"This book is a critical study of the political economy of communications in India. It explores the ways in which contexts, policies, and processes at national and international levels shape media structures and studies how a political economy-inspired approach can be used to understand both media d
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ominance and resistance. The author explores aspects of colonial political economy and how it has shaped the structure of media in India and in many other countries. It also discusses liberalization, privatization, and media politics in contemporary India. Divided into three sections—structures, means, and resistance—the chapters focus on both the electronic and the print media." (Publisher description)
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"In late 2009, three newspaper articles appeared in the Kenyan press, contributing to a newly emerging debate in the Kenyan media over government transparency and accountability. Media reporting in Kenya on governance issues, particularly in relation to corrupt practices in public spending, is not n
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ew. What was unusual about these articles was the attention they brought to the specific issue of taxation. Who is paying tax? Who is not paying tax? And what is happening to the revenue? Using evidence from a range of sources, these articles showed the potential for more in-depth questioning and scrutiny of tax issues by the Kenyan media, strengthening the role the media is playing in the development of Kenyan democracy. The three journalists who published the articles had all recently participated in a workshop for researchers, civil society organisations (CSOs) and Kenyan media representatives held in Kenya in November 2009. This workshop was part of a series of interventions delivered by Relay, a media and research communication programme. The Relay programme is managed by Panos London, which runs workshops and other activities with the other institutes within the Panos network, including Panos Eastern Africa. Relay provides training and facilitates relationship-building among key stakeholders to support more in-depth, research-informed media coverage of complex, under-reported or misreported development issues. The long-term goal is to generate public debate that can have an impact on policy and bring about much-needed change. This case study describes some of the methods and activities developed by Relay and how they were applied in Kenya to the issue of tax and governance. It offers a detailed and descriptive account of Relay’s series of workshop sessions, in particular." (Introduction)
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"Investigative, serious journalism seeks to verify rumours and report on facts only. Unfortunately, shortages of staff and resources make it often hard for journalists to check every aspects of a rumour. Add the pressure of deadlines and the publicfs strong appeDte for scandals and it becomes mor
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e and more tempDng for journalists to repeat rumours, even if it is to then refute them later. In the West, with the high increase in personal blogs and amateur news websites, rumours are blossoming and can do a lot of damage, even when reputable news agencies clearly prove them wrong, the rumour about President Obama not being an American citizen is a good example of it. But in conflict settngs rumours can do much more than ruin a reputation or change the odds of an election, in fragile societies, rumours can be extremely dangerous, tipping a group towards unnecessary violence, undoing months of trustbuilding or peace negotiations. Journalists working in conflict settngs must therefore be highly conscious of the dangers of rumour reporting. In this short workshop, we seek to explain the mechanisms of rumours and lay out strategies to best deal with them in a constructive, responsible manner. Ideally, communities and governments officials should also receive similar training so that rumours, whether they are maliciously spread or have emerged spontaneously, have less chances of wrecking havoc." (Introduction, page 3)
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"The aim of this report is to understand the paradox of media freedom in Kurdistan. It first addresses the history of Iraqi Kurdistan’s media. A better understanding of the way these outlets emerged over time is essential in order to grasp the complexity of their current challenges. Originally con
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sidered as instruments of propaganda of various armed groups during an era of secrecy, the region’s media are inseparably connected to its politics, hence the difficulty journalists are running into as they attempt to exert their independence. A description follows of the problems now being faced by the media. Reporters Without Borders has included in this report recommendations to the Iraqi Kurdistan authorities, as well as to the region’s journalists." (Page 2)
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"Das chinesische Festland zählte im Sommer 2009 338 Millionen Internetanwender. Dies bezieht sich auf diejenigen „User", die über sechs Jahre alt sind und sich in den letzten sechs Monaten im Internet einloggten. Das übertrifft die 312 Millionen „Worldwideweb"-Nutzer der Europäischen Union u
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nd sogar die 253 Millionen Netizens in Nord-Amerika. Die 10- bis 29-Jährigen stellen – wie in den Vorjahren – den größten Anwenderanteil. Trotz des Anstiegs der „User" in der Altersgruppe 30 bis 39 Jahre bleibt die chinesische Internetpopulation jugendlich. Analysiert man den Berufshintergrund der Netzgemeinde, steht die Gruppe der Studenten mit 32 Prozent an erster Stelle, gefolgt von Angestellten (14 Prozent) und Arbeitslosen (sieben Prozent). Die 70-prozentige Mehrheit der Internetpopulation ist in der Stadt zu Hause; die Anzahl der Internetnutzer auf dem Land nimmt – nicht zuletzt dank finanzieller und infrastruktureller Anstrengungen der Regierung – stetig zu. Den 747 Millionen chinesischen Mobiltelefonbesitzern3 ist es möglich, das Internet mobil anzuwählen; rund 155 Millionen Nutzer machen von diesem Service Gebrauch.4 Diese Zahlen dürfen nicht darüber hinwegtäuschen, dass die Penetrationsrate des Internets innerhalb der chinesischen Bevölkerung, verglichen mit den entwickelten Teilen der Welt, weiterhin niedrig ist. (China: 27 Prozent, Deutschland: 66 Prozent, EU: 64 Prozent).5 Dem Großteil der chinesischen Internetgemeinschaft dient das Internet als Unterhaltungsmittel (Online Spiele, Musik, Videos). Das „Worldwideweb" wird außerdem für die Informationssuche genutzt und erfreut sich als Kommunikationswerkzeug großer Beliebtheit." (Seite 90-91)
