"Alternative media have historically been a central force in social change. Kenix argues, however, that they do not uniformly subvert the hierarchies of access that have always been fundamental to mainstream media. In fact, their journalistic norms and routines have always drawn on the professional
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standards of the mainstream. Through comparative analysis Kenix posits the perception of 'mainstream' and 'alternative' as a misconception arguing that they've always existed on the same continuum and continue to converge. Her vision recalibrates the media spectrum. This book examines alternative media while being cognizant that they are not situated completely outside the ideological mainstream, carrying distinctive identities excluded from entrenched, elite systems of power. The alternative media can - and do - construct distinct 'alternative communications' but they do so along a strikingly different continuum than hitherto envisaged. Kenix's text will tease out differences and similarities across a range of media. Examples will be drawn from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand." (Publisher description)
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"Der gegenüber früheren Auflagen vollständig überarbeitete Band gibt einen Überblick über theoretische Ansätze und Ergebnisse empirischer Forschung zum Verhältnis von Medien und Politik. Außer auf die herkömmlichen Massenmedien richtet sich der Blick auch auf politische Anwendungen und Ein
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flüsse des Internets. Es geht um die Medialisierung der Politik und deren Folgen für die Qualität der Demokratie: Welchen Einfluss hat der Medienwandel auf die 'politischen Funktionen' von Massenkommunikation? Auf welche Weise vermitteln die Medien die politische Realität und wie stellen sie politische Öffentlichkeit her? Wie begünstigen, behindern oder verändern sie das politische Engagement der Bürger und Entscheidungen der politischen Elite?" (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"When news organizations began covering the Intifada in 2000, activists formed a media-monitoring group called Palestine Media Watch to lobby journalists to interpret the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within an international law framework. Activists minimized their dissidence in relation to journalis
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m, systematically monitoring coverage over a period of several months, and meeting face-to-face with newsworkers. Drawing upon archives and interviews, I demonstrate that dissident media-monitoring groups play a small, but meaningful role in the newsmaking process. Dissidents can produce changes because they can formulate criticisms that newsworkers define as "journalistically useful." I define these criticisms to show how the definition facilitates and limits what can be accomplished via systematic monitoring, and suggest alternative dissident media strategies." (Abstract)
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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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"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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"Am 7. März 2010 waren die Irakerinnen und Iraker aufgerufen, ein neues Parlament zu wählen. Einen klaren Sieg gab es für keine der angetretenen Listen. Aus Enttäuschung behauptete dann auch fast jede der ins Parlament gewählten Parteien, betrogen worden zu sein und erhob gegen die anderen Vorw
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ürfe der Behinderung während des Wahlgangs und der Unregelmäßigkeiten bei der Stimmenauszählung. Verschiedene Spitzenpolitiker beschworen das Wiederaufleben der Gewalt zwischen Schiiten und Sunniten sowie Arabern und Kurden, falls nicht - zu ihren Gunsten - Nachauszählungen vorgenommen und die Regeln der Regierungsbildung verhandelt werden würden. Was symbolisch für eine Neuordnung im Irak stehen sollte, bestätigte die ethno-konfessionelle Spaltung der Politik. Dabei setzt die Politik die Medien ein - nicht nur, um dem Volk tagespolitische Entscheidungen zu erklären, sondern auch, um die Bildung kollektiver Identitäten zu unterstützen." (Einleitung)
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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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"News and current affairs journalism that purports to be for the public good, and in the public interest, can survive, grow and flourish but not through market forces and new technology alone. To survive, news media will have to adjust and adapt to changes in technology and a harsher commercial envi
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ronment. New ways of ensuring the space for, and independence of, news and current affairs journalism that purports to be for the public good, need to be found to preserve and protect the public interest and encourage a healthy democracy. This is not the same as preserving and protecting news organisations, or even the news, as we know it. In a world of communicative abundance there is, more than ever, a sense that there are many things that news journalism ought to be doing – monitoring, holding to account, and facilitating and maintaining deliberation – but is not doing in a fully satisfactory way, and we neglect this at our peril. To ignore it is to accept that the market can be relied upon to deliver the conditions for deliberative democracy to flourish. However, when markets fail or come under threat, ethical practice is swept aside in pursuit of financial stability. Civil society associations have a key role to play in this extended news environment. They can act as wardens of, and contributors to, news media at local, regional and national levels; they can facilitate deliberation and expand the diversity of views on news platforms, and develop news platforms of their own. They could also provide crucial funding for news organisations or consortia deemed to be operating on a not-for-profit basis. Establishing a more collaborative relationship between news organisations and civil society associations should be encouraged in order to: enable participation; increase effective engagement; expand the public sphere; and enhance democracy. This report recommends a number of ways that civil society associations, media industries and policy-makers can act to achieve these goals. The authors also recommend that the Charity Commission should recognise journalism in the public interest as a charitable endeavour available for charitable status." (Conclusion, page 36)
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"Recent elections show that despite the apparent diversity of newspapers and broadcasters, political and economic constraints, as well as restricted access to information prevent the development of independent media in Sub-Saharan Africa that can play a part in enlightening citizens", says the autho
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r of this policy brief, and concludes: "Donors must pay more attention to local needs and search for ways to strengthen a pluralist media landscape independent of political parties, governments and the international community. Only such a pluralist landscape will enable the media to contribute to realistic opportunities for democratic power alternations rather than allowing an unbalanced electoral game devoted to maintaining the tenure of the same dominant party." (Page 4)
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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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"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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"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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