"Focusing on the Iranian presidential elections of 2009 and ensuing demonstrations in major cities across Iran and world, Media, Power, and Politics in the Digital Age provides a balanced discussion of the role and impact of modern communication technologies, particularly the novel utilization of 's
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mall digital media' vis-^-vis the elections and global media coverage. Written in a non-technical, easy to read, and accessible manner, the volume will appeal to scholars, students, policy makers and print professionals alike. To provide a global overview of media coverage and diverse perspectives on the controversial 2009 presidential election, this book consists of 24 original essays, covering issues from global media coverage to new media-social networking, from the ideological-political dimensions to the cultural facets of the elections." (Publisher description)
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"Peter Reddaway und neun weitere Autoren schauen ins das Archiv der Freiheit, das die osteuropäischen Bürgerrechtler mit ihren selbstverlegten Schriften anlegten. Sie entdecken substantielle Beiträge zur politischen Ideengeschichte des mündigen Bürgers. Sind im Zeitalter der wiedererstarkten po
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stsowjetischen Autokratien die Sozialen Netzwerke und die Blogs des RUnet auch ein solches Archiv der Freiheit? Dmitrij Golynko zweifelt, dass die atomisierten postsowjetischen Gesellschaften gerade im Internet geeint werden können, vier andere Autoren sind optimistischer." (https://www.hsozkult.de/journal/id/z6ann-104850)
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"Democracy Redefined: Leading authoritarian regimes are working to reshape the public understanding of democracy. A redefined and heavily distorted version of the concept is communicated to domestic audiences through state-dominated media. Especially on television, these regimes put forth a dual mes
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sage that stresses their own achievements while belittling the core institutions of genuine democracy, which is often kept at arm’s length with the appellation “Western.” [...] Internet Under Threat: The leading authoritarians—particularly in China, Iran, and Russia—are using advanced and well-funded techniques to subvert legitimate online discourse. In addition to controlling access through physical, economic, and technological means, these regimes have enlisted loyal commentators and provocateurs like the “Fifty Cent Party” in China and the “Brigades” in Russia to overwhelm or disrupt undesirable discussions [...] Authoritarian Foreign Aid: These regimes are using soft-power methods to advance their interests internationally, particularly through billions of dollars in no-stringsattached development aid. Chinese leaders enunciate a doctrine of win-win foreign relationships, encouraging Latin American, African, Asian, and Arab states to form mutually benefi cial arrangements with China based on the principle of noninterference. As part of this strategy, the win-win philosophy is implicitly contrasted with that of the West, which Beijing portrays as pushing a self-serving and alien “democracy agenda” onto developing nations." (Main findings, page 3-4)
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"Depuis les années 1990, la généralisation des télévisions satellitaires et l’avènement d’Internet ont bouleversé le paysage médiatique et contribué à une modification profonde du rapport entre les populations et l’information. Désormais acteurs politiques à part entière, les méd
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ias entretiennent des liens à la fois conflictuels et ambigus avec les différents pouvoirs – politique, judiciaire, religieux, financier… – et pèsent directement sur les relations internationales. Interrogeant l’histoire, multipliant les approches et les exemples – de l’Italie au Liban, de l’analyse de la sociologie du Web au traitement médiatique du conflit israélo-palestinien –, sondant l’évolution des imaginaires politiques et religieux, cet ouvrage se propose de mieux situer la place et le rôle des médias dans les sociétés méditerranéennes, et singulièrement dans les pays arabes. Loin des amalgames et des raccourcis abusifs, ce livre offre des éléments précieux pour appréhender une réalité nouvelle et complexe." (Description de la maison d'édition)
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"Heinz Rühmann, Hans Albers, Marika Rökk, Max Schmeling, Heinrich George und Leni Riefenstahl – die Schauspieler, die Regisseurin und der Jahrhundertboxer –, sie gehörten zu den großen Stars der NS-Zeit. Warum konnten oder wollten sie sich der Instrumentalisierung durch die braunen Machthabe
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r nicht entziehen? Warum ließen sie sich vereinnahmen, bis das „Tausendjährige Reich“ in Trümmer fiel? Waren die Helden und Idole nur willfährige Handlanger der Nazis? Zwischen Gehorsam und Gewissen, Begeisterung und Distanz, Verstrickung und Protest – Guido Knopp zeigt, wie Vertreter von Kunst, Sport und Kultur das NS-Regime stabilisierten." (Klappentext)
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"This searching examination explores how the internet is threatening the rule of particularly repressive governments - including China, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Addressing internet censorship, citizen journalism, and the growing popularity of blogging as a means for change, this in-dept
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h analysis provides unique insight into these cultures as well as the latest media technologies." (Publisher description)
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"While China’s policies of reform and opening-up have triggered far-reaching economic transformations in the media sector, and the leeway for uncensored reporting has widened, the principles of political supervision remain essentially unchanged. The article sketches the interplay of numerous gover