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"The protests unleashed by Iran's disputed presidential election in June 2009 brought the Islamic Republic's vigorous cyber culture to the world's attention. Iran has an estimated 700,000 bloggers, and new media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were thought to have played a key role in spreadin
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g news of the protests. The internet is often celebrated as an agent of social change in countries like Iran, but most literature on the subject has struggled to grasp what this new phenomenon actually means. How is it different from print culture? Is it really a new public sphere? Will the Iranian blogosphere create a culture of dissidence, which eventually overpowers the Islamist regime? In this groundbreaking work, the authors give a flavour of contemporary internet culture in Iran and analyse how this new form of communication is affecting the social and political life of the country. Although they warn against stereotyping bloggers as dissidents, they argue that the internet is changing things in ways which neither the government nor the democracy movement could have anticipated." (Publisher description)
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"A Comunicação Política é uma área vasta em expansão quer sob o ponto de vista da reflexão teórica praticada nas Academias quer sob o ponto de vista da sua prática em numerosos domínios da vida cívica. Vislumbra-se um claro aprofundamento dos estudos nesta área visível na imprensa unive
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rsitária e especializada, na formação de Grupos de Trabalho nas Sociedades Científicas nacionais e internacionais. O livro surge neste contexto deveras interessante em que a Comunicação Política ganha uma centralidade nos estudos seja de comunicação seja de política, carecendo quer de modelos descritivos quer de reflexões normativas que apreendam a complexidade das modernas sociedades pluralistas." (Sinopse pág. web)
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"En América Latina las relaciones entre medios y Estado son bien complejas, ambiguas y contradictorias. Casi siempre es una relación entre medios de comunicación y gobiernos porque hay pocas políticas de Estado, pues cada gobierno acomoda leyes, poder y medios para asegurar su éxito. ¡La comun
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icación como gobierno! ¡La efervescencia del Estado Comunicador! Y del otro lado el gran poder de los medios de comunicación para incidir en la toma de decisiones; los medios de comunicación han optado políticamente hacia la derecha para defender al mercado; la crisis de la legitimidad del periodismo y el auge de los medios comunitarios y digitales en el internet. ¡La mediática del poder!" (Página web)
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"This is a compilation of 13 essays and studies that show the role social networking is playing in political communication in Asia. Each of the 13 chapters describes how various online social communities and networks such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs, are being used as tools in general political c
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ommunication in Asian countries — both in an active and passive way. This book talks about presidents, prime ministers and politicians, and their first steps with Facebook and Twitter, and about the politically motivated bloggers who take personal risks to expose their opinions to a wider audience. On the other hand, 'Social Media and Politics' shows the impact that politics can have on social network users and how social media has become the information source of choice for journalists and voters." (Back cover)
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"Around the developing world, political leaders face a dilemma: the very information and communication technologies that boost economic fortunes also undermine power structures. Globally, one in ten internet users is a Muslim living in a populous Muslim community. In these countries, young people ar
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e developing their political identities—including a transnational Muslim identity—online. In countries where political parties are illegal, the internet is the only infrastructure for democratic discourse. In others, digital technologies such as mobile phones and the internet have given key actors an information infrastructure that is independent of the state. And in countries with large Muslim communities, mobile phones and the internet are helping civil society build systems of political communication independent of the state and beyond easy manipulation by cultural or religious elites. This book looks at the role that communications technologies play in advancing democratic transitions in Muslim countries. As such, its central question is whether technology holds the potential to substantially enhance democracy. Certainly, no democratic transition has occurred solely because of the internet. But, as the book argues, no democratic transition can occur today without the internet. According to this book, the major (and perhaps only meaningful) forum for civic debate in most Muslim countries today is online. Activists both within diasporic communities and within authoritarian states—including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan—are the drivers of this debate, which centers around issues such as the interpretation of Islamic texts, gender roles, and security issues. Drawing upon material from interviews with telecommunications policy makers and activists in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Tajikistan, and Tanzania and a comparative study of seventy-four countries with large Muslim populations, this book demonstrates that these forums have been the means to organize activist movements that have lead to successful democratic insurgencies." (Publisher description)
