen für gute Gestaltung und kompetente herstellerische Umsetzung und möchten Ihren Auftraggeber:innen auch in Fragen der ökologischen Verantwortung kompetent und partnerschaftlich zur Seite stehen. Sich mit Nachhalti ... more

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Observatorio Iberoamericano de Ficción Televisiva OBITEL 2023. As produtoras independentes e a internacionalização da produção de ficção televisiva na Ibero-América = Las productoras independientes y la internacionalización de la producción de ficción televisiva en Iberoamérica
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Maria Immacolata Vassallo de Lopes, Juan Piñon, Catarina Duff Burnay, Rosario Sánchez Vilela, Mónica S. Kirchheimer (eds.)

Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile (2023), 367 pp.

"Probablemente, el indicador más elocuente del descenso en la producción es que, sumados, los mismos países produjeron en 2022 un 54% de lo que producían en 2012. El gráfico 3 muestra las caídas ocurridas en cada país. A nivel agregado, los niveles de producción de 2012 son similares a los ... de 2017, pero a partir de ahí empieza una disminución que se agudiza durante la pandemia, se recupera parcialmente en 2021 y vuelve a caer en 2022. A los factores ya mencionados como algunas de las posibles causas de la caída, el descenso inversión publicitaria y desplazamiento de hacia las plataformas, cabe considerar otros dos que apuntan a la sustitución: la ya consolidada presencia de telenovelas turcas y de otros orígenes incipientes y también la competencia de las reposiciones. La brecha en la calidad visual de las realizaciones de fines de los años 90 en adelante, respecto de las actuales, es baja. Telenovelas históricas como Terra Nostra, Betty la Fea o Pasión de Gavilanes se reprograman y son consumidas de un modo parecido a las actuales. Un elemento recurrente entre los capítulos nacionales de este informe es relevar la importancia de la reposición de materiales ya exhibidos. Los intercambios de contenidos audiovisuales entre países iberoamericanos han estado presentes por décadas, pero hay fuertes diferencias en las cantidades de producciones que cada país importa o exporta. Asimismo, también hay diferencias en la variedad de orígenes desde los que se importan contenidos. En los capítulos nacionales se muestra la cantidad de títulos y horas de ficción televisiva de estreno iberoamericana de exhibida en el país durante 2022. Vistas individualmente, muestran los consumos locales. Sin embargo, al combinarlas, revelan los flujos de intercambios de producciones entre países.Eso es lo que se muestra en la tabla 3, usando las horas como unidad de medida. La tabla 3 puede leerse vertical y horizontalmente. Leída verticalmente, muestra el origen de la ficción televisiva de estreno exhibida en cada país. Horizontalmente, muestra los distintos países en que se exhibió ficción televisiva originada en un país [...] La tabla 3 muestra que el principal país exportador de ficción televisiva en Iberoamérica es México, al igual que en los años anteriores. En 2022 vendió contenidos a todos los países, salvo Portugal, siendo además, con la excepción del cono sur, el principal exportador hacia cada uno de los países de la región. En segundo lugar, tanto en volumen como en cantidad de países a los que exportó, está Brasil. Un caso llamativo es Colombia: no sólo redujo sus exportaciones en casi un 60%, sino que su producción se redujo en un 53%, fundamentalmente por la reducción en la producción de telenovelas. Los casos de España y Portugal son interesantes en 2022 por la misma razón que lo fueron en 2021. Su volumen de producción los ubica sólo por debajo de Brasil o México y muy por encima de todos los demás países. La factura de sus realizaciones es de alto estándar. Sin embargo, sus niveles de exportaciones no alcanzan al 5% de lo producido." (Páginas 26-28) more

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Communicating Science Responsibly

Paris: OECD (2023), 7 pp.

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‘Top-Tier’ Journals: Does a Global Reputation Mean a Global Orientation?

Cherian George, Minos-Athanasios Karyotakis

Global Media Studies Network, March 20 (2023)

"Academia as an industry has come to rely on journal impact factors as convenient proxy measures of faculty members’ research quality. As competition intensifies — among individuals, departments, and universities — such bibliometrics have grown in importance. At many institutions, researchers ... are pushed to publish in journals that are highly ranked. Many scholars of non-western societies have long noted, though, that “top-tier” journals, while international in reputation, are far from global in orientation. This is an issue that we and our colleagues in the Global Media Studies Network are keen to discuss. First, though, what exactly is the current state of affairs? We looked at 20 SSCI-indexed communication journals with high five-year journal impact factors. We categorised all the articles they published in 2021 and 2022 according to their geographic focus: what country or countries was each article studying? Here is what we found: [see chart]. This snapshot shows clearly that top-tier journals generally have a geographic diversity problem. Most of the articles are about the west, with a high proportion of articles focusing purely on the United States. Also striking is the lack of North-South comparative work, despite years of advocacy for comparative research. The chart may underestimate the imbalance. We coded many of the articles— literature reviews, meta-studies, or purely methodological or theoretical pieces— as geographically “non-specific” as they have no explicit focus on any particular country, but since these tend to be built on past work that was even less diverse than the field is now, most of these should probably be considered genetically western. One interesting pattern is that journals devoted to digital communication host a higher proportion of non-western work. This could be because the digital is so globalised and new that research on phenomena beyond the west (say, disinformation in Kenya’s social media) is intelligible to western editors, while research on older offline phenomena (say, caste discrimination on Indian television) requires extensive contextual explanation that journals do not have the patience for. The digital may also be more amenable than offline communication to the quantitative research methods favoured by many top journals." more

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25 apuntes de la edición universitaria

Luisa Fernanda Arris (ed.)

Lima: Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) (2023), 191 pp.

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Transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television broadcasting

Geneva: ITU (2023), 239 pp.

"The purpose of this Report is to help the countries that are in the process of migrating from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting. The Report examines the reasons why this is happening and the technologies involved. It provides an overview of digital terrestrial sound and television broadc ... more

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Colombia: Financiación del periodismo

Gabriel Ernesto Levy Bravo, María Cecilia Hernández Ocampo, María Paula Ángel Benavides

London: Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC);Observacom;Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC) (2023), 31 pp.

"Sin lugar a dudas, el ecosistema mediático colombiano se ha transformado durantelos últimos años. Por un lado, los medios tradicionales (prensa, radio y televisión), aunque aún relevantes, no tienen la misma preponderancia de antes. Por otro lado, los nuevos medios y plataformas no solo se han ... more

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Digital Cities and Villages: African Writers and a Sense of Place in Short Online Fiction

Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang

Journal of African Media Studies, volume 15, issue 2 (2023), pp. 217-229

"This article analyses how young African writers challenge stereotypes about the continent through their imagination of places in online short stories. These stories appear on the literary websites Brittle Paper, Jalada, Saraba, Flash Fiction Ghana, Adda and African Writer Magazine with a focus on c ... more

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Preparing International Development Professionals for the Digital Age

Romina Bandura

Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) (2023), 12 pp.