"Este trabajo analiza el estado de situación de la cooperación española, en el contexto de la evolución de la agenda internacional de desarrollo, para preguntarse por su impacto e implicaciones futuras en el ámbito de la cultura. Se trata de detectar los desafíos que tiene la cooperación cult
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ural para concretarse en un entorno digital, además de y más allá de la crisis. Dado que se aspira a superar la mirada simplemente nacional, se incluyen las visiones y opiniones de un grupo de expertos y dirigentes oficiales iberoamericanos. Un balance crítico permite afirmar que la cooperación oficial en general, y en materia de cultura en particular, no parecen ser prioridad para el Gobierno. De hecho, se las está sometiendo a una reorientación política y económica, basada en una drástica reducción presupuestaria y una estrategia desdibujada, que ignora el camino transitado. Se concluye que la cooperación cultural debe repensarse para reubicarse en un escenario mayoritariamente digital pero orientándose, al mismo tiempo, hacia el objetivo de la promoción y protección de la diversidad cultural." (Página 4)
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"Bearing in mind the political and economic circumstances in the early stages of development of a democratic Macedonia, international donors played an important role in providing a vibrant media landscape including legal framework and relevant institutions. Donors in Macedonia engaged in a number of
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media assistance projects producing varying results, but mostly providing short-term improvements. The reasons behind the donors’ limited success can be explained through Berkowicz’s ‘transplant effect’. In particular, the reforms in the Macedonian media sector were conducted according to the model of the liberal media system, underestimating the potential dangers of the local context. In that light, the local context of high state politicization, strong business and political parallelism and ethnic segregation were to a great extent overlooked. In addition to the lack of understanding of the local context, there was an absence of a coherent donor assistance strategy. This has contributed towards the overall limited success of the assistance efforts. With several notable exceptions, most of the media assistance in Macedonia was of short and mid-term orientation, which finally resulted in short-term results." (Conclusion)
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"The end of the security transition process in Afghanistan in 2014 marks the need to rethink foreign public diplomacy efforts in the country. As Afghanistan is entering its ‘transformational decade’, there is a unique opportunity to disconnect public diplomacy from the military–security paradi
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gm that has dominated international relations with Afghanistan since 2001. With a much more limited foreign military presence on the ground, public diplomacy can be considerably more than a strategy to win hearts and minds. Comparing the experiences of the United States and the Netherlands, the more sizeable American ‘model’ of public diplomacy can be considered a more defensive mechanism of foreign policy, linked to the military and counter-insurgency activities in Afghanistan, and to the broader ideological objective of being part of the debate on the relationship between ‘Islam and the West’. In contrast, the Dutch ‘model’ shows a limited public security effort that incorporates cultural activities and training as an extension of foreign policy. This model is less ideological and is not directly connected to the military conflict in Afghanistan. It is a more indirect form of supporting foreign policy objectives. What is needed beyond 2014 is an approach that is disconnected from the current military framework, that departs from the more modest and non-military Dutch model, but that includes the broader political and especially financial commitment of the American model." (Abstract)
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"After the Anglo-American invasion, the US neo-conservative administration established the Iraqi Governing Council in July 2003, which included 25 members selected for their ethnic and religious origins; it was the most obvious sign of the US political separatist strategy. As a result of the new pol
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itical reality, the Iraqi media was divided into ethno-sectarian lines, resulting from previous policies followed by the US administration. This article argues that the US media policy prior and after the US invasion of Iraq played a part in enhancing and encouraging the sectarian divisions in the Iraqi society. This was mainly done by sending biased media messages through the state-run Iraqi Media Network (IMN) and other US-aligned channels and allowing militant voices from different Iraqi sides to wage wars of words without interfering. In fact, the only time US officials interfered is when they were criticized by Iraqi media outlets. This study cites different US government reports, accounts from media practitioners who worked for IMN and other journalists that monitored the Iraqi media." (Abstract)
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"U.S. government support for international media development is declining. Spending by the Department of State and USAID for media freedom and freedom of information programs has dropped 43.5 percent in the past five years–from $135 million in Fiscal Year 2008 to approximately $76.3 million in FY
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2012, according to figures supplied by the State Department. This trend and others related to U.S. government support for media development are the subject of this report, which analyzes how U.S. government grant making for media assistance has changed over time and looks at possible reasons those changes have occurred. The data underpinning the report is drawn from two main sources: the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance Resources, which tracks allocations for foreign aid, and from an in-depth examination and analysis of grant proposals solicited by the U.S. government over the past five years containing at least one media development component." (Executive summary)
