"This article will discuss recent trends in Malaysia’s media surrounding the 2013 general election (GE13). It will argue that the GE13 produced two important trends in the media industry. First, there was increased political-party participation in social media, citizen journalism and blogging. In
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fact, it practically led to a ‘cyberwar’ between political parties, making the realm of the online and social media increasingly polarised and partisan. Second, many mainstream media outlets in Malaysia successfully pursued a platform of more ‘balanced’ coverage, suggesting an increased space of negotiation and contestation amongst the previously muzzled print, television and radio industry. This article will conclude with an assessment of the future trends in the media industry in Malaysia post GE13." (Abstract)
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"This Course Handbook has been produced to accompany the USAID/NDI/IWPR Course in Election Reporting, which is being run for Malawian journalists in the run-up to the 2014 Elections. The Handbook, which follows the day-by-day course programme, contains copies of the slides used during the course plu
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s a great deal more supporting material. In particular, given that the majority of the participants in the course come from radio stations, we have included detailed advice about radio journalism. However, it is important to note that the material presented in text boxes throughout the text represents PowerPoint presentations and can be best understood in the context of the course itself." (Introduction)
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"For six months between November 2012 and April 2013, fifty citizen watchdog monitors carefully noted incidents of hate speech and dangerous speech broadcast by five radio stations in Kenya. It was part of Internews in Kenya’s Free and Fair Media (FFM) programme aimed at working with the media to
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ensure that they covered the General Election of 2013 fairly and responsibly. Known as Citizen Watchdog, the exercise was not so much one of policing as one of accountability – to check incidents of hate speech and dangerous speech on air in the run-up to the 2013 General Election, during the election, and afterwards. Citizen Watchdog ran parallel to Internews’ support to the media through its Free and Fair Media journalism training activities focused on conflict sensitive journalism practices. The five radio stations included KBC Radio Taifa (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation), three vernacular radio stations, and one Swahili broadcaster based in the coastal region. The findings of Citizen Watchdog showed a sharp decline in cases of dangerous speech documented over the six month period: from 20 in November 2012 to zero in April 2013." (Executive summary)
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"L’appui à la couverture médiatique du scrutin vise trois objectifs : offrir une information suffisante au citoyen pour que son choix électoral soit posé en connaissance de cause; garantir le pluralisme à travers la visibilité octroyée aux différentes forces en présence; crédibiliser le
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processus électoral à travers la circulation d’une information fiable permettant aux citoyens de se convaincre de la transparence du scrutin. Un appui efficace à la réalisation de ces objectifs demande une inscription dans le long terme. Il s’agit de modifier durablement les perceptions, les capacités et les pratiques des acteurs concernés avec pour horizon l’échéance électorale. Les médias s’intègrent en outre dans un cadre plus global, mobilisant un large spectre d’acteurs – instance de gestion des élections, parlements, organisations de la société civile, partis politiques, système judiciaire et sécuritaire — dont les objectifs sont parfois contradictoires, interdépendants et s’influencent mutuellement. Mettre l’accent sur ces liens entre médias et autres acteurs de l’élection est également crucial. Le changement politique et social est porté par l’action conjointe des réformateurs au sein de chaque groupe, et de militants dans les zones d’interaction entre ces groupes. Concrètement, s’inscrire dans le long terme et en interaction avec les autres acteurs de l’élection conduit à privilégier une approche dans le cadre du cycle électoral : l’appui aux processus électoraux et l’assistance aux médias en période électorale sont conçus de manière cyclique, d’une échéance à l’autre." (Recommendations, page 24)
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"Este manual guarda dos características fundamentales. Por un lado, no es una simple sumatoria de capítulos aislados, sino que se trata de conceptos compartidos por un equipo que viene cooperando tanto en capacitaciones como en consultorías, de modo que es un todo integrado. Por otro lado, todos
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los conceptos volcados en este manual son fruto de la extensa trayectoria de los consultores participantes. Nada de lo que aquí figura es resultado de una simple observación de los procesos electorales, ni la importación lisa y llana de aplicaciones de herramientas que se dan en otros marcos culturales y políticos. Todo ha sido probado en la práctica, lo cual no significa que se lo pueda aplicar de manera descontextualizada." (Presentación, página 9)
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"This article addresses concerns that an insidious culture of intolerance, hate and insults in Ghanaian politics and electoral contests could undermine the efficacy of the country’s neo-democracy. The article draws on pre-election interviews with the two main contenders in Ghana’s 2012 elections
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to sound out their positions on the propriety and prudence of expressing a negative campaign platform. The interview responses are analysed in the context of past ads run by their parties, which reveal that the candidates’ disclaimers and public professions to run issue-oriented campaigns contradicted the practice of their party’s resort to negative campaigns. The article concludes that candidates and their parties are unlikely to abide by ethical injunctions and accordingly proposes the passage of a legal code to regulate broadcasting (including political advertising) in Ghana." (Abstract)
