"The 2nd Conference on Media Development in Myanmar took place from May 20-21 2013 in Yangon. With over 300 participants, the conference marked another significant milestone in Myanmar’s media reform process. This report is a summary of the presentations held at this conference. Under the theme
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The Role of Media in Democratic Transitions: Successes, Challenges and the Way Forward”, government officials, private and state-owned media companies, professional journalist associations, academia, civil society representatives and international organisations met to take stock of the media reforms in Myanmar and develop a set of practical recommendations for further media development in the country. The conference was organised by the Ministry of Information (MoI) and the Myanmar Media Development Thematic Working Group (MMDTWG) in partnership with UNESCO and International Media Support (IMS). The theme of the 2013 conference was linked to the previous year’s conference, which focused on media’s potential to strengthen democratic processes, bringing international experience and exposure to Myanmar. This year, the main emphasis was to take stock and bring to the forefront the successes and challenges faced by Myanmar stakeholders. It provided a venue for participants to report on concrete progress achieved in pursuing media development and reforms. The fact that the conference drew over half of its participants from outside Yangon was a testament to the strong regional focus and relevance of this year’s theme." (Introduction, page 5)
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"The current UIS Questionnaire on Media Statistics provides information for three UNESCO frameworks, namely the Media and Information Literacy Framework, the Media Development Indicators Framework and the Framework for Cultural Statistics. The questionnaire collects data for reporting global progres
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s on Action Lines C2, C3, C8 and C9 of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in UNESCO’s fields of competencies. In particular, Action Line C9 recommends appropriate policies to foster and sustain media and information development. This document provides country profiles for each of the countries that participated in the two pilot surveys conducted in 2011 and 2012." (Background, page 3)
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"Recent times have seen an increasing number of reports about the plight of press systems in the Western hemisphere in contrast to the growing prospects of the print media in Asia, particularly in countries like India and China. While many attribute the success stories of the Indian and Chinese news
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paper sectors to the inherent strengths of their booming economies, some argue that there are visible and invisible trajectories of these success stories." (Introduction)
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"This book provides an accessible and systematic introduction to the media in transitional democracies. It analyses the problems that occur when transforming the media into independent institutions that are able to inform citizens and hold governments to account. The book covers the following topics
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: normative conceptions of media and democracy; the role of the past in the transition process; the internet as a new space for democratic change; the persistence of political interference in emerging democracies; the interlocking power of media markets and political ownership; the challenges to journalistic professionalism in post authoritarian contexts; the role of the media in divided societies. The book takes a global view by exploring the interplay of political and media transitions in different pathways of democratization that have taken place in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. It will be of interest to advanced students and scholars who want a better understanding of the media outside established Western democracies. The book will also be of great value to policymakers and activists who are involved in strengthening the media in transitional democracies." (Back cover)
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"The Indian newspaper market still keeps growing and has attracted the interest of multinational corporations. One reason for this is that India is presently one of the largest markets for English-language newspapers and magazines in the world. Notwithstanding the continued growth of the English-lan
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guage press, it is above all daily newspapers in the major Indian languages which form the motor of this unprecedented press boom. The article shows that in the wake of economic liberalization and the enforcement of the consumption-oriented market economy, the newspaper market in India can be said to be changing from a linguistically ‘split public’, which was characterized by many asymmetries for decades, to an integrated multilingual ‘consumer sphere’. It can thus be argued that in this new consumer sphere, the old existing and imaginary boundaries between ‘English-language’, ‘Indian-language’ or ‘regional newspapers’ are becoming increasingly fuzzy, whereas the new geographies of the ‘regional’ are now very important for the expansion and consolidation of daily newspapers." (Abstract)
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"The paper aims to address some of the theoretical and normative issues involved in transforming post-authoritarian media systems, which have been described and analysed in the country studies of this working paper series. The discussion starts by introducing the concept of ‘social constructivism
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as an effective theoretical tool to understand processes of institutional change in processes of democratic transition. Two key elements of media systems serve as examples to demonstrate the ‘social construction’ of norms and practices in different social and political contexts: partisanship and pluralism. While partisanship is seen as a deficiency of media systems, albeit widely practiced, pluralism is valued as an indispensible norm of democratic media, yet difficult to achieve." (Introduction)
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"Almost 300 news channels are currently available in Europe, of which more than 170 are established in the European Union. Private channels dominate the national TV news landscape with more than 80% owned by private companies. The pan-European channels with the widest distribution in Europe are CNN
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International, BBC World News, Al Jazeera (English), Euronews (English) and RT (Russia Today). The number of news channels available over free DTT channels has increased to 43, compared to 16 four years ago." (Website European Audiovisual Observatory)
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"The first "theoretical perspectives" section has opinions and research articles by academic scholars and expert practitioners on new media and communication Issues and trends in Asia. Some of the topics covered include the dynamics arising out of the shift to the 'digilogue', mobile activism, corpo
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rate social responsibility, the television news industry, and state of development communication among other issues. The second section has 26 country profiles from all over the Asia-Pacific region. For the first time, Australia and New Zealand have been added to this edition. Each country chapter provides a snapshot into the communication and media landscape and includes a brief historical geography, political structure, economic indicators, and a more detailed media landscape. The media landscape profiles the current media and communication scene in the country, including the latest on the journalism, print media, broadcast media (radio, television, cinema), telecommunications, the Internet, new media, advertising, media training and media law sections. Statistical tables in each section present updated, key concise data for that country." (Back cover)
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"Im subsaharischen Afrika orientieren sich die Medien am Entwicklungsjournalismus und am westlichen Journalismusverständnis. Daniel Kuehnhenrich untersucht mit verschiedenen Methoden die Ausprägung dieser Konzepte in den ghanaischen Zeitungen. Seine umfassende Analyse beruht auf der ersten Journal
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istenbefragung in Westafrika, teilnehmenden Beobachtungen in zwei großen Zeitungsredaktionen, qualitativen Interviews mit deren Chefredakteuren und einer quantitativen Inhaltsanalyse von über 1100 Zeitungsartikeln. Die detaillierte und umfangreiche Literaturanalyse ordnet die empirischen Ergebnisse in die subsaharische Presselandschaft ein." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The history of Uganda from the days of Colonial Rule, when modern mass media was introduced was revisited. The thesis of this study was that the substance of the political governance model inherited from Uganda’s colonial past continues in the postindependence period to define the relationship be
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tween the media and government on the one hand, and within media industry itself. This governance model was grounded in power monopoly, power domination, and power preservation, with the ensuing characteristics of exclusiveness, privilege and intolerance of opposition, difference and diversity. State power was not informed by the discourse of good governance nor did it cater for a democratic environment. Legislative, administrative and strong-arm measures were all strategies of power and control that the colonial government deployed to manage a media deemed non-compliant, and thereby maintain and protect the supremacy of its rule. By the same token, the anti-media freedom measures were also an implicit recognition of the power of the press, understood as a subversive threat." (Conclusion, page 90-91)
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