"The study found that among women, access to and use of the internet is highly dependent on the type of mobile device used and on level of education. Connecting with friends and family, entertainment and education emerged as the main reasons why the female respondents used the internet. Unreliable y
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et expensive internet or data services; inadequate technical know-how on internet use and online insecurity were some of the challenges the women reported were hampering their access and use of the internet. On the basis of the findings, it is recommended that existing data prices are reviewed; public education and awareness creation efforts especially among women and girls are intensified; existing policies are updated with targets and budget allocations to facilitate implementation and monitoring; and more research done to provide scientific evidence to inform policies, interventions and advocacy to help improve the women’s rights online situation in the country." (Pages 4-5)
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"Afghanistan has made great strides in establishing media and communications outlets. However, very little is known about the ways in which Afghans actually engage in information exchange. To inform work with the media and effectively enhance access to information in Afghanistan, Internews commissio
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ned Sayara Research to map information ecosystems in three areas of Afghanistan. The information ecosystem in Afghanistan is vital to understand how Afghans make decisions about everything from personal security to health, migration, and livelihoods. Using a systems approach to analyzing information within and across communities is a powerful way to uncover deficiencies in current approaches and opportunities for future work." (Internews website)
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"Maestri and Profanter highlight that the methodological approaches adopted in this volume are both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary. Focusing on the changing relationship between the dynamics of Arab communication spaces and the role of Arab women both in and through the media, the introduct
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ion reveals the editors’ ambitious task to link a series of chapters reflecting applied research on highly sensitive and pivotal issues. The influence of new technologies and feminism is seen as an important historical determinant of the human development process in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Maestri and Profanter highlight the rise of new convergences between secular and Islamic aspirations in the Arab female world and in their media and cyberspheres, where education is confirmed as a vehicle of mutual respect." (Extract)
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"This volume examines the lived experiences of Africans and their interaction with different kinds of media: old and new, state and private, elite and popular, global and national, material and virtual. By offering a comparative, critical and largely qualitative account of audiences and users across
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a range of national contexts in different regions of Africa, the book examines media through the voices and perspectives of those engaging with it rather than reducing audiences and users to numbers and statistics, ready to be exploited as potential target markets or as political constituencies. The critical, qualitative research perspective adopted in this book enables us to gain a better understanding of how African viewers, listeners and users make sense of a range of media forms; what role these play in their everyday lives and what audience and user engagement can tell us about how citizens perceive the state, how they imagine themselves in the wider world and how they relate to each other. The book argues that the experiences of audiences and engagements of users with a range of media—newspapers, radio, television, magazines, internet, mobile phones, social media—are always grounded in particular contexts, worldviews and knowledge systems of life and wisdom: ‘It is akin to the tortoise. The tortoise never leaves its shell behind. It carries it wherever it goes’ (Chivaura 2006: 221). African media audiences and users carry their contexts and cultural repertoires in the same way a tortoise carries its shell. Thus far, the bulk of academic research on media and communication in Africa has addressed the policy and regulatory aspects as well as the relation between media institutions and the state (Willems 2014a). While studies on media, democratization and press freedom are invaluable, the ways in which ordinary people make sense of, and relate to, media in their everyday lives are largely left beyond consideration. As Barber (1997: 357) has pointed out, ‘[w]hat has not yet been sufficiently explored is the possibility that specific African audiences have distinctive, conventional modes and styles of making meaning, just as performers/speakers do. We need to ask how audiences do their work of interpretation’." (Page 4)
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"Drawing on the critiques of the active/passive dichotomy and using an ethnographic approach, this article looks at the forms of Indonesian women’s engagement in a convergent media world through blogging. We examine the technical, personalized authoring tools Indonesian women use in their blogging
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practices, and conclude that potential choices are not limitless as they hinge on authors’ contexts." (Abstract)
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"This paper analyzes the dissemination of ‘Hijaber’ style through different forms of cyber media (blogs and social network sites) in order to determine how young, computer savvy Muslim Indonesians explore their gender and religious identities while working in the ‘creative economy’ through c
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yberspace. This article shows the plurality and flexibility of the Hijaber trend—compared to more conventional forms—and explores its significance for urban Indonesian youth." (Abstract)
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"This is the first scholarly analysis of how young women used social media and cyberactivism to help shape the “Arab Spring” and its aftermath. It argues that women's engagement with social media has coincided with a shift in the political landscape of the Middle East, and it is unlikely that th
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ey will ever retreat from the new arenas they have carved out for themselves because they have reconfigured the public sphere in their countries, as well as the expectations of the public about the role women can and should play in the political lives of their countries."
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"This report [is] the first compilation of the global data on how women in developing countries access and use the Internet. I am convinced this report provides key insights for policy makers, the development community and industry. Based on interviews and surveys of 2,200 women in developing countr
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ies, as well as interviews with experts and a review of existing literature, this report found that, on average, 23 percent fewer women than men are online in developing countries. This represents 200 million fewer women than men who are online today. In some regions, the size of the gap exceeds 40 percent. In addition, in many regions, the Internet gender gap reflects and amplifies existing inequalities between the sexes. We know that many women who use the Internet derive profound benefits through it, including economic and educational opportunities, a community of support, and career prospects. As the report indicates, expanding Internet access for women would also provide a significant boost to national income." (Foreword)
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