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Digital Ecosystem Country Assessment (DECA): Ghana

Reyn Anderson, Yaroslav Eferin, Kate Gromova, Vlad Manoil, Victor Teppeh

USAID, Digital Frontiers Project, external version (2024), 149 pp.

"Ghana is among Sub-Saharan Africa’s leaders in digital transformation. Over the past decade, the government has put the key institutions, legislative frameworks, strategies, and policies in place that are necessary to drive change. The Ministry of Communications and Digitalization leads and coord ... inates development and implementation of a core set of policies and strategies that are digitally transforming the government, economy, and society. The ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) Policy has guided this journey for more than a decade. A new Digital Economy Policy is drafted and under review to drive the next stage of Ghana’s digital development. The National Financial Inclusion and Development Strategy and the National Cyber Security Policy and Strategy have also been key. Ghana adopted an inclusive approach to developing its cybersecurity strategy, which contributed to improved cybersecurity capacity and considered citizens’ online safety and freedoms. However, a clear strategy for protecting critical national infrastructure is missing. Ghana has been a pioneer and champion of digital government transformation in West Africa over the past decade, with funding and support from the World Bank. Important whole-of-government platforms and services have been put in place, including the Government Wide Area Network (GWAN), which provides internet connection to more than 1,000 district assemblies, hospitals, police stations, and post offices across the country; a National Data Center; the Smart workplace suite, which includes email and productivity tools for government employees; and Ghana.gov portal, a one-stop-shop for citizen services. Still, digital government transformation is incomplete. Easy, efficient, online government services are in demand, but the Ghana.gov portal options are limited, and most major government service providers have their own separate online services portals. The national identity Ghana Card could enhance digital service delivery by providing a universally recognized, secure, and easy-to-use means of digital identification and authentication for citizens when accessing both public and private digital services, but the current identification system is not integrated with other government-operated databases, significantly reducing its many potential applications. The Regional Coordinating Councils, and metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies (MMDAs) are just now embarking on the digital transformation journey. The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development coordinates their efforts. Challenges for Ghana’s remaining efforts at digital government transformation include adequate funding to manage and maintain its connectivity and data center infrastructure, affordable internet for regional governments, inadequate digital literacy and skills among mid-level and regional staff, or related national training programs. A big skill gap exists in cybersecurity; Ghana faces a deficit of skilled cybersecurity professionals. The government also needs to improve efforts at stakeholder engagement and awareness-raising when developing new policy proposals." (Executive summary, pages 11-12) more

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Understanding Homeless Media: A Study on Social Media Based Informal Local News in Five Indonesian Cities

Geger Riyanto et al.

Remotivi;Internews (2024), 107 pp.

"Homeless media refers to news outlets that initially distributed information solely through social media, with the majority of them now based on Instagram. Nowadays, as our findings suggest, homeless media outlets have emerged as an important source of local news, referred to for their quick update ... and locally relevant content. Using content analysis of their news, interviews with homeless media founders and personnel, and discussions with media audiences, this study attempts to understand their emergence and dynamics, how they are positioned among other actors in the contemporary Indonesian media landscape, and their prospects and issues. [...] The following are the main findings of this study: • Homeless media outlets are mostly run informally, with only a few employees. Only one from nine we interviewed is registered as a media entity, and that was only after years of operation. There are two homeless media outlets that are only managed by one person. Others are mostly managed by two to five people. They may hire more on occasion if they need to create higher-quality content, such as endorsements. • Four homeless media outlets we interviewed began as something entirely different, such as hobby, community, or paid Instagram promotion pages. They changed course after noticing increased engagement by providing local news, as well as citizens voluntarily sending them newsworthy incidents to be published. • As the majority of homeless media outlets are not legally registered as a media entity, this raises concerns about governance among government officials and journalists. However, our homeless media interlocutors stated that they have implemented an internal code of conduct, particularly in terms of filtering misinformation. • The informality of homeless media outlets provides them with advantageous flexibility, allowing them to respond to audience submissions or circulating internet content while making quick decisions about what content to publish. • The most engaging content on homeless media is related to crime, followed by city facts, eccentric citizen behavior, city romantization, commotion among citizens, and accidents; however, they most frequently post about shopping/service recommendations, government policies, crime, culinary recommendations, and city facts. • Homeless media outlets provide impressively specific and local news to their audiences immediately after it occurs, thanks to audience submissions and the circulating local social media content. They function as an effective local information hub. • Nonetheless, because homeless media outlets rely on social media as a publishing platform and distribution channel, losing their accounts, whether due to a social media ban or hacking, can pose a significant risk to their operations. Our interlocutors have no plans to mitigate the risk. This happened to another account managed by @merapi_uncover personnel, and they were unable to do anything about it. • Many of our audience interlocutors admit to being first exposed to local news through homeless media, and they actively use homeless media outlets to learn about recent events in their community, such as incidents they witnessed or traffic jams. • Homeless media’s most engaging content—city facts and romantization—evokes a sense of connection between the audience and their city. • Although not all, homeless media outlets may become participatory spaces, with citizens using them to draw attention to incidents or public issues, or to respond to other posts. [...]" (Executive summary, pages 3-5) more

