commbox Political Communication, Media & Democracy

"El presente volumen recoge diferentes enfoques teóricos y metodológicos sobre las memorias, transiciones políticas e identidades en Alemania, Argentina y España, buscando establecer comparaciones y puntos de convergencia en sociedades signadas durante el siglo XX por regímenes políticos autor ... more

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Governance and Rights: Our Approach and Strategy

London: BBC Media Action (2016), 12 pp.

"This paper outlines BBC Media Action’s approach to Governance and Rights and our strategy for achieving impact in this area. This paper builds on the significant advances in our Governance and Rights practice, research and policy initiatives since the last approaches and strategy paper in 2013. T ... more

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Infomediaries and Accountability

Becky Carter

Birmingham: University of Birmingham, GSDRC (2016), 14 pp.

"There appears to be a research gap for in-depth comparative or meta-analysis examining how, where and why the media – or other infomediaries – has helped translate transparency initiatives into greater government accountability. Nevertheless, the small but growing body of single case studies do ... more

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Open Data, Transparency and Accountability: Topic Guide

Liz Carolan

Birmingham: GSDRC, University of Birmingham (2016), 32 pp.

"Open data involves the release of data so that anyone can access, use and share it. The Open Data Charter (2015) describes six principles that aim to make data easier to find, use and combine: open by default; timely and comprehensive; accessible and usable; comparable and interoperable; for improv ... more

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Open Government: The Global Context and the Way Forward

Paris: OECD (2016), 271 pp.

"This report provides a holistic, data-driven analysis of how countries are currently implementing open government practices, the main challenges they face and the untapped opportunities that exist for enhancing transparency, accountability and citizen participation both in the policy-making cycle a ... nd in service design and delivery. The questionnaire and analytical framework on which the report is based stem from more than a decade of work on open and inclusive policy making by the OECD Secretariat. This work includes thematic reports and country-specific open government reviews, and was enriched by the policy dialogue that has taken place in the OECD Public Governance Committee and in the three regional networks on open and innovative government that the OECD hosts in Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and Southeast Asia. The report finds that countries are moving from an intrinsic to an instrumental understanding of open government reforms, using them to achieve broader policy objectives such as good governance and inclusive growth, rather than as a goal in themselves. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a case in point, as open government policies and initiatives can not only contribute to Goal 16 (on Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) but they are potentially beneficial to reach all the other SDGs as well. In line with this new approach, the report highlights ways to improve whole-ofgovernment co-ordination of the national open government agenda; such co-ordination is needed in order to achieve more integrated and strategic policy outcomes. There is a need to consolidate the multitude of scattered initiatives into a single national open government strategy, based on a country-specific understanding of what open government reforms entail and seek to accomplish. To support the ensuing national discussion and provide a reference model, the OECD has developed its own definition which can be adapted to countries’ specific historical, legal, social and economic contexts: Open government is “a culture of governance based on innovative and sustainable public policies and practices inspired by the principles of transparency, accountability and participation that fosters democracy and inclusive growth." (Foreword) more

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Communicating Citizens' Protests, Requiring Public Accountability: Case Studies from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia

Sanela Hodžic, Mojca Pajnik (eds.)

Sarajevo: Mediacentar (2016), 384 pp.

"In the recent years, we have witnessed several protests, initiatives and social uprisings in the SEE region, through which the citizens demanded for government accountability, suggested better policy solutions and promoted better citizen participation. Regional research “Communicating citizens' p ... more

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Open Mic Nepal: Tracking Rumors in Post-Earthquake Nepal

Internews (2016), 13 pp.

"In July 2015, Internews launched Open Mic Nepal, a project designed to track and debunk rumors in the earthquake-afected communities. Based on previous pilots of this approach in Gaza and Liberia, the project set out to assess and address information needs by using minimally structured qualitative ... more

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Listening to the ‘Born Frees’: Politics and Disillusionment in South Africa

Vanessa Malila, Anthea Garman

African Journalism Studies, volume 37, issue 1 (2016), pp. 64-80

"This article presents work done with youngsters from South Africa's poorest province, the Eastern Cape, in an effort to listen to their experience of politics and to understand their use of the media – especially whether it enables them to speak out and be heard in the public sphere. Our research ... more

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Changing Media Landscapes in Transitional Countries: Handbook on Mapping Media Landscapes

Morten Toustrup, Poul Erik Nielsen

International Media Support (IMS) (2016), 27 pp.