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nment and Party organs responsible for media supervision and censorship in terms of mission, personnel and work assignments. The main emphasis is on the present situation and changes since 1990. Despite some organizational reshuffling and recurrent jurisdictional adjustments, the basic bureaucratic set-up for enforcing media compliance with Party policies stays in line with the Leninist arrangements of the 1950s. The challenges for effective control posed by the technological revolution in mass communication have been met by new innovations in the monitoring and filtering of sensitive reports. Although principles of rule by law have also spread to the media, they lag behind some other spheres of Chinese public life. Regulations stipulate a host of licensing requirements. They stress media duties and remain largely silent on media rights. On the background of reorganizations in the magazine „Freezing Point“ of the Youth League effected during 2004 - 2006, the article highlights the tensions of current media policies, the conflicts between multiple actors and the unresolved contradictions between commercial and political interests." (Abstract)
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"[...] se va configurando un trabajo basado en entrevistas y relevamiento de documentación institucional (planes de estudio, actas, programas de materias) que describen el marco general de situación y los procesos pedagógicos más concretos: relación docente-alumno, docente-autoridad, autoridad-
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alumno, etc., que son aquellos lugares donde la materialidad de las propuestas de estudio cobran vida. Las voces de los protagonistas, que se entrecruzan, chocan y disputan un relato que no es homogéneo, son el elemento más valioso y fecundo de la investigación, porque así pareciera estar dispuesto por las autoras. Los momentos de análisis y reflexión autoral se presentan como puntos de cierre y conclusión, pero el verdadero trabajo de investigación puede rastrearse en la edición y ordenamiento de los relatos de los docentes, alumnos y directivos de aquella época. De esta manera se ejercita la memoria, pero desde un ángulo que evita caer en lugares comunes, que evade la repetición. La repetición, ensayamos, no hace más que gestar obstáculos hacia la problematización. Este libro hace lo contrario, y así se une a los trabajos que indagan sobre todas las formas donde el poder político y represivo cobra vida. Por eso las autoras entienden el diseño curricular como proceso, como una propuesta político-educativa, y no como permanencia o anclaje. Pero el aporte más destacado de esta obra se encuentra no tanto en la nueva lectura que permite sobre el pasado de la institución y las complejas zonas de intervención de los ideales y acciones de la ideología militar, sino más bien en la interpretación que posibilita sobre este presente de la formación de comunicadores, que en la actualidad es guiada, criticada y transformada por aquellos que se iniciaron y educaron bajo los lineamientos del Plan de estudios 77. El hecho se presenta como relevante en tanto la forma de entender el proceso educativo en la actualidad sigue en mayor o menor medida impregnada –o inevitablemente heredada - con los modos en que se concebía en aquella época. En esta dirección es muy claro el ejemplo del régimen de evaluación y promoción instaurado durante el Plan 77 que aún fija las condiciones de aprobación de las materias en las carreras de la Facultad: 80 por ciento de asistencia a clase, calificación de 7 o más para promocionar, parciales o trabajos que pudieran determinar si los objetivos propuestos fueron alcanzados; lo que permite inferir una “concepción de la evaluación ligada a la mera comprobación”. Es decir, normativas que se enmarcan, junto a numerosos procesos pedagógicos, en lo que las autoras definen como “postura educativa tecnicista”. Estas cuestiones nos permiten formular la pregunta, o al menos darle la posibilidad a la inquietud, sobre el lugar que ocupan estos elementos hoy en el proceso formativo más general. Es necesario dejar en claro que la mirada sobre el Plan 77 no desestima el lugar que el texto le da al análisis del Plan 72, sino todo lo contrario, teniendo en cuenta que su estudio es vital para comprender las rupturas entre ambos Planes en el marco delacontecer político-formativo de la época. Pero es cierto que en términos de primacía y peso histórico, el Plan 77 tiene un lugar clave en el total de las cuestiones que hacen al desarrollo de la institución. “La formación de periodistas...” es un libro que invita a ser leído por su simpleza y capacidad de descripción, aunque por momentos la propia postura de las autoras parece disiparse entre los relatos dispares de los entrevistados, y de estos en su relación con los documentos relevados. Siempre es difícil darle un cierre a todo lo que la dictadura ha rozado y quemado con los filamentos de la violencia política, circunstancia a la que no escapa este libro ni estos párrafos. Pero si las conclusiones abiertas sirven para seguir indagando, recordando e invitando a revisar una y mil veces más los hechos desgraciados y equívocos de nuestro pasado, sin importar quiénes hayan sido sus responsables, bienvenidas sean." (Reseña de Fernando Palazzolo en https://perio.unlp.edu.ar/ojs/index.php/question/article/view/611)
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"Debates about the role of media in situations of political violence call into question whether journalists should focus on “objective” reporting or instead facilitate conflict resolution. Yet an increasingly problematic assumption is that journalists are outsiders to the communities in conflict
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, especially as aid agencies increase their funding for media development and journalism training in conflicted areas. By focusing on the situation facing journalists from Burma (Myanmar) living in exile in Thailand, this article explores the consequences of political violence on the development of indigenous journalism in a multiethnic state. Although influenced by the recent surge in foreign funding, these journalists struggle to develop a context-specific model for their work, calling into question the relevance of the dominant U.S. approach to “objectivity.” The contested nature of concepts such as unity, independence, and censorship in these often high-risk areas suggests the need for a more complex model of media development in contexts of political violence." (Abstract)
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"This study documents a crucial dimension of the resistance of Nigerian civil society to a repressive and monumentally corrupt military state in the late 1980s and 1990s in Nigeria. Employing a neo-Gramscian theoretical framework, the study relates how a section of the media defied censorship laws,
