"This briefing builds on DFID’s commitments set out in our 2006 White Paper, Making Governance Work for the Poor. The main purpose is to provide an overview of the relationship between media and governance, and to highlight some of the principal opportunities and challenges to engaging with the se
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ctor. It is aimed at all staff across DFID working on media or governance issues, and is intended to complement the practical guidance contained in DFID’s 2000 “Media in Governance: A Guide to Assistance”. The Note explains why and how the media is a critical sector in shaping governance relationships, and summarises key global trends in the media which are already leading to changes in country-level governance. The note explains some of the incentives and disincentives driving the sector which can lead the media to play either a positive or negative role in strengthening democratic politics. It pays particular attention to the role of the media in fragile states. The paper concludes by identifying key lessons and principles for donors to increase the effectiveness of media development initiatives in order to help build democratic, capable, accountable and responsive states." (Introduction, pages 1-2)
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"This commentary provides an overview of the recent phenomenon of Ibero-American observatories which work on issues related to information, communication and culture. It also shows the results of some research under way which seeks to analyse the diversity of 61 observatories regarding their geograp
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hical location, key research themes and area of operations." (Abstract)
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"Media democracy is a concept as well as an advocacy movement aiming at making the mainstream media more plural, and reflective of a broad set of ideas and opinions than churning out and propagating just routine socio-politico-economic news stories and articles in the name of news, information and e
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ntertainment." (Page 2)
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"We used computational social network mapping in combination with human and automated content analysis to analyze the Iranian blogosphere. In contrast to the conventional wisdom that Iranian bloggers are mainly young democrats critical of the regime, we found a wide range of opinions representing re
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ligious conservative points of view as well as secular and reform-minded ones, and topics ranging from politics and human rights to poetry, religion, and pop culture. Our research indicates that the Persian blogosphere is indeed a large discussion space of approximately 60,000 routinely updated blogs featuring a rich and varied mix of bloggers. Social network analysis reveals the Iranian blogosphere to be dominated by four major network formations, or poles, with identifiable sub-clusters of bloggers within those poles. We label the poles as 1) Secular/Reformist, 2) Conservative/Religious, 3) Persian Poetry and Literature, and 4) Mixed Networks." (Abstract)
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"One of the best sources for understanding Palestinian culture is the cinema, which has strived to delineate Palestinian history and to portray the daily lives of Palestinian men, women, and children. Here, an Israeli and a Palestinian scholar, in a rare and welcome collaboration, follow the develop
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ment of Palestinian cinema, commenting on its response to political and social transformations. They reveal that the more that social, political, and economic conditions have worsened and chaos and pain prevail, the more Palestinian cinema has engaged with the national struggle." (Publisher description)
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"Examining the communications media and its relationship to political change in Southeast Asia, this study endeavours to provide both a regional comparative analysis and an interpretation of the mass communication media in the wake of 9/11." (Publisher description)
"This highly accessible text compares media institutions and political experiences in countries around the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia, to enable students to think critically about the central questions in the study of media and politics. The book balances cont
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emporary case studies with explanations of key theories and concepts, and includes a section on political communication research methods, empowering students to fully understand - and conduct their own comparative research into - the impact of media on the political sphere." (Publisher description)
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"Mit den ersten freien Wahlen im Jahr 1993 trat Kambodscha nach Jahren der Unterdrückung und des Krieges ein schwieriges Erbe an. Mitte der 90er Jahre vollzogen sich gleichzeitig drei Prozesse: die Friedenskonsolidierung, die Industrialisierung und die Demokratisierung. Welche Rolle Massenmedien be
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i diesen Entwicklungen einnehmen, ob sie diese hemmen oder beflügeln, ob Medien in ihrer Arbeit behindert oder ihnen freien Lauf gelassen wird, dies zeigt die vorliegende Analyse anhand des kambodschanischen Beispiels. Kambodscha entpuppt sich hierbei als komplexer Sonderfall, der aufgrund der zeitlich parallel ablaufenden Prozesse aufschlussreiche Ergebnisse erwarten lässt." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This study analyses statistical correlations between press freedom and human development, human security, stability, poverty reduction, and good governance, using indicator systems from Freedom House and Reporters without Borders, UNDP's Human Development Index, the Human Poverty Index, the World B
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ank's Governance Indicators and others. According to the abstract "all the findings confirm the importance of press freedom for development. A free press always has a positive influence, whether it be on poverty and its different aspects, on governance or on violence and conflict issues. It serves as an intermediary between individuals and government, informing the latter of people's needs and acting as a buffer against crises and situations of extreme deprivation; it holds governments accountable and makes their actions more transparent; and, along with other indicators of good governance, it creates a business-enabling environment, a climate conducive to more effective public affairs management, and so forth. The results thus suggest that a freer press can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and, most importantly, to the attainment of an acceptable and viable level of development. By promoting freedom of the press, states and international organisations provide themselves with a powerful development tool. A free press constitutes an instrument of development as such, in the same way as education or investment." (CAMECO Update 1-2009)
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"Dieses Buch fasst Untersuchungen aus verschiedenen Ländern, in denen Frauen höchste Staatsämter innehaben, zusammen und prüft, wie die Medien mit ihnen umgehen und wie sich Wahlkampagnen von und für Frauen gestalten." (Publisher description)