"This report maps the complex legislative frameworks of community broadcasters in more than 30 countries. It examines how the sector can be strengthened in line with international standards and provides analysis and recommendations that may be of interest to donors and policy makers as they set prio
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rities for media development." (Foreword)
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"This case study analyses the intersection between radio, gender and information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Specifically, it examines whether recent improvements in radio broadcast coverage and the spread of SMS technology are increasing women’s acce
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ss to information and providing them with a platform that adequately meets their needs. The findings show that, despite cultural and socio-economic barriers, women enjoy listening to radio and want to contribute to debates in their local public sphere. For today’s younger women, it has become easier to overcome traditional obstacles to expressing themselves publicly, as well as to embrace the newest communication technologies, such as text messaging, that allow them access to a public platform. However, it is still difficult to get ordinary women of all ages to communicate with their local radio. Community radio is a male-dominated entity that often consigns women’s programming to a narrow interpretation of gender issues, focused on women’s roles as wives, mothers and homemakers, and does not address the listening needs of women as political and economic actors in their own right." (Executive summary)
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"La finalidad de este libro es ofrecer al movimiento indígena del Perú y de América Latina un marco de referencia comparativo regional de las políticas públicas referidas al ejercicio del derecho a la comunicación de los pueblos indígenas que facilite articular propuestas para la agenda indí
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gena en comunicación. En ese camino, la importancia del estudio reside en crear un marco teórico-técnico que permita sostener desde el campo de la comunicación y del derecho; los compromisos asumidos por los Estados de América Latina en la Declaración de las Naciones Unidas (2007) y en la Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos (CADH), sobre la necesidad de democratizar la comunicación y diversificar las informaciones a través de marcos regulatorios de radiodifusión que reconozcan la valía de los medios comunitarios y de políticas públicas de comunicación diferenciales [...] El libro está dividido en cinco acápites; la primera parte ofrece una introducción a la comunicación por el cambio social a través de un conjunto de conceptos y relaciones básicas para entender la trascendencia social y política del derecho a la comunicación y de las políticas públicas (diferenciales). En la segunda parte nos ocupamos del diagnóstico sobre la libertad de expresión e información. Para este fin, se han elaborado síntesis del marco jurídico sobre libertades comunicativas en cada uno de los países estudiados, así como de la evaluación y descripción de los cambios y sucesos más importantes en materia de radiodifusión sucedidos en el periodo 2007-2013. La tercera parte aborda el análisis de los marcos regulatorios sobre radio y televisión comunitarias e indígenas en base a los principios que recomienda la CADH y la Asociación Mundial de Radios Comunitarias (AMARC). En la cuarta parte se presentan experiencias del ejercicio del derecho a la comunicación de los medios comunitarios e indígenas, así como datos estadísticos acerca de la situación de estos medios en materia de regulación. En la quinta y última parte presentamos los aportes y conclusiones de la investigación." (Introducción, página 9-11)
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"The current UIS Questionnaire on Media Statistics provides information for three UNESCO frameworks, namely the Media and Information Literacy Framework, the Media Development Indicators Framework and the Framework for Cultural Statistics. The questionnaire collects data for reporting global progres
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s on Action Lines C2, C3, C8 and C9 of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in UNESCO’s fields of competencies. In particular, Action Line C9 recommends appropriate policies to foster and sustain media and information development. This document provides country profiles for each of the countries that participated in the two pilot surveys conducted in 2011 and 2012." (Background, page 3)
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"This article presents a comparative study of investigative journalism in nine countries in the Central and Eastern European region (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia). The purpose is descriptive and analytical. Descriptively, the articl
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e charts the presence and provision of investigative journalism across the region and inventories and assesses the various funding forms that exist against the background of the recent (2008–2009) financial crisis. Analytically, the article focuses on assessing the relative autonomy (defined as autonomy from external actors) and effects (defined as the removal from office and sentencing of political actors revealed to be engaged in legal and moral transgressions, commonly various forms of corruption). The article finds investigative journalism across the region in general to be weak in terms of autonomy and effects, but stronger in countries that have had more stable and richer media markets (notably Estonia, Poland, and the Czech Republic). The article further finds that in some countries (notably Romania and Bulgaria), alternative news online sources play an increasingly important role as providers of investigative journalism." (Abstract)
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"This book captures a snapshot of the contemporary role of online journalism in rapidly evolving post-Soviet, post-Colour Revolution political environments, exploring the wider journalistic and political context alongside the use and influence of online news sites. In particular, it aims to fill a g
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ap in the literature by undertaking qualitative work in the post-Colour Revolution nations which seeks to assess the views of active journalists on the role of online political journalism in those environments." (Publisher description)