"The handbook is based on the authors’ varied experiences from consulting the implementation of media mappings in several transitional countries and it will focus on two of these projects: a. mapping the Mongolian media landscape initiated in 1999 ten years after the break down of Communism and b. ... more

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El poder y las sombras: Hacia el equilibrio político-mediático

María del Pilar Tello

Lima: Fondo Editorial del Congreso del Perú (2016), 660 pp.

"Los medios, ante la debilidad de los partidos e instituciones, lideran opinión y se tornan en inductores del pensamiento público, incluso contrapesando el poder de los gobiernos. ¿Cómo encontrar el equilibrio en un escenario tan violentamente polarizado en el que los dos extremos pretenden impo ... more

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Participation, Citizen Journalism and the Contestations of Identity and National Symbols: A Case of Zimbabwe’s National Heroes and the Heroes’ Acre

Shepherd Mpofu

African Journalism Studies, volume 37, issue 3 (2016), pp. 85-106

"This article constitutes an examination on how citizen journalism has challenged Robert Mugabe’s authoritarian regime on issues pertaining to national heroes and usages of the Heroes’ Acre as central national identity markers. Under Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, Zimbabwe has seen the public being limited ... more

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Social Media in the Arab World: Communication and Public Opinion in the Gulf States

Barrie Gunter, Mokhtar Elareshi, Khalid Al-Jaber (eds.)

London: Tauris (2016), xv, 258 pp.

"Following the Arab Spring, the use of social media has become instrumental in organising activist movements and spreading political dissent in the Middle East. New online behaviours have transformed traditional communication channels, enabling young people of all backgrounds to feel politically emp ... more

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The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics

Axel Bruns, Gunn Enli, Eli Skogerbo, Anders Olof Larsson, Christian Christensen

London; New York: Routledge (2016), xxii, 536 pp.

"Social media are now widely used for political protests, campaigns, and communication in developed and developing nations, but available research has not yet paid sufficient attention to experiences beyond the US and UK. This collection tackles this imbalance head-on, compiling cutting-edge researc ... more

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Humour in Political Activism: Creative Nonviolent Resistance

Majken Jul Sørensen

London: Palgrave Macmillan (2016), xi, 237 pp.

"This book analyses how humour in political activism contributes to facilitating outreach, mobilisation and the sustaining of cultures of resistance. Drawing on examples of attention-grabbing stunts from around the world, Humour in Political Activism demonstrates how they succeed in turning relation ... more

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Diálogo de saberes en comunicación: Colectivos y academia

Gladys L. Acosta Valencia, María C. Pinto Arboleda, César A. Tapias Hernández (eds.)

Medellín: Universidad de Medellín;CIESPAL;Corporación para la Comunicación Ciudad Comuna (2016), 308 pp.

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Winning the Information War: Techniques and Counter-Strategies to Russian Propaganda in Central and Eastern Europe

Edward Lucas, Peter Pomeranzev

Washington, DC: Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) (2016), 64 pp.

"Currently, no dedicated agency or systematic effort analyzes the effect of Russian (or any other) disinformation. Who really watches Russia Today? Where? For how long? And why? Nor do we have the means to systematically track the content: How does the Kremlin’s message in Germany differ from the ... more

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The Truth Between the Lines: Conceptualization of Trust in News Media in Serbia, Macedonia, and Croatia

Ivanka Pjesivac, Katerina Spasovska, Iveta Imre

Mass Communication & Society, volume 19, issue 3 (2016), pp. 323-351

"This study explored, by comparative thematic analysis, the conceptualization of trust in news media in Serbia, Macedonia, and Croatia - three countries of Eastern Europe where past oppressive regimes might have left a heritage of distrust in all institutions. The analysis of 61 in-depth interviews ... more

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Media Movements: Civil Society and Media Policy Reform in Latin America

María Soledad Segura, Silvio Waisbord

London: Zed Books (2016), 214 pp.

"Our interest in this book is to examine the contribution of citizens’ movements to a uniquely intense period of policy reforms in public communication in Latin America during the 2000–2015 period. We examine a range of experiences of citizen participation to reshape media systems and change med ... more