"Im ersten Block analysieren Vertreter der iranischen Social-Media-Szene die Rolle des Web 2.0 in Iran von seinen Anfängen bis heute. Der iranische Blogger Mehdi Mohseni umreißt die Social-Media-Aktivitäten der Parteien rund um den Präsidentschaftswahlkampf 2009 und die Folgen für die iranische
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Bloggerszene nach dem Wahlausgang. Der Medienwissenschaftler Gholam Khiabany hinterfragt die zumeist pauschale positive Beurteilung des Web 2.0 und konzentriert sich wie Mehdi Yahyanejad, Gründer der persischen Website Balatarin, in seinem Beitrag auf die Instrumentalisierung des Internets durch den iranischen Staat. Was hieraus entsteht, lässt sich mit dem Begriff "Cyberkrieg" betiteln, den der Politiker Omid Nouripour in seinem Beitrag thematisiert. Der zweite Teil des Sammelbandes geht der Frage nach, welche Aufgaben sich daraus für den Auslandsfunk ergeben und welche Fallstricke sich verbergen, wenn der Adressat zum Dialogpartner wird. Der dritte Block fragt, wie die neuen Medien für den politischen Dialog genutzt werden können. Hier untersucht der Islamwissenschaftler Marcus Michaelsen die Rolle der sozialen Medien für die Öffnung autoritärer Regime." (Vorwort)
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"Media Accountability in Syria is more a question of re-defining the role of media in society than working on transparency practices or establishing self-regulation. This is due to strong state control and the mobilisation role mass media has been playing in Syria for decades. Before opening its med
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ia market for private publications in 2001 Syrian media was controlled either by the state or the ruling Baath party. Media accountability institutions like press councils or ombudspersons were simply not necessary in this concept of media and therefore do not exist. The only professional organisation, the Syrian Journalists Syndicate, did not act as a representative of independent journalists but as a representative of the regime. Additionally, as all journalists and media outlets had to work for more or less the same purpose, norms for guiding individual or organisational decisions – such as a code of ethics – were superfluous.
Although these conditions still persist in major parts of the media field, news websites have particularly contributed to a shift in society’s perception of the role of media by paving the way for media accountability practices in the field of responsiveness. Even though instruments for responsiveness might be part of an economic strategy of news websites to enter and survive the news media field, news websites have introduced an audience oriented journalism approach by providing collaborative story writing or possibilities for the audience to comment on news. This is a fundamental change in role perception as mobilising media was merely meant to serve the Baath elite and its ideas. Thus, the audience as a neglected actor of accountability seems to have entered the field.
In addition, news websites have added new topics to the traditional news agenda by taking the audience into account, and thus have contributed to holding the media accountable for aspects the old media does not cover. Thus, at least in some cases, media has played the role of being a watchdog over political decisions, which role media has never previously adopted. have particularly contributed to a shift in society’s perception of the role of media by paving the way for media accountability practices in the field of responsiveness. Even though instruments for responsiveness might be part of an economic strategy of news websites to enter and survive the news media field, news websites have introduced an audience oriented journalism approach by providing collaborative story writing or possibilities for the audience to comment on news. This is a fundamental change in role perception as mobilising media was merely meant to serve the Baath elite and its ideas. Thus, the audience as a neglected actor of accountability seems to have entered the field." (Summary)
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"Lebanon’s media has been envied for its press freedom and high quality by many Arabs from the region for decades. After 15 years of civil war the media had quickly started to flourish again. Yet, internal and external observers have been concerned about the close links between the media and polit
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ical and religious groups that have led to highly politicized journalism. There is no professional organisation that could unify journalists from the various fractions and set in force binding rules like a code of ethics. A media council does not exist, journalists unions are not involved in media accountability practices and a state’s ombudsman has never been instituted. Yet, internal accountability practices are relatively well developed. As political affiliation of media outlets is openly handled (e.g. staff is mainly recruited from each media’s particular political group, party emblems are published prominently, mission statements and ownership information are partly available), Lebanese normally know how to interpret the news. Accountability practices that were already in evidence in offline media have been adopted by the majority of websites, such as by-lines, precise references in stories and letters-to-the-editor." (Abstract)
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"Holding the news media accountable has traditionally been a task of the state in Jordan. Media laws and regulations are numerous and do not leave too much space for self-regulatory practices on a national basis. The Jordan Press Association (JPA) is the core of so-called established media accountab
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ility institutions. It conducted a law-like code of ethics in 2003 and runs ombuds committees (currently three) dealing with mishaps of the media to prevent journalists from legal liability. Though being a professional body, many journalists perceive the JPA as an extended arm of the government. Until 2010 the association was not prepared to deal with private broadcasting and online journalists in the same way as it does with press and state owned media journalists. Most media outlets in Jordan are characterised by a lack of accountability awareness and practices especially when it comes to actor and production transparency. Only recently have some news organisations (mainly net-native) become aware of their duty to be accountable towards their audiences. New comers to the field of online news, in particular, have experimented with citizens’ involvement and have established a high level of responsiveness in their newsrooms." (Summary)
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"During 2010 Kyrgyzstan experienced two periods of conflict that took the country to the brink of civil war: the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April and the ethnic violence in the south of the country in June. The use of blogs and social network sites as well as mobile and multimedia p
