"The media play a key role in post-apartheid South Africa and is often positioned at the centre of debates around politics, identity and culture. Media, such as radio, are often said to also play a role in deepening democracy, while simultaneously holding the power to frame political events, shape p
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ublic discourse and impact citizens' perceptions of reality. Broadcasting Democracy: Radio and Identity in South Africa provides an exciting look into the diverse world of South African radio, exploring how various radio formats and stations play a role in constructing post-apartheid identities. At the centre of the book is the argument that various types of radio stations represent autonomous systems of cultural activity, and are 'consumed' as such by listeners. In this sense, it argues that South African radio is 'broadcasting democracy." (Back cover)
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"In this short book, internationally renowned scholar of political communication, Stephen Coleman, argues that the best way to strengthen democracy is to re-invent it for the twenty-first century. Governments and global institutions have failed to seize the opportunity to democratise their ways of o
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perating, but online citizens are ahead of them, developing practices that could revolutionise the exercise of political power." (Publisher description)
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"This paper discusses a number of ways in which media plays a part in increasing accountability. It draws on quantitative and qualitative data from BBC Media Action’s work in nine countries. It finds that: media can influence accountability by empowering people, creating opportunities for construc
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tive public debate and influencing power; development donors and practitioners need to integrate media more fully into their empowerment and accountability strategies. In 2017 BBC Media Action will complete a six year, multi-country project to support improved accountability through public dialogue. Partnering with over 135 media and civil society organisations, BBC Media Action supported broadcast programmes that have reached more than 190 million people. In 2016, the governance programmes supported by BBC Media Action reached an average of 37% of the adult population of the countries in which they were broadcast. This paper seeks to explore how the lessons from that support can contribute to the wider empowerment and accountability agenda, and to set out challenges for the future of media, empowerment and accountability work." (BBC Media Action website)
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"This practice briefing sets out what BBC Media Action has learned about how media can provide a platform for both men and women to hold their leaders to account, while empowering them to participate in their own communities. Unpicking the challenges faced and the solutions found, it will bring toge
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ther practice and research to examine how effective our factual programmes have been in reaching and impacting on men and women equally. The paper argues that these projects have been effective in building political knowledge, levels of discussion of governance issues and political participation among both men and women. However, it also draws the tentative conclusion that, in Nepal and Bangladesh, the programmes may be less effective at empowering female audiences to participate in politics than men. After setting out the global picture for gender and governance, the paper outlines BBC Media Action’s approach to supporting women to participate in their communities and hold their leaders to account. It then unpacks the challenges of creating gender-sensitive governance programmes and weighs up how successful BBC Media Action has been in reaching and impacting women. The paper concludes with some recommendations to inform future programming." (BBC Media Action website)
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"This research looks at the information needed by in-country development stakeholders with an emphasis on accountability actors including civil society organizations, charities, government workers, and the media. To collect this information, semi-structured interviews were conducted in Sierra Leone
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and Liberia. The majority of interviewees wanted information about financial resources and the channels they flowed through, and all respondents wanted information on the services provided and where the work was happening subnationally, suggesting that these two sets of information may be the most important. Unfortunately, information on subnational locations and services provided is infrequently available through open aid data portals, implying a need to update what aid information is shared." (Page 1)
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"This chapter discusses the role of media in the Republic of Kazakhstan in combating corruption. First, it provides an assessment of the recently passed access to information legislation in the country as it relates to media's access to government information. Second, it analyses the extent to which
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freedom of press is guaranteed and protected, before looking at the level of professionalism and ethics in the media sector. Lastly, this chapter analyses the plurality of Kazakhstan's media sector." (Page 275)
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"This report provides an in-depth look at how Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates are using digital technologies to achieve broader policy objectives. The report finds that significant progress has been made in improving connectivity, establishing the basic infrastr
