"Press freedom provides both the oxygen of democracy and the laughing gas of infotainment and commercial exploitation. This has been something of a shocking discovery to make for people in Central and Eastern Europe. When they were trying to imagine, and plan for, a new media order once the Communis
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t system had been abolished, they had visions of a media scene where everyone would “speak with their own voice”, the media would be socially-Controlled and would serve as the forum of a serious, pluralistic public debate on fundamental issues of our countries. The reality is somewhat different. In this paper I will try to provide a very general overview of that reality and put it in a comparative perspective to see what progress has been achieved since 1989." (Introduction)
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"Journalism and Democracy in Asia addresses key issues of freedom, democracy, citizenship, openness and journalism in contemporary Asia, looking especially at China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The authors take varying approaches to questions of democracy, whilst also conside
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ring journalism in print, radio and new media, in relation to such questions as the role of social, political and economic liberalization in bringing about a blooming of the media, the relationship between the media and the development of democracy and civil society, and how journalism copes under authoritarian rule." (Publisher description)
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"Die aufgeklärte Öffentlichkeit im Westen hat neue Helden: die Journalisten und Macher des arabischen Nachrichtensenders Al-Dschasira. Ganz offensichtlich lassen sie sich weder von Anzeigenboykotten aus der arabischen Welt noch von Anfeindungen der amerkanischen Führung davon abbringen, ihnen zug
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ängliche Nachrichten ohne jedwede Rücksichten zu verbreiten. Weltweites Aufsehen erregte Al Dschasira, als man nach dem 11. September ein Tonband Osama Bin Ladens abspielte. Seitdem steht der Sender im Verdacht, mit Al Quaida zu konspirieren. In den Verdacht, auch vom israelischen Geheimdienst oder der CIA finanziert zu sein, kam er, als er zu Beginn der zweiten Intifada in seiner berühmten Talkshow 'The Opposite Direction' auch Israelis zu Wort kommen ließ. Mit dieser Politik folgt Al-Dschasira – nach Auskunft der Verantwortlichen – 'nur' seinem Motto 'Meinung und Gegenmeinung'. Ob damit die tatsächlichen Motive des Senders richtig charakterisiert sind, ist auch Thema dieser Reportage. Der Journalist Hugh Miles sprach mit den Schlüsselfiguren des Senders. Er berichtet über die Hintergründe und die Stationen des meteoritengleichen Aufstiegs eines Fernsehsenders, der demnächst auch in englischer Sprache senden wird, um so weltweit zu agieren. Möglicherweise, so meint Hugh Miles selbstkritisch, habe er nur deswegen – sozusagen als PR im englischsprachigen Raum – die bisher einmalige Gelegenheit erhalten, hinter die Kulissen zu sehen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Several Latin American countries have experienced the emergence of neopopulist politicians who eschew ties to traditional parties and orient their campaigns toward the atomized poor. This article examines the role of television in the electoral success of these politicians. Using survey data, I ass
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ess the impact of television exposure on vote choice in the 1989 election of Fernando Collor de Mello in Brazil, the 2000 election of Alberto Fujimori in Peru, and the 2001 election of Alejandro Toledo in Peru. These cases achieve variation on two predictors of media effects: the presence of a neopopulist outsider and biased television coverage of the campaign. Statistical analysis confirms our theoretical expectations of media effects in the first two elections (where coverage was biased) but not in the third. These findings suggest that bias is the more reliable predictor of television’s impact on Latin American presidential elections, rather than the presence of a neopopulist candidate." (Abstract)
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"This thesis considers the role of the mainstream South African print media in perpetuating discrimination during the years of legalised racial discrimination – commonly known as apartheid – from when the Herenigde Nationale Party took power in May 1948 with an unprecedented 28-seat swing under
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the leadership of 74-year-old Dr Daniel F. Malan until it was replaced by the African National Congress, black-dominated unity government in April, 1994. Against an historical background, it focuses on the agenda and efforts of the mainstream metropolitan print media during the apartheid era, the build-up to the first nonracial elections, and the media’s role in the immediate post-apartheid era." (Abstract, page 5)
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"Dramas of Nationhood identifies a fantastic cultural form that binds together the Egyptian nation—television serials. These melodramatic programs—like soap operas but more closely tied to political and social issues than their Western counterparts—have been shown on television in Egypt for mo