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Challenges and Opportunities for Journalism in the Bulgarian COVID-19 Communication Ecology

Lada Trifonova Price, Vesislava Antonova

Journalism Practice, volume 18, issue 1 (2024), pp. 119-136

"The coronavirus pandemic brought immense challenges to journalists worldwide, including new threats to media freedom, journalism safety and practice. The impact of the pandemic on journalism is yet to be fully understood and examined but this paper contributes to the field by focusing on the impact ... more

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Southern European press challenges in a time of crisis: A cross-national study of Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Malta

Lada Trifonova Price, Marilyn Clark, Lambrini Papadopoulou, Theodora A. Maniou

Journalism, volume 25, issue 11 (2024), pp. 2420-2439

"The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for newsrooms across the world range from severe economic hardship to increased threats to press freedom. The “perfect storm” that engulfed the media and journalists globally has threatened and continues to challenge their existence, and the core of the ... more

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Dealing with the Black Box: European Journalists and the Threats of Spyware

Philip Di Salvo

Digital Journalism (2024), 20 pp.

"Revelations from the 2021 “Pegasus Project” investigation into the use of spyware have confirmed long-held concerns about the proliferation of the technology as a surveillance solution to monitor the activities of journalists around the world. Spyware is a particularly malicious form of malware ... more

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‘They blame the messenger’: Re-examining the critique of journalists reporting on genocide in Rwanda and Srebrenica

Caitlin Knight

Journalism, volume 25, issue 10 (2024), pp. 2117–2134

"Reporting on cases of genocide presents distinct complexities and challenges for journalists, who must negotiate practical, professional, and emotional experiences that challenge traditional expectations of their role. Previous research has provided strident critiques of this reporting, arguing Wes ... more

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Bound by Exile: Exploring Kinship Dynamics and Role Perceptions among Diaspora Journalists

Tomás Dodds, Rana Arafat, Wang Ngai Yeung

Journalism Studies (2024), 20 pp.

"The escalating dangers journalists face globally have led to a marked increase in media professionals seeking safety away from their home countries. As a result, journalists are increasingly forced to choose between silence and survival, with many opting for the latter in the form of diaspora reloc ... more

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Legal Strategies for Protecting Journalists in Conflict Zones

Fatimah Sahdan, Jelena Gregorius

Interdisciplinary Studies in Society, Law, and Politics, volume 3, issue 2 (2024), pp. 25-31

"The safety of journalists in conflict zones remains a critical concern, with myriad risks stemming from both physical and digital threats. This study aims to explore the legal strategies that can effectively protect journalists in these environments, focusing on understanding the existing legal fra ... more

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Egyptian Journalists’ Perceptions of Digital Journalism Training Effectiveness

Nagwa Fahmy, Maha Abdulmajeed Attia

Sage Open, issue January-March (2024), 20 pp.

"This study examines the perceptions of Egyptian journalists of the effectiveness of professional training in digital journalism and determines the training-needs of journalists to adapt to innovative journalism practices. The study applies mixed descriptive methods based on The Motivation–Hygiene ... more

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Freedom of the Press, and Journalism Practices in Times of Uncertainty in the Case of Ethiopia

Mulatu Alemayehu Moges

Journalism Practice (2024), 19 pp.

"Ethiopia has been in a new transition since 2018 which resulted in changes in political arenas. In this period, the country has also been experiencing internal conflict and political instabilities. This article assesses how the political environment is convenient for the journalists to freely repor ... more

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Aid and the news agenda: Examining the forces shaping NGO-produced humanitarian media

Michael Sunderland

Bournemouth University, Doctoral Thesis (2024), 268 pp.