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"A historical survey of the Iraqi media from its beginning up to the present day, focusing on the post-2003 media scene and the political and societal divisions that occurred in Iraq after US-led occupation. Investigates the nature of the media outlets and offers an analysis of the way Iraqi satelli
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te channels covered the 2010 general elections." (Publisher description)
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"Tres son los principales objetivos de la presente obra: 1. El primero consiste en poner al alcance de los ciudadanos de América Latin a los conocimientos y herramientas indispensables para que comprendan de mejor manera la forma en que la Comunicación Política incide, en mayor o menor medida, en
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su elección de representantes y funcionarios. 2. El segundo es fungir como un texto de orientación y referencia para todas aquellas personas vinculadas con la política o con la promoción y difusión de candidatos, campañas y mensajes. 3. Por último, el tercer objetivo perseguido mediante su elaboración y difusión consiste en que todas las personas que participan directa- o indirectamente en campañas de Comunicación Política logren identificar la necesidad real de prepararse teórica y técnicamente, para poder tomar las mejores decisiones, con base en análisis metódicos y objetivos del contexto y las coyunturas en los que se verifican las campañas electorales. Con lo cual, contarán con elementos para profesionalizar su labor y dejar de una vez por todas en el "baúl de los recuerdos" los mitos, tradiciones y descarriadas intuiciones con base en las que, desgraciadamente, aún se implementan muchos de los esfuerzos en materia de Comunicación Política de la región." (Presentación, página 8-9)
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"By getting connected with each other again, social media users seem to have more incentive to vote because approval by friends becomes an integral part of benefits from voting. In South Korea this phenomenon came at the dusk of the 1987 regime, which is a conservative representation system where yo
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unger, less wealthy, and progressive voters are under-represented and, thus, have little incentive to vote. Voter turnout going up again because of social media after twenty five years of going down has reversed a series of election outcomes since 2010. We pay special attention to Twitter which has played most of the political role for the past two years. The election law, last amended when there was no such thing as social media, failed to catch up with the political realities. Is democracy after Twitter going to be qualitatively different from the 1987 regime (i.e., democracy after democratization)? The reason to believe in the affirmative is that it solves at least partially the political representation problem inherent in the old system. The reason to remain pessimistic is that the offline party organizations, even democratic ones, tend to move in their vested interest rather than incorporating the new political energy accumulated in the social networks." (Abstract)
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"Music is an omnipresent part of the often so-called great Indian election circus and much more than a mere by-product of what is the greatest democratic exercise worldwide. Songs and tunes are an integral part of political communication, strategically used by political actors which are confronted w
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ith an extremely complex and heterogeneous electorate. In the last decades, underlying changes in the media technology and the party system transformed music from a mere vehicle for messages on a regional level to a powerful tool of political advertisement for a nation-wide, professional planed and media based campaign. In course of this study the analysis of both, the historical development of Indian election music and the national election campaigns in 2009, clarify this trend. As part of their media based campaigns the two biggest Indian parties, INC and BJP, used the same song not only to entertain the electorate but – following patterns of brand advertisement – to convey different symbolic messages linked to opposing images of the Indian nation." (Abstract)
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"The May 2011 general election has been the most contested and most discussed in Singapore’s history. Prior to the polls, the government relaxed the rules on election campaigning in the Internet. For the first time in the highly wired city-state with its tech-savvy population of 5 million people,
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opposition parties had the chance to mobilize supporters via social-networking media like Facebook and Twitter. Bloggers used cyberspace extensively for political debate and comment. While the ever-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) posted its worst result in decades, the opposition gained historical victories, at least by Singapore standards. Observers were quick to label the polls as an “Internet election”, implying that media activism in the city-state’s cyberspace had a decisive impact on the ballot. A more measured reading of the election outcome, however, suggests that the polls were not decided in Singapore’s web. The voters’ choice was largely influenced by bread-and-butter issues as well as a call for divergent voices in politics and more control of the government. Although online political expression since the mid-1990s has challenged the PAP’s authoritarian rule and has changed Singapore’s political culture, its impact in electoral terms has so far been limited. The PAP still keeps the city-state tightly under control, online and offline, and is likely to continue its dominance in the foreseeable future. It remains to be seen if Internet media activism can push the city-state towards an open democracy." (Abstract)
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