commbox Political Communication, Media & Democracy

"As an introduction to this special issue of CyberOrient, this text provides an insight into ongoing research in studies of digital layers of revolutions, digital communication, and dissidence in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region. Providing a short overview of the latest development ... more

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The Use of Social Media in Colombian Democratic Spaces: A Double-Edged Sword

Diana Dajer

Tokyo: Toda Peace Institute (2019), 27 pp.

"The world is flooded with news of how social media is being used to influence democracy in conflict-affected areas, for better or worse. Colombia is not an exception. The era of social media brings opportunities and challenges to a broad range of stakeholders in this country, to harness the power o ... more

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The staging trap: Right-wing politics as a challenge for journalism

Kai Hafez

Journalism, volume 20, issue 1 (2019), pp. 24-26

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Media Capture in Europe

Marius Dragomir

Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) (2019), 25 pp.

"The collusion between the political class and media owners [in Central and Eastern Europe] has reached unprecedented levels, leading to a phenomenon known as media capture, a situation where most or all of the news media institutions are operating as part of a government-business cartel that contro ... more

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Managing Misinformation in a Humanitarian Context: Internews Rumour Tracking Methodology. Part III: How to Guide
Key Guidance

Internews (2019), 61 pp.

"You will find information and advice on everything from how to source rumours and factcheck information, to how to share actionable and practical answers to address these rumours. Internews Rumour Tracking Methodology is designed to be flexible and responsive to local context – and you should be ... more

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Media Development and the Open Government Partnership: Can Improved Policy Dialogue Spur Media Reforms?

Paul Rothman

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2019)

"The global effort to promote open and transparent government creates new opportunities to put media development on the political agenda of countries around the world. This report looks in particular at the structures of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which in its 2016 Paris Declaration char ... more

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Surprising News: How the Media Affect - and Do Not Affect - Politics

Kenneth Newton

Boulder; London: Rienner (2019), x, 277 pp.

"In chapter 2, the book lays down its foundations with a review of a large body of experimental psychology research on how and why individuals can preserve their beliefs, sometimes in the face of all evidence, logic, and argument to the contrary. The second part of the chapter shows that millions of ... people do the same in the real world outside the laboratories, whatever the media say [...] Chapter 3 considers political partisanship and party identification - that is, strong attachments to political ideas, values, and organizations. Experiments show that people are likely to engage in belief preservation where partisan opinions are concerned, and the same seems to be true of partisans in the outside world [...] Chapter 4 broadens the scope of inquiry to examine how non-partisanship and non-party political beliefs and values can influence the ways the majoritiy of individuals receive and process news reports and draw conclusions from them [...] The first eight chapters deal mainly with the micro, demand side of the equation - but there is also the macro, supply side of news media systems. Supply and demand are often analyzed separately, although understanding media effects requires examining the interaction between them [...] Chapter 9 compares commercial and public service broadcasting, showing that they have different effects on political knowledge, trust, participation, and democratic support. Chapter 10 turns to the classic theory of news media pluralism as a cornerstone of modern democracy [...] The research strategy of this book involves comparing and contrasting a large number of studies of media effects on political attitudes and behavior in order to compare and contrast the conclusions they reach. The book does not merely traingulate in order to reach reliabe conclusions, but it polyangulates, using many different studies written by sociologists, political scientists, psychologists, and economists who employ a variety of methods to investigate many possible media effects on politics. American and British research is used in the main, but single-country research on Russia, the Netherlands, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Belgium is included, as are comparative studies of European Union member states." (Chapter 1, page 2-5) more

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Countering Online Propaganda and Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy

Corneliu Bjola, James Pamment (eds.)

Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge (2019), xiv, 213 pp.

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Local Media in Brazil: Draining the Newsrooms in the Country’s Poorest Region

Murillo Camarotto

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2019), 30 pp.