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"In conclusion, it should be reiterated that the use of the Western liberal media models as a guiding model for the media set up in Kosovo might have been too ambitious a goal. It gave too much credit to the cultural ethos at the time, assuming it to be an environment in which a liberal media sector
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could firmly take root. Obviously, Kosovo is on a path of progress, having moved from a point where there were no institutions to the point where, however imperfect, the new institutions continue to operate. Overall, however, Kosovo media institutions, judging by their current condition, might still be years away from achieving functional independence." (Discussion of findings, page 52)
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"Medienförderung für Osteuropa spielt in Deutschland seit dem Beginn der 1990er Jahre eine wichtige Rolle. Eine Vielzahl an Akteuren ist im Bereich der Aus- und Weiterbildung für osteuropäische Journalistinnen und Journalisten aktiv [...] Der Schwerpunkt der Programmbeteiligung liegt bei jungen
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Journalistinnen und Journalisten, die aus Belarus, Russland und der Ukraine kommen. Mehrheitlich finden die Veranstaltungen in Deutschland statt und werden überwiegend in deutscher Sprache durchgeführt. Die große Mehrheit der Befragten führt Evaluationen durch und bedient sich hauptsächlich der Teilnehmerbefragung im Verlauf bzw. direkt nach Beendigung der Förderprogramme. Valide Aussagen zur Medienförderung sind auf diese Weise allerdings nicht möglich. In bisherigen Untersuchungen zur Medienförderung kommen Akteure, die sich in den beschriebenen Ländern Osteuropas engagieren, nur marginal vor. Dabei gibt es eine Reihe von Fragen hinsichtlich der künftigen Konzepte von Medienförderung, die alle in der Medienförderung tätigen Akteure betreffen, unabhängig davon, ob sie sich auf ein Transformations- oder ein Entwicklungsland beziehen." (Fazit und Empfehlungen, Seite 22)
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"The results of this content analysis comparing TMF grantees with non-TMF control group show a remarkable performance of TMF. In many areas the TMF group performs significantly better than the control group which can be attributed to TMF's work. Significant good performance of TMF was found in the f
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ollowing categories: Diversity of sources; Diversity of perspectives; Background reporting (root causes); Focus on rural areas; Number of viewpoints. However, in some categories the performance was not too much different from the control group or even less good. This was found in the following categories: Transparency of sources; Putting figures and numbers into context; Coherence; Investigative elements; Balance in viewpoints." (Conclusions, page 23)
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"TMF wants to add fire to the demand of citizens for accountability – through a strong media that produces a large variety of high-quality stories about things that matter in the lives of Tanzanians. Therefore, TMF is interested in stories from grantees about how their media production changed som
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ething in the lives of ordinary Tanzanians: so-called ‘Success Stories’. Twenty-seven such stories are shared here from the first phase of TMF (2008-2012). These stories come from both institutional (13) and individual (14) grantees." (P1)
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"This briefing argues that the Iraqi media landscape of 2013 may not be the free, plural and professional fourth estate that many in the West had envisaged in 2003 but that it has real strengths – as well as weaknesses – which reflect the reality and complexity of modern Iraq. The seismic shift
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in attitudes that the Iraqi media was asked to embrace in the reconstruction of the sector after Saddam Hussein’s fall was always likely to take time. It is suggested here that the prospects for Iraq’s media are less bleak than is often assumed." (Executive summary, page 4)
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"Media interventions by international organizations and NGOs in conflict and post-conflict situations seek to develop and shape a media system to contribute to specific political and social ends. The analyses and assessments that inform these interventions are often based on an overview of the forma
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l media and governance structures, such as mass media and state institutions, and overlook informal structures that may be instrumental for political and development goals. This article proposes a framework that can incorporate both the formal and informal modes of communication and participation that characterize a society. This framework encourages a ‘diagnostic’ approach centred around three areas: power, flows, and participation, and enables researchers to take into consideration features that are often overlooked such as customary law; a range of public authorities from politicians to Imams and local elders; information flows that may vary from poetry to mobile phones; and the culture of communication. Examples from the Somali territories, which are characterized by a weak central government, are employed to highlight how informal structures and actors intervene in shaping information flows and the importance of accounting for them." (Abstract)
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"The report presents findings that pose both unique challenges and opportunities for programs seeking to provide humanitarian information to Syrian refugees in Lebanon. So far, according to the report, there is little evidence of any comprehensive strategy or investment in providing a humanitarian c
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ommunication strategy. Various agencies are employing piecemeal tactics to communication through counseling lines, SMS and face-to-face outreach, yet all of these have their limitations. Furthermore it is clear from Internews research presented here that all current outreach tactics are fundamentally undermined by a profound lack of trust and/or understanding on the part of the refugees about what they are being told, and by whom. Syria has a long history as one of the most media-oppressed countries in the world and the Syrians have a mistrust of media and officialdom in general." (Internews website)
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