"This study examines the external influences that shape NGO-produced news content concerning humanitarian crises in East, West and Central Africa. Employing a thematic analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with humanitarian communicators and a content analysis of the humanitarian press rel ... eases of four major NGOs, it seeks to establish the types of content NGO communications staff consider most effective for achieving mainstream media coverage, how they access such content, and any forces influencing their eventual production of news. In line with notions of media logic (Altheide and Snow 1979; Cottle and Nolan 2007) and news cloning (Fenton 2010), it uncovers a reliance on hard-hitting humanitarian statistics and powerful first-person testimonies, which are considered essential for achieving news coverage. Statistics are found to be most often sourced from publicly available humanitarian datasets, often managed by the United Nations, and are considered susceptible to politicisation by authorities implicated in certain crises. First-person testimonies are usually gathered in-person by NGO staff and are affected by issues of physical access to crisis zones including monitoring by local authorities and demands for media sign-off. Additionally, a humanitarian NGO’s decision on whether to speak out publicly about a crisis is found to be often weighed up against threats to staff and programme safety. Examining these issues through a lens of agenda building theory (Cobb and Elder 1971), this study introduces the concept of agenda erosion, describing the phenomenon by which powerful actors, including host authorities and western governmental and intergovernmental donors, exert influence to undermine agenda building activities by NGOs in the context of humanitarian crises. Methods of agenda erosion might include demanding sign-off of media content, the control of physical access to crisis zones for communications staff, and the politicisation of humanitarian data. Unlike the traditional view of NGOs being producers of information subsidies (Gandy 1982), this concept recognises that, as news producers, NGOs also accept information subsidies, including humanitarian data, from other actors. These subsidies are used by NGOs to increase their own agenda building effectiveness but can also allow other, potentially conflicting, priorities to influence the media agenda too. NGOs are now widely regarded as important players in the production of international news (Cottle and Nolan, 2007; Cooper, 2011; Powers 2018) and these findings suggest agenda erosion is in-part responsible for the continuing adherence of aid organisations to established patterns of news construction (Cottle & Nolan 2007; Fenton 2010; Waisbord 2011; Powers 2018). Only crises with hard-hitting data or emotive personal stories are likely to achieve mainstream media coverage but exposure to such sources is often closely guarded by the most powerful actors in certain crises. As a result, some crises continue to go underreported and NGOs risk being silenced or, worse, used as proxy mouthpieces by powers implicated in the humanitarian context to which they are attempting to respond." (Abstract) more

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Recommendations for strengthening communication and community engagement in the Libya floods response

London: CDAC Network (2024), 7 pp.

"This bulletin summarises the key findings and recommendations for strengthening collective efforts on communication and community engagement in the Libya floods response. The findings are drawn from a qualitative consultation with more than 30 representatives from the humanitarian community conduct ... more

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‘Journalism in another form’: How exile experiences from Burundi renegotiate key elements of journalism

Louisa Esther, Richard H. Thomas

Media, War & Conflict, volume 18, issue 2 (2024), pp. 273-294

"Since the renewed outbreak of the ongoing crisis in Burundi in May 2015, triggering a media crackdown, over one-third of the country’s reporters have gone into exile. They therefore joined an increasing number of journalists worldwide who are forced into exile. Between 2015 and 2021, many of the ... more

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The emergence of artificial intelligence ethics auditing

Daniel S. Schiff, Stephanie Kelley, Javier Camacho Ibáñez

Big Data & Society, issue October–December (2024), 16 pp.

"The emerging ecosystem of artificial intelligence (AI) ethics and governance auditing has grown rapidly in recent years in anticipation of impending regulatory efforts that encourage both internal and external auditing. Yet, there is limited understanding of this evolving landscape. We conduct an i ... more

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Experientially simulated others: Finding social support for mental health in digital games

Jeff Nicklas

Information, Communication & Society (2024), 17 pp.

"People with mental illness struggle to find connection and community due to a combination of stigma, social isolation, and adverse social experiences. Digital games, as an immersive and interactive media, can convey aspects of mental health experiences in thoughtful ways. I considered how players c ... more

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Persisting inequalities in the digitalized society: Migrant women facing coercive dimensions of everyday digitalization

Ulla Buchert, Sirpa Wrede, Anne Kouvonen

Information, Communication & Society, volume 27, issue 5 (2024), pp. 935-950

"Understanding the ubiquitous digitalization of everyday life and associated inequalities presupposes rich conceptualizations of the associated social dynamics. Accordingly, we investigate digital service domestication as a social dimension of people’s lives, building on concepts that center users ... more

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Expectations of News Media in Uganda: Advancing a Theory of Relative Institutional Trust in Journalism

Meagan E. Doll

International Journal of Communication, volume 18 (2024), pp. 1873–1892

"Compared with work on trust in news, surprisingly little research examines audiences’ expectations of journalism. Audiences’ expectations, after all, elucidate public opinion of news, including the criteria by which news and journalists may be trusted. Journalism expectancy research is particul ... more

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Fairwork Chile Ratings 2024: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy.

Santiago; Oxford: Fairwork (2024), 35 pp.

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Fairwork India Ratings 2024: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy.

Bangalore; Oxford: Fairwork (2024), 39 pp.

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Contemporary Contested Ethiopian Media Practice and Its Influence on Journalists’ Autonomy and Role

Abera Yenework Kebede, Adem Chanie Ali, Mulatu Alemayehu Moges

Journalism Practice (2024), 27 pp.

"This study explores contemporary journalists’ autonomy and role in the Ethiopian contested media practice by taking journalists working in Amhara Media Corporation (AMC). A qualitative research approach was used to collect data from journalists and admin staff. For triangulation, this study combi ... more