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outright bans, incarceration and the assassination of opposition figures, to prosecute the struggle for democracy. It captures the tensions and contradictions between a pliant section of the media, which sought to legitimise the state and a critical section of the same media, which in alliance with radical civil society, invented rebellious outlets to carry on the struggle against dictatorship. The study seeks to make fresh departures by documenting not only the role of the national media in the throes of democratic struggle, but that of the international media whose role was influential in the years studied. Finally the report offers empirical proof of the mechanisms by which a vibrant civil society can curb the ravages of a predatory state in an African country." (Abstract)
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"Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit den Erfolgschancen oppositioneller Bewegungen in Ägypten während der Mubarak-Ära in den 90er Jahren. Am Beispiel der Berufsverbände der Journalisten und der Rechtsanwälte wird anhand ausgewählter Konfliktsituationen das gesellschaftskritische Potential dieser Pro
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fessionals im Demokratisierungsprozess untersucht. Die Autorin kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass in einem von Angst und Unterdrückung geprägten Klima, das von dem autoritären Machtgebaren des Staates und dem intellektuellen Terror konservativer Islamisten geschürt wird, die Initiierung demokratischer Lernprozesse nahezu unmöglich ist." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Die russischen Medien haben sich in der Krise eingerichtet: Leere Kassen, mauernde Bürokraten und Gewalt gegen Journalisten prägen den Redaktionsalltag zwischen Petersburg und Wladiwostok. Fast vergessen ist die glorreiche Glasnost-Zeit, als die Presse unversehens vom passiven Chronisten zum mach
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tvollen Akteur der Umgestaltung wurde. Seither hat sich vieles verändert. Meinungsbildung findet heute in den Regionen statt, eine neue Generation von Journalisten wächst heran - und die Ära Putin diktierte auch innerhalb der Medienlandschaft Russlands "neue Spielregeln"." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"[...] tells the astonishing story of a bunch of Belgrade kids and their pirate radio station B92. B92 started in the late eighties with the naive desire to simply play music but ended up facing two wars, economic sanctions, violent police and government crackdowns, the attention of armed gangsters
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and neo-Nazi politicians, and ultimately became the focal point of a successful opposition movement against Slobodan Milosevic." (Back cover)
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"This book is a comparative study of five related themes - the roots of journalism in East/Central Europe and the former Soviet Union; the role and effects of journalism leading up to the events of 1989; journalism in the transition period from 1989 to 1996; the contributions, trials, and tribulatio
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ns of journalism in the transition period; and the state of journalism education in the regions under consideration. The ultimate goal is to identify patterns describing official and unofficial media systems during the communist period, and the role(s) and effects of communist and alternate or underground mass media and journalism both in the pre-1989 era and after the demise of the communist systems." (Publisher description)
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"Hong Kong's handover has induced self-censorship among the press in order to curry favor with and avoid coercive pressure from China. Based on a comprehensive survey, this article shows that many journalists perceive their colleagues as being afraid to criticize China but think of themselves as bei
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ng more courageous. Journalists from the party press are systematically different from those from the market-oriented press. However, market-driven “information newspapers” are moving toward apoliticization and toward accommodating the new sovereign, thus blurring their differences with market-driven “story newspapers." (Abstract)
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"Military intervention in civil government comes and goes in Latin America, fre quently crushing any opposition by the press. Bolivia has experienced more military coups d'état than any other Latin American or Caribbean country. This study of the relationships between the Bolivian press and militar
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y between 1964 and 1982 thus has a wider significance. In some ways repression has grown more subtle, but in Bolivia brute force still was commonly employed. Bolivia also has experienced the second social and economic revolution in Latin America, beginning in 1952. Poverty and social maladjustment breed militarism and a vulnerable press, but on the other hand, resistance to authoritarian rule - sometimes at a terrible cost - marked the beginning of professionalism within the Bolivian press." (Abstract)
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"This is the first full-length study of the protest-cum-resistance press and its role in the struggle for a democratic South Africa between the 1880s and 1960s. South Africa's alternative press played a crucial, but still largely undocumented, role in the making of modern South Africa. Projecting th
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e point of view of intermediary social groups, who saw themselves as a modernizing, upwardly mobile non-ethnic force in the struggle to create a black middle-class culture in South Africa, these presses mirrored political realities that differed substantially from those projected by South Africa's established commercial press, which was owned and controlled by whites, and concerned almost exclusively with the political, economic, and social life of the white population." (Publisher description)
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