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"This article analyses the re-emergence of clandestine radio in post-independence Zimbabwe, and how it has become an important tool for disseminating alternative viewpoints in an environment where democratic communicative space is restricted. The article focuses specifically on SW Radio Africa, one
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of the major clandestine radio stations that have been beaming into Zimbabwe since 2001. It argues, based on analysis of this radio station, that by suppressing clandestine radio through jamming signals and intimidating listeners, the government has inadvertently raised people's curiosity and made these stations more visible and more popular than they otherwise would have been. Further, it argues that Zimbabweans are not passive victims of state propaganda. Rather, they continue to devise new communicative spaces outside the dominant state media empire and access alternative viewpoints from an array of emerging platforms." (Abstract)
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"Based on a wealth of primary data collected during five years, Reality Television and Arab Politics analyzes how reality television stirred an explosive mix of religion, politics, and sexuality, fueling heated polemics over cultural authenticity, gender relations, and political participation in the
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Arab world. The controversies, Marwan M. Kraidy argues, are best understood as a social laboratory in which actors experiment with various forms of modernity, continuing a long-standing Arab preoccupation with specifying terms of engagement with Western modernity. Women and youth take center stage in this process. Against the backdrop of dramatic upheaval in the Middle East, this book challenges the notion of a monolithic “Arab Street” and offers an original perspective on Arab media, shifting attention away from a narrow focus on al-Jazeera and toward a vibrant media sphere that compels broad popular engagement and contentious political performance." (Publisher description)
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"The impact of new media can be better understood through a framework that considers five levels of analysis: individual transformation, intergroup relations, collective action, regime policies, and external attention. New media have the potential to change how citizens think or act, mitigate or exa
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cerbate group conflict, facilitate collective action, spur a backlash among regimes, and garner international attention toward a given country. Evidence from the protests after the Iranian presidential election in June 2009 suggests the utility of examining the role of new media at each of these five levels. Although there is reason to believe the Iranian case exposes the potential benefits of new media, other evidence - such as the Iranian regime's use of the same social network tools to harass, identify, and imprison protesters - suggests that, like any media, the Internet is not a "magic bullet." At best, it may be a "rusty bullet." Indeed it is plausible that traditional media sources were equally if not more important." (Summary)
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"Este trabajo estudia la cobertura que Clarín, el diario más leído del país y el de mayor circulación en el mundo de habla hispana, realizó del conflicto campo – gobierno, suscitado a partir de la aplicación de retenciones móviles a la exportación de algunos productos primarios (Resoluci
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n Nº 125/2008). El objetivo es conocer la relevancia noticiosa que cobró este caso a lo largo del tiempo y los temas predominantes en la información publicada. La base conceptual del trabajo empírico es la teoría de la Agenda Setting. Ciertas premisas de esta perspectiva teórica son clave para el análisis del tipo de cobertura que realizó el matutino Clarín sobre este conflicto." (Resumen)
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"The article discusses the coverage of politics in South African women’s magazine Fair Lady in selected years from democratisation in 1994 to ten years later in 2004. In a democracy, the media has the explicit duty to inform society. Within this context three questions are asked: (1) Which politic
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al themes are covered? (2) In what genres do the political items feature? (3) In what ways does the magazine focus the reader’s attention on political items? These aspects were selected to provide a clear view of the extent and manner in which Fair Lady presents politics in its content. This study was done by means of a qualitative content analysis. By focusing on these issues and by drawing on the functions of the media; the agenda setting theory; the schema theory and the on-line evaluation theory, it is argued that the magazine deems politics as important and incorporates it on its agenda to provide readers with necessary political information which they might not otherwise attain. Fair Lady overcomes the fact that politics does not traditionally feature in women’s magazines by taking care in attracting and keeping readers’ attention to political items. The publication (especially in 2004) can be held up as an example to other women’s magazines trying to fulfil their function as a medium to educate and inform readers whilst at the same time not alienating the entertainment-seekers." (Abstract)
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This working paper is the result of a review of the work of Pax Christi in Morocco in the period 2007 – 2009. Pax Christi has co-organized a series of debates between Islamists and secularists in Morocco as part of a programme with Press Now entitled ‘Democratization through the media’. In the
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se debates, participants discussed about various actual political problems in Morocco.
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