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ucture and using ICTs for more efficient services. They have laid the foundations for the digital transformation of the public sector in a way that ensures greater accessibility for all. However, the report also shows that a more structured use of new technologies could better meet citizens’ expectations, help secure trust in government and support inclusive growth. For example, ICTs could be used more effectively to engage citizens in the design of public policies as well as in the design, delivery and evaluation of public services. A more strategic use of ICTs can help the different parts of the public sector work together and share resources, as well as improve data governance and cybersecurity policies. More fundamentally, the report calls for a cultural shift in the public administration to center services and policies on citizen’s needs and preferences. These countries need a robust strategic and policy framework to implement digital government strategies successfully and consistently across the administration. In line with the OECD Recommendation, they should develop institutional set-ups that enable a coherent use of technology across levels of government." (Foreword, page 3)
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"Funded by DFID, under the Global Grant project, BBC Media Action produced three seasons of the weekly TV and radio programme Sema Kenya (Kenya Speaks). Sema Kenya featured a moderated discussion between a live panel of officials and an audience of ‘ordinary’ Kenyans and was designed to enable i
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ndividuals, communities and governments to be better informed and more engaged in tackling governance challenges. Alongside this, BBC Media Action delivered a mentoring programme, initially with six local radio stations, and later with the national broadcaster Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), which has the largest footprint in the country. Through this work, BBC Media Action aimed to strengthen the capacity of Kenya’s media sector to produce governance programming that supported and mainstreamed the overall objectives of the project at both the local and national level. [...] Sema Kenya contributed to people being more informed about and engaged in politics. Audiences were more knowledgeable about politics, discussed it more with friends and family, felt more confident in their ability to influence political processes and participated more in governance related activities (particularly at the community level) – all factors that support bottom-up accountability. Audiences themselves linked Sema Kenya with these outcomes. This finding was validated by analysis confirming a significant positive relationship between watching or listening to Sema Kenya and consistently higher knowledge, discussion and confidence to engage in politics, even when taking into account other factors that might influence these outcomes (such as education, age and interest in politics). While Sema Kenya’s audience was more likely to participate in politics, qualitative research respondents rarely attributed their actions directly to what they had heard on Sema Kenya. This reflects findings from advanced quantitative analysis (structural equation modelling) that suggests the link between Sema Kenya and increased political participation is indirect and mediated by political knowledge, discussion and self-efficacy. Supported by an extensive network of broadcast partners that stretched across all 47 counties in Kenya, the discussion programme reached an estimated 12.7 million people over three seasons, with a peak audience of 5.7 million in 2013 – the year of the general election. The show also maintained a loyal audience throughout all three seasons, with around half of all those reached annually tuning in for at least every second episode." (Executive summary, pages 6-7)
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"Indonesia is undergoing a process of rapid change, with an affluent middle class due to hit 141 million people by 2020. While official statistics suggest that internet penetration is low, over 70 million Indonesians have a Facebook account, the fourth highest group in the world. Jakarta is the Twit
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ter capital of the world with more tweets per minute than any other city around the globe. In the past ten years digitalisation of media content has enabled extensive concentration and conglomeration of the industry, and media owners are wealthier and more politically powerful than ever before. Digital media is a prominent place of contestation between large, powerful oligarchs, and citizens looking to bring about rapid and meaningful change. This book examines how the political agencies of both oligarchs and ‘netizens’ are enhanced by digitalisation, and how an increasingly divergent society is being formed. In doing so, this book enters this debate about the transformations of society and power in the digital age." (Publisher description)
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"The Companion is the first collection to bring together two distinct ways of thinking about human rights and media, including scholarship that examines media as a human right alongside that which looks at media coverage of human rights issues. This international collection of 49 newly written piece
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s thus provides a unique overview of current research in the field, while also providing historical context to help students and scholars appreciate how such developments depart from past practices. The volume examines the universal principals of freedom of expression, legal instruments, the right to know, media as a human right, and the role of media organisations and journalistic work. It is organised thematically in five parts: Communication, Expression and Human Rights; Media Performance and Human Rights: Political Processes, Media Performance and Human Rights: News and Journalism; Digital Activism, Witnessing and Human Rights; Media Representation of Human Rights: Cultural, Social and Political." (Publisher description)
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"El presente artículo analiza la participación de los medios comunitarios y su importancia para la democratización de la comunicación en Ecuador en el marco del Concurso Público de Frecuencias de Radio y Televisión de señal abierta, convocado en 2016. Este concurso cobró importancia en la ag
