"Le président brésilien Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva n’a jamais eu de relations faciles avec la presse de son pays. Cette dernière a en effet appuyé, en grande majorité, le coup d’État qui a mené à la dictature militaire (1964-1985), et mis, depuis le rétablissement de la démocratie, tou
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te son énergie au service des candidats conservateurs. Cela n’a pas empêché finalement Lula de l’emporter en 2002, et d’être réélu en 2006, les deux fois avec un nombre record de suffrages. Cet ouvrage met l’accent sur le rôle d’acteur politique que joue la presse au Brésil, avec ses intérêts propres, y compris économiques, même lorsqu’ils sont dissimulés sous le manteau des grands principes démocratiques (« l’indépendance du quatrième pouvoir », « l’intérêt public », etc.). Publiant des témoignages inédits provenant des coulisses du gouvernement et des rédactions, Giancarlo Summa montre comment un leader charismatique, qui gouverne au nom des intérêts matériels et symboliques de la majorité défavorisée de la population, parvient à rompre le blocus des médias traditionnels. Le choix du président d’une communication directe (meetings, messages télévisés, Internet, recours à la presse locale et aux radios communautaires, etc.) lui a permis assurément de contourner le monopole médiatique des grands groupes commerciaux. Cependant Lula a renoncé à mettre sur pied une véritable politique de communication susceptible de remettre en question les intérêts structurels de ces grandes compagnies et de favoriser la création de médias alternatifs d’importance." (Dos de couverture)
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"The purpose of this handbook is to lay out some principles that could function as guideposts for journalists in Afghanistan as they seek to grapple with the evolving complexities of democracy in action. It seeks to provide concrete suggestions on how global best practices in political reporting and
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election coverage could be adapted for the Afghanistan context. Interactions between the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) have arrived at several conclusions about current media awareness of the democratic electoral process. Journalists find they have little access to the inner workings of the electoral process. They think that political leaders do not want to face journalists who ask difficult questions. The referee of the electoral process, the Independent Election Commission established under the constitution of Afghanistan, also is in need of media oversight, as are the election observers deployed by international agencies. Journalists are keen to join debate about the most appropriate pattern of electoral democracy for Afghanistan, in terms of assessing the presidential and the parliamentary system, and all the variants on these basic models. Journalists want an agreed charter of rights regarding their powers of scrutiny over the electoral process, so that they can report irregularities that ordinary people and public authorities can then seek to correct. Journalists want to understand better the principles of neutral and non-partisan reporting. In the specific situation of past and present conflict in Afghanistan, journalists want to understand how they can expand the limits of “safe reporting”, particularly in relation to the influence and coercive power wielded by erstwhile “warlords." (Introduction, page 3)
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"Young people today have grown up living substantial portions of their lives online, seeking entertainment, social relationships, and a place to express themselves. It is clear that participation in online communities is important for many young people, but less clear how this translates into civic
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or political engagement. This volume examines the relationship of online action and real-world politics. The contributors discuss not only how online networks might inspire conventional political participation but also how creative uses of digital technologies are expanding the boundaries of politics and public issues. Do protests in gaming communities, music file sharing, or fan petitioning of music companies constitute political behavior? Do the communication skills and patterns of action developed in these online activities transfer to such offline realms as voting and public protests? Civic Life Online describes the many forms of civic life online that could predict a generation's political behavior." (Back cover)
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"This book analyzes the relationship between political power and the media in a range of nation states in East and Southeast Asia, focusing in particular on the place of the media in authoritarian and post-authoritarian regimes. It discusses the centrality of media in sustaining repressive regimes,
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and the key role of the media in the transformation and collapse of such regimes. It questions in particular the widely held beliefs, that the state can have complete control over the media consumption of its citizens, that commercialization of the media necessarily leads to democratization, and that the transnational, liberal dimensions of western media are crucial for democratic movements in Asia. Countries covered include Burma, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam." (Publisher description)