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"Featuring specially commissioned chapters from experts in the field of media and communications law, this book provides an authoritative survey of media law from a comparative perspective. The handbook does not simply offer a synopsis of the state of affairs in media law jurisprudence, rather it pr
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ovides a better understanding of the forces that generate media rules, norms, and standards against the background of major transformations in the way information is mediated as a result of democratization, economic development, cultural change, globalization and technological innovation." (Publisher description)
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"At an international level, the media development community should advocate for standards governing media cross-ownership limitations, best practices in media licensing, and the licensing of the broadcast spectrum. States should adopt net neutrality and support increased uncensored access to social
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media and Internet news sources. They should scrutinize media ownership sales and declare non-transparent sales of media companies illegitimate and make their ownership visible. Media owners, governments, and media development funders and practitioners must modify the belief that advertising will always automatically support independent media. It won’t. It is not in any advertiser’s business model to underwrite news reporting; first and foremost, it is their fiduciary duty to build their own customer bases. If that means redirecting marketing strategies to more effective platforms, they will. And they have. The media development community should commit to aggressively accelerating the financial management, business, advertising, and digital media skills of media managers, particularly in transitional countries. When entering transitional markets, media outlets should first conduct audience research to establish a baseline for advertising rates. Cronyism and coercion lack force when advertisers, particularly large international advertisers, are given legitimate choices among alternatives. Media developers should support independent community and investigative reporting, especially local radio, through multiple funding sources, including helping to build local revenue bases, even if they exist outside traditional media business models." (Recommendations, page 31)
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"Behaviour change communication is vital for increasing the enactment of particular behaviours known to promote health and growth. The techniques used to change behaviour are important for determining how successful the intervention is. In order to integrate findings from different interventions, we
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need to define and organize the techniques previously used and connect them to effectiveness data. This paper reviews 24 interventions and programs implemented to change four health behaviours related to child health in developing countries: the use of bed nets, hand washing, face washing and complementary feeding. The techniques employed are organized under six categories: information, performance, problem solving, social support, materials, and media. The most successful interventions use three or even four categories of techniques, engaging participants at the behavioural, social, sensory, and cognitive levels. We discuss the link between techniques and theories. We propose that program development would be more systematic if researchers considered a menu of technique categories appropriate for the targeted behaviour and audience when designing their studies." (Abstract)
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"Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World offers a broad exploration of the conceptual foundations for comparative analysis of media and politics globally. It takes as its point of departure the widely used framework of Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini's Comparing Media Systems, exploring
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how the concepts and methods of their analysis do and do not prove useful when applied beyond the original focus of their "most similar systems" design and the West European and North American cases it encompassed. It is intended both to use a wider range of cases to interrogate and clarify the conceptual framework of Comparing Media Systems and to proposed new nidels, concepts, and with processes of political transition. Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World covers, among other cases, Brazil, China, Israel, Lebanon, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Thailand." (Publisher description)
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"Ruling elites often try to co-opt civil society groups, and in times of political or military crises they can attempt to control the national information infrastructure. But a defining feature of civil society is independence from the authority of the state, even in countries such as Saudi Arabia a
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nd Egypt. And in important ways, digital communication networks are also independent of any particular state authority. What has been the impact of digital media on political communication in Muslim media systems? How have tools such as mobile phones and the internet affected the process of forming political identity, particularly for the young? When do such tools change the opportunity for civic action, and when do they simply empower ruling elites to be more effective censors? In this chapter, we analyze the best available micro-level data on technology use and changing patterns of political identity and macro-level data on networks of civil society actors." (Introduction)
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"Social media, particularly blogging, Facebook and Twitter, have played a key role in instigating, accelerating and even organizing some of the uprisings and revolutions that have been taking place all over the Middle East. This role has been effective in galvanizing the youth and empowering them in