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enda pública por ser la primera vez que el Estado utiliza un mecanismo público para otorgar concesiones de frecuencias, abriendo a concurso 1 472 frecuencias de radio y televisión, lo que modificará el panorama mediático por 15 años –tiempo que dura cada concesión–. Este concurso, además, tomó relevancia por desarrollarse en medio de un proceso electoral ya de por sí agitado, por la permanencia o no del Gobierno de la Revolución Ciudadana liderado por Rafael Correa, después de 10 años en el poder. En este contexto, este análisis propone otra visión: desde la mirada del sector comunitario, un actor casi ausente en el debate público, a pesar de ser uno de los grupos que mayor implicación tiene en este proceso. Este documento plantea una comprensión del sector comunitario y de los “medios comunitarios” no como una totalidad cerrada, sino como una categorización que debe ser debatida, diferenciando aquellos medios comunitarios de grupos religiosos de aquellos nuevos medios comunitarios de organizaciones sociales, que como se verá, tienen características y demandas diferenciadas." (Página 1)
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"While scholarly inquiries into the coverage of climate change in Africa are growing, there appears to be a dearth of studies focusing on how the political economy shapes the coverage. This qualitative study addresses this gap by exploring how vested interests, corruption and declining advertising r
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evenue among other factors affect climate change news in Nigeria. The findings of this study - which draws on interviews with journalism professionals undertaken in Lagos in 2013 - suggest that media owners, editors and even climate change reporters have different interests to protect, all of which influence climate change reportage. The study concludes that in order to get their stories published, ethical climate change reporters might need to find creative ways of making their stories meaningful without hurting the interests that appear to frustrate the reporting of the phenomenon. The issues examined in this study provide a research-based framework for the analysis of the political economy of climate change reporting in Nigeria." (Abstract)
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"Media freedom is still a fragile compromise in Tunisia and institutions and their rules are not as sustainable as one might wish for. The success of the transition process ultimately depends on the commitment of all elites to devote themselves to holding on to democracy. As could be observed in sev
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eral stages of the transition process, it was often the willingness of the political elites to make democratization work, even at the expense of their own power shares, which was essential for mastering the ride on the bumpy road of transition. However, in comparison to all other countries in the region Tunisia has found a way to negotiate its future without militant means, and, as Roxane Farmanfarmaian (2014, page 662) concludes, "a stage of no return is widely felt to have been achieved". Thus I can conclude optimistically that Tunisia's media transition might indeed become a success story." (Conclusion)
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"In 2012 the opportunity for ordinary Afghans to communicate with political authorities or hold them to account was extremely limited. To help address this BBC Media Action worked with state broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) and the BBC Afghan Service to co-produce the TV and radio nati
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onal debate programme Open Jirga (Open Assembly). It also supported the Afghan Education Production Organization (AEPO) to incorporate governance issues into its longstanding radio drama New Home, New Life. The project aimed to provide a platform for people to question their leaders and which built the profile and participation of women in public dialogue and debate. It also sought to raise the production skills and standards of RTA staff to produce high-quality coverage on key governance issues. Findings showed that BBC Media Action’s training and mentoring of RTA was largely successful. It was also found that more than 84% of those that tuned into Open Jirga and/or New Home, New Life reported that the programmes had increased their knowledge of key governance issues. However, research revealed that satisfaction with panellists’ responses was mixed. Some audiences and experts felt that Open Jirga could have done more to follow up to ensure that action was taken and demonstrate where power holders were failing in their duties. Encouragingly however it was found that both programmes did have a positive impact on attitudes regarding women’s right to participate and their confidence to take action." (BBC Media Action website)
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"Los periodistas que leamos esta guía, de principio a fin, encontraremos una ruta rápida para investigar procesos relacionados con la contratación pública y la identificación y construcción de redes de poder; a su vez, se encontrarán elementos para hacer consultas en bases de datos. Todo esto
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desde el punto de vista de un periodismo de investigación." (Página 4)
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"While there is strong continuity in the values that resisters perceive to be at stake, there are also profound changes. One important change is that media resistance increasingly has moved from the political to the personal domain. Three explanations are offered for how media resistance is sustaine
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d as a strong cultural current: media resistance is flexible and adaptable, media resistance is connected with other great narratives of hope and decline, and media resisters keep a distance from (empirical) media research." (Abstract chapter 7, page 119)
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