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"[...] ¿En qué medida [los políticos] saben aprovechar de la mejor manera del ciberactivismo, sobre todo durante las campañas electorales? ¿Qué espacio queda desaprovechado y dónde se hacen usos contrarios a las exigencias democráticas? El Programa Medios de Comunicación y Democracia en Lat
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inoamérica de la Fundación Konrad Adenauer consideró importante analizar estos aspectos. Por eso se financió un primer análisis latinoamericano. El trabajo siguió la idea de la autora, Carmen Beatriz Fernández, quien es conocida dentro de la red OCPLA de consultores políticos en la subregión como experta en esta área. En esta publicación se aclaran aspectos adicionales en varios capítulos, que apuntan a hacer conocer no sólo las mejores prácticas sino también las trampas, los fundamentos básicos para la organización de la ciberpolítica y cómo resolver la paradoja de ser masivo y a la vez personal." (Presentación, página 7-8)
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"The Price of Silence exposes a growing trend across several countries in Latin America: behind-the-scenes government interference with media freedom and editorial independence. This “soft censorship” and its pervasive chilling effects have not received the attention they deserve. By conducting
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systematic monitoring of such practices in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru, and Uruguay, the report seeks to fill the information gap and reveal the danger soft censorship poses to journalistic freedom and independence. The report reveals how governments in the countries examined abuse the powers of regulation and the public purse to control the press with little scrutiny: they use government advertising to punish critics and reward friendly media; deny access and information to journalists perceived as “critical”; secretly pressure media owners and editors to change their editorial lines; and grant broadcast licenses in ways that benefit political allies and silence independent voices." (Back cover)
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"The battle for hearts and minds in the Middle East is being fought not on the streets of Baghdad, but on the newscasts and talk shows of Al Jazeera. The future of China is being shaped not by Communist Party bureaucrats, but by bloggers working quietly in cyber cafes. The next attacks by al Qaeda w
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ill emerge not from Osama bin Laden's cave, but from cells around the world connected by the Internet. In these and many other instances, traditional ways of reshaping global politics have been superseded by the influence of new media - satellite television, the Internet, and other high-tech tools. What is involved is more than a refinement of established practices. We are seeing a comprehensive reconnecting of the global village and a reshaping of how the world works. Al Jazeera is a paradigm of new media's influence. Ten years ago, there was much talk about the CNN effect,' the theory that news coverage - especially gripping visual storytelling - was influencing foreign policy throughout the world. Today, 'the Al Jazeera effect' takes that a significant step further. The concept encompasses the use of new media as tools in every aspect of global affairs, ranging from democratization to terrorism, and including the concept of 'virtual states.' 'The media' are no longer just the media. They have a larger popular base than ever before and, as a result, have unprecedented impact on international politics. The media can be tools of conflict and instruments of peace; they can make traditional borders irrelevant and unify peoples scattered across the globe. This phenomenon, the Al Jazeera effect, is reshaping the world." (Book jacket)
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"This book is a contribution to efforts to improve governance systems around the world, particularly in developing countries. It offers a range of innovative approaches and techniques for dealing with the most important nontechnical challenges that prevent many of those efforts from being successful
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or sustainable. By so doing, the book sets out the groundwork for governance reform initiatives. Its overarching argument is that the development community is not lacking the tools needed for technical solutions to governance challenges. The toolbox is overflowing; best practice manuals in various areas of interest tumble out of seminars and workshops. However, difficulties arise when attempts are made to apply what are often excellent technical solutions under real-world conditions. Human beings, acting either alone or in groups small and large, are not as amenable as are pure numbers. And they cannot be put aside. In other words, in the real world, reforms will not succeed, and they will certainly not be sustained, without the correct alignment of citizens, stakeholders, and voice." (Introduction, page 1)
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"Senegal is said to be a democratic model for Africa. This reputation was promoted by the former presidents Senghor and Diouf (both Socialist Party), and confirmed through the democratic change of government to the Senegalese Democratic Party under its leader Wade in 2000. Ostensibly, the successful