"In spite of being one of the poorest places in Brazil, Pernambuco has historically had a combative and awarded local media. Until recently, local reporters had been winning the most important national journalism prizes with inspiring local stories and initiatives. This context has been changing dra ... more

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Media, Democracy and Small States: Political Communication in Iceland

Jón Gunnar Ólafsson

London: University of London, Goldsmiths, Doctoral Thesis (2019), ?? pp.

"This thesis examines the dissemination of political information in Iceland through an investigation of three interlinked and under-studied areas of research in the country. The research gaps concern perceptions of routine political news coverage, the politician-journalist relationship, and the impa ... more

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Myanmar Media in Transition: Legacies, Challenges and Change
Top Insights

Lisa Brooten, Jane Madlyn McElhone, Gayathry Venkiteswaran (eds.)

Singapore: ISEAS (2019), xix, 407 pp.

"Myanmar Media in Transition: Legacies, Challenges and Change is the first volume to overview the country’s contemporary media landscape, providing a critical assessment of the sector during the complex and controversial political transition. Moving beyond the focus on journalism and freedom of th ... more

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Democracia y protección de datos personales en la era digital

Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Consejo para la Transparencia (2019), 22 pp.

"Las personas basan sus decisiones y participación democrática en la información de la que disponen y si dicha información es deliberadamente manipulada a través del uso indebido de sus datos personales, sus decisiones posteriores podrían no ser genuinas. En el presente documento, los analista ... more

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Polarisation and the News Media in Europe

Richard Fletcher, Joy Jenkins

European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) (2019), 49 pp.

"Across Europe there is as yet little evidence to support the idea that increased exposure to news featuring like-minded or opposing views leads to the widespread polarisation of attitudes. Although some studies have found that both can strengthen the attitudes of a minority who already hold strong ... more

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Comunicar lo local: Estrategias electorales y de gobierno en el ámbito local

Gonzalo Arias, Lucas Doldan

Buenos Aires: La Crujía (2019), 110 pp.

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Louder Than Words? Connecting the Dots of European Democracy Support

Brussels: European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) (2019), 127 pp.

"European support for democracy is at a crossroads. The next decade will have a major bearing on what democracy means for the European Union (EU) at a time of increasing awareness of fundamental technological change, climate risks, demographic adjustment and power shifts between and within continent ... more

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Polish Media System in a Comparative Perspective: Media in Politics, Politics in Media

Boguslawa Dobek-Ostrowska (ed.)

Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang (2019), 286 pp.

"The main subject of this work is the dynamically evolving Polish media system, which is under the influence of institutions and external stakeholders. Thanks to this, it is easier to understand that the "crossroads" is not only a problem of the Polish media system, but a global one. For this reason ... more

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Polarisation and the Use of Technology in Political Campaigns and Communication

Lisa Maria Neudert, Nahema Marchal

European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) (2019), 55 pp.

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Digital Threats to Democracy

Marianne Elliott, Jess Berentson-Shaw, Kathleen Kuehn, Leon Salter, Ella Brownlie

The Workshop;Law Foundation;Luminate Foundation (2019), 244 pp.

"At the heart of the challenges to democracy posed by digital media are three core problems: 1. Platform monopolies: two or three corporations control not only our means of communication, but also the content which is distributed, both of which are core aspects of our democracy. Whilst the market po ... more

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Personal Data: Political Persuasion. Inside the Influence Industry - How it Works

Berlin: Tactical Tech (2019), 121 pp.

"This guide categorises data-driven campaigning methods to loosely reflect how value is created along the data pipeline, from acquisition (asset), to analysis (intelligence) to application (influence)." (Page 3)

Managing Misinformation in a Humanitarian Context: Internews Rumour Tracking Methodology. Part III: How to Guide Key Guidance

Myanmar Media in Transition: Legacies, Challenges and Change Top Insights

Managing Misinformation in a Humanitarian Context: Internews Rumour Tracking Methodology. Part III: How to Guide
Key Guidance

Myanmar Media in Transition: Legacies, Challenges and Change
Top Insights