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re than thirty years. In this book, Lila Abu-Lughod examines the shifting politics of these serials and the way their contents both reflect and seek to direct the changing course of Islam, gender relations, and everyday life in this Middle Eastern nation. Representing a decade’s worth of research, Dramas of Nationhood makes a case for the importance of studying television to answer larger questions about culture, power, and modern self-fashionings. Abu-Lughod explores the elements of developmentalist ideology and the visions of national progress that once dominated Egyptian television—now experiencing a crisis. She discusses the broadcasts in rich detail, from the generic emotional qualities of TV serials and the depictions of authentic national culture, to the debates inflamed by their deliberate strategies for combating religious extremism." (Publisher description)
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"SDC regards this brochure as a document for discussion and orientation on the place of the media in international development cooperation. It is seeking to establish a framework in order to stimulate activities within this domain … The existence of a pluralist and autonomous press (written, audio
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visual and new media), carrying on its business within a global framework of respect for freedom, is the most important contribution that the media can make to governance. Every endeavour made in this direction deserves to be sustained by bilateral and multilateral aid. Nevertheless, considerable prudence is called for, as problems relating to media freedom, defamation or free access to public information are extremely difficult to regulate. It is for the local partners, and media professionals in particular, who have the difficult task of achieving consensus. The methodological approach to international aid is therefore very important." (Page 4, page 16)
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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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"Since September 11, 2001, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many television viewers in the United States have become familiar with Al Jazeera as offering an alternative take on events from that presented by mainstream U.S. media, as well as disseminating anti-American invective. Westerners have
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tended toward simplistic views of Arab newspapers, radio, and television, assuming that they are all under government control and that freedom of press is non-existent. William A. Rugh, a long time observer of the Arab mass media, offers a more nuanced picture of the Arab press as it relates to the political situation in the Arab world today. Although governmental influence over the media is stronger in the Middle East than in Europe or the United States, Rugh argues that there is more diversity in the Arab media than most people in the West realize. In reality, the Arab media are coming to reflect the diversity and wide range of opinions of those within the Arab world itself. In particular, the advent of privately owned Arab satellite television in the 1990s has led to significant liberalization of the media throughout the region. Rugh concludes that a democracy of ideas and voices is slowly growing in the Arab world, and he remains guardedly optimistic about the positive role the Arab media can play in processes of democratization and nation-building." (Publisher description)
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"Since the start of the “third wave” of democratization, in 1974, the proportion of states that are electoral democracies has more than doubled, and the number of democratic governments in the world has tripled (Diamond 2001). Countries as diverse as the Czech Republic, Mexico, and South Africa
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have experienced a radical transformation of their political systems through the establishment of more effective party competition, free and fair elections, and a more independent and pluralistic press. Many hoped that these developments would expand the voice of the disadvantaged and the accountability of governments, so that policy makers would become more responsive to human needs, and governments could be removed from power through the ballot box if citizens became dissatisfied by their performance. Yet in practice, after the initial surge in the early 1990s, many electoral democracies in Latin America, Central Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa remain fragile and only poorly consolidated, often divided by ethnic conflict and plagued by a faltering economic performance, with excessive executive power in the hands of one predominant party and a fragmented opposition (Linz and Stephan 1996). The central danger, illustrated by the nations of the Andean region, lies in disillusionment with democracy, and even occasional reversals (Norris 1999; Pharr and Putnam 2000; Lagos 2001; Plattner and Diamond 2001)." (Summary)
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