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democratization is reflected in the mass media sector, which has gone through a dydnamic change since the end of the 1970s. In the course of the process of liberalization, pluralization and popularization, the market was segmented and media usage increased. The public sphere is established by political, religious, economic, media and regulation actors who compete for influence, control and ownership. One of the main characteristics of Senegalese media culture consists of multiple conflicts between these actors. In fact, the media played an important part in the democratization process and the development of civic resonsibility, but at the same time these transformations paradoxically contributed to the undermining of foundations of democracy in the last 15 years. After a historic retrospect, the article describes the conflicting practices of the competing actors in the public sphere, and explains why these practices are responsible for the lack of credibility of mass media among the Senegalese population." (Abstract)
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"Los enfoques de agenda setting, de network society y de public sphere constituyen el marco teórico básico para el abordaje metodológico y posterior desarrollo de “El Observador de Medios de Comunicación en América Latina” que presentamos. El Observador analiza la agenda de los principales
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medios de comunicación masiva, determinando si el tratamiento de unos temas (y la exclusión de otros) favorecen a los principios e ideales del sistema democrático y contribuyen a su desarrollo." (Introducción, página 9-10)
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"This book compares rebel media use in three Mesoamerican rebellions: the Nicaraguan Revolution, the Salvadoran civil war and the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico. Directly comparing media use in all three rebellions provides a richer understanding of the role of media in social change, particu
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larly violent change." (Publisher description)
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"While much has been written about the growing influence of television and the Internet on modern warfare, little is known about the relationship between media and nation building. This book explores, for the first time, this relationship by means of a paradigmatic case of successful nation building
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: Malaysia. Based on extended fieldwork and historical research, the author follows the diffusion, adoption, and social uses of media among the Iban of Sarawak, in Malaysian Borneo and demonstrates the wide-ranging process of nation building that has accompanied the Iban adoption of radio, clocks, print media, and television. In less than four decades, Iban longhouses ('villages under one roof') have become media organizations shaped by the official ideology of Malaysia, a country hastily formed in 1963 by conjoining four disparate territories." (Publisher description)
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"This paper has demonstrated that the benefits for the general Afghan and Iraqi public derived from the ‘promotion of independent media’ by institutions like the NED are questionable, especially for parties interested in encouraging more deliberative or participatory forms of democracy. Instead,
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the promotion of ‘independent’ media in Afghanistan and Iraq seems to be playing a key role in the promotion of low-intensity democracy or polyarchy. Additionally, it also appears that countries of greater geostrategic value need more ‘democratization’, for example, both countries have roughly the same population but ‘oil rich Iraq received 20 times more American media development assistance per year than war-ravaged Afghanistan, one of the poorest nations on earth’ (Rohde, 2005: 29). With such large amounts of money being wielded by ‘democracy promoters’, their short term influences may impact heavily on both countries, yet perhaps the most significant effects of these media interventions will be felt in the long term. Previous case studies have shown that groups or individuals supported by ‘democracy promoters’ are expected to move on to fill leading roles within their societies." (Conclusion, page 124)
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"The Pacific Media & Communications Facility (PMCF) was a three-year regional media governance project involving the 14 Pacific Island Forum countries. It was funded by the Australian government and commenced in May 2004. The report “Informing Citizens: Opportunities for media and communications i
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n the Pacific” (2005) was the major output for year one. This chapter is based on the original report that contains a situation analysis and needs assessment, which assesses the capacity of the media, government and civil society sectors to promote good governance and development issues through the media. It also contains a content analysis of governance news in the 14 countries. The Pacific Island countries included in the survey are: the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Twenty Pacific Island researchers collected the data for the report. This is the first time a study of this scope has been conducted in the region and it provides baseline data on media capacity for Pacific media organisations, NGOs, governments and donor organisations." (Page 34)
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