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their fights against repressive regimes and their plight for more freedom and independence. This study looks into the social media role in the so-called “Facebook revolution”, which took place in Egypt in January 2011 and the so-called “Twitter uprising”, which took place in Iran in June 2009. The Egyptian revolution did succeed in toppling the regime, while the Iranian uprising failed. Why did the calls for political change that started in the virtual world lead to actual change in the real world in Egypt but not in Iran? This study addresses this question by providing a critical analysis of the available literature and interviews with online activists in Egypt and Iran. The authors used the SPIN model (Segmentation, polycentrism, integration and networking) as a theoretical framework and concluded that the model helped social media succeed in Egypt, but not in Iran." (Abstract)
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"This article examines the complexity of the internet control mechanisms in China by breaking it down to five layers, ranging from the government, service and content providers to webmasters and individual users. It inquires into the logic of the control mechanisms and how such logic is naturalized
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into organizations and individuals' everyday practices. It shows the dynamic between proactive, synchronized and reactive strategies and how the relationship between these components evolves in different phases. Through comparative online ethnography of the two most prominent Chinese forums located in China and the USA, QQ and MIT BBS, data analyses and interviews with regulators and content providers, this article aims at locating internet control in the historical trajectory and the socio-cultural specificity of China. More importantly, it reveals the effectiveness of these control mechanisms and the implications for the average internet user's everyday life." (Abstract)
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"Based on interviews with 300 journalists in Chile, Brazil and Mexico, this article describes similarities and differences in their professional cultures. Two competing conceptual explanations are tested: the dominance of political structures, levels of press freedom and the size and concentration o
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f media ownership vs the predominance of political cultures and political parallelism. Although the study provides some evidence in favour of the second scenario – overall in terms of the institutional roles supported by the journalists – neither of the two explanations can fully account for the differences between the countries. Meanwhile, the epistemological and ethical views of the journalists seem to be trapped in contesting terrains of ambiguity, where organizational, media routines and individual factors override country differences." (Abstract)
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"Research into journalism and gender to date has found somewhat contradictory evidence as to the ways in which women and men practice journalism. Some scholars claim that women have inherently different concepts and practices of journalism and that this has led to a feminization of journalism, other
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s have found little evidence to suggest that men and women differ significantly in terms of their role conceptions. While numerous studies have been conducted into this issue around the world, few have taken a truly comparative approach. This article presents results from a large-scale comparative survey into gender differences in journalists’ professional views in 18 countries around the world. Results suggest that women and men do not differ in any meaningful ways in their role conceptions on either the individual level or in newsrooms dominated by women, or in sociocultural contexts where women have achieved a certain level of empowerment." (Abstract)
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"Hungarian lawmakers have established a set of comprehensive new media laws that critics say are inconsistent with democratic free-press principles and European practices and norms. Hungarian officials say the legislation conforms to EU standards and its elements are drawn from existing regulations
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in other European and EU-member states. In December 2010 and January 2011, the Hungarian Government released two statements summarising the main criticisms of its new laws and providing examples of regulations from 20 European and EU-member states as precedents for Hungary’s media legislation. For this study, the Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS) commissioned media policy experts in each of these 20 countries to examine every example cited by Hungary’s Government. The findings of this report are based on these expert assessments. The purpose of this study is to examine the accuracy of the precedents cited by the Hungarian Government in order to shed light on the more critical question of how consistent Hungary’s media laws are with other media systems in Europe. As such, the focus of the study is narrow by design: the analyses are based on a set of specific examples of similar legislation as cited by the Hungarian Government." (Executive summary, page viii)
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"TThe 2012 MSI study for Europe & Eurasia revealed a mix of positive developments, regression, and stagnation (or resilience, depending on one’s point of view). Nearly half of the 21 countries included in this study showed little change either way, their overall score moving by 0.10 or less. Six c
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ountries showed improvement and five slid backward. The former Yugoslavia accounted for all but one of the countries with lower scores this year. Montenegro improved, Croatia remained roughly unchanged, but the rest of the former Yugoslavia—Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia—suffered losses (note that Slovenia is the only country of the former Yugoslavia not studied by the MSI) [...] Moldova continued to improve and achieved the highest score among the four countries in “Russia and Western Eurasia.” All objectives except Objective 4, Business Management, received a score in the “near sustainability” range. Armenia maintained its leadership amongst the three countries in the Caucasus. Its overall score remained mostly unchanged, although the score did slip slightly. Georgia continued to slowly regain ground lost in 2008. Russia’s score improved; despite serious lingering challenges, panelists expressed a cautious optimism that the situation will continue to improve in the coming years. Kyrgyzstan returned to the top spot in Central Asia as the political situation there stabilized. However, two objectives, those covering professional journalism and business management, remain well below the “near sustainability” range." (Executive summary, page ix)
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