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latforms during the upheaval has led some observers to link developments in Kyrgyzstan to other recent cases of social protest where new media has been prominent. However, these events offer no simple answer to the current social media debate. The complex and shifting role of new media as a factor in the events in Kyrgyzstan illustrates that the two conflicts were different in important ways and that new media was used differently in each. While new media made significant contributions to these events, it did not drive them and its importance has to be seen alongside the more conventional mobilization techniques and the role of traditional international media—which was often the source of social media reporting." (Abstract)
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"Pese al clima –por momentos agobiante– de polarización, en Cuba ha emergido una variedad de blogs y de blogueros que buscan sobreponerse a las dificultades políticas y materiales. Más allá de los adjetivos con que cada «bando» busca descalificar a los otros, en los últimos años la exten
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sión de la blogósfera cubana ha sido capaz, no obstante, de construir algunos puentes y espacios que buscan salir de los «monólogos» tanto oficialistas como opositores. Todo ello en un contexto en el que tanto para el gobierno cubano como para el de Estados Unidos la web forma parte de una batalla política de mayores dimensiones." (Resumen)
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"There is not much debate on the development of media accountability (MA) systems in Bulgaria and even less relate to online media. This is due to the early stage of introduction of self-regulatory mechanisms on the Internet as well as the users’ behavior since priority is still given to tradition
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al media organizations. Research has proved that due to unclear legislative framework and the lack of effectiveness in the implementation of media regulation (ownership, media code of ethics, the Council for Electronic Media) many problems with regard to the performance of traditional MA institutions have been observed. Thus, many distinctions between theory and practice exist and a suitable level of media independence from political interference or pressure has yet to be achieved. Very few media organizations have introduced mechanisms supporting the level of actor transparency, including bylines, profiles of journalists, media blogs, published mission statements or information on media ownership. Furthermore, not every media outlet that signed the media code of ethics has published the document on its website. Social networks have been so far the most popular instruments fostering the transparency of media production, with the significant example of Facebook – the most popular online medium in Bulgaria in 2010. However, with the exception of practice related to online news comments, most of the mechanisms that could further improve the feedback activities of different audience groups and thus, the level of responsiveness, have been introduced by only a few media organizations." (Conclusions, page 19)
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"In this report we describe the results of a survey of 98 bloggers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) carried out in May 2011 in order to study bloggers’ perceptions of online risk and the actions they take to address digital communications security, including both Internet and cell phone
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use. The survey was implemented in the wake of the Arab spring and documents a proliferation of online security problems among the respondents. In the survey, we address the respondents’ perceptions of online risk, their knowledge of digital security practices, and their reported online security practices. The survey results indicate that there is much room for improving online security practices, even among this sample of respondents who are likely to have relatively high technical knowledge and experience." (Introduction)
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"Key Findings: About 17 million people in the Arab region are using Facebook, available in Arabic, with 5 million in Egypt alone, and demand is expected to grow on micro-blogging sites. Twitter announced it will launch its Arabic interface in 2011; Arab governments are developing, at varying rates,
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the telecommunications infrastructure for greater Internet connectivity through broadband, mobile Internet, and fiber optic cable to the home for increased Internet speeds and capacities to meet future demands of digital economies and youth, who comprise about half of the regional population; Along with technical capacities come increasing efforts to monitor, filter, and block websites, and harass, arrest, and incarcerate activists or citizens for their online writings. Sites of NGOs and others critical of government have withstood cyber-attacks on content and e-mail accounts; Even when Internet users are not breaching traditional red lines, authorities in the region call upon emergency laws, cyber crimes laws, anti-terrorism laws, ISPs’ terms and conditions, and press and publications laws that provide justification for the arrest, fines, and incarceration of individuals for certain online writing or related activities." (Summary)
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"La libéralisation spectaculaire de l’espace médiatique arabe n’en finit pas de surprendre. Comment comprendre cette brutale explosion de créativité, ce foisonnement d’initiatives et d’énergie ? En quelques mois, ces sociétés auraient fait l’apprentissage de la liberté d’expressi
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on, les blogueurs réussissant grâce à Internet à contourner les censures étatiques et bousculer les pouvoirs en place. L’Internet n’explique pas tout. Seul un détour par l’histoire permet de comprendre ces bouleversements sociaux : télévisions hertziennes au lendemain des indépendances, puis satellitaires lors de la première guerre du Golfe avec notamment la création de la chaîne Al Jazeera, affirmation des médias numériques, des réseaux sociaux qui, loin de faire de l’ombre aux anciens, contribuent au renforcement des interactions entre les différents médias [...] Tourya Guaabess signe une étude vivante et documentée sur les grandes étapes de cette révolution médiatique, essentielle à la compréhension des transitions politiques en cours." (Dos de couverture)
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"It has to be underlined that this study does not see the internet as a major remedy for the development of political culture and civil society that is so essential for Pakistan’s further democratic consolidation. To understand possible contributions of the new information technologies towards pol
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itical progress it is important to consider them within the context of society. If the new media are integrated into ongoing struggles for change they can actually open up the landscape of ‘old politics’, providing additional possibilities for civic engagement and mobilisation. This is perhaps most evident in the efforts for women’s empowerment on and over the internet which in fact represent a new approach to the long-term activism against violence against women and for women’s rights in Pakistani society. The necessary attempts to reach a coherent legislation for internet use in Pakistan might provide another example in this regard - when pursued in a concerted manner. Here, civil society and the private sector could seek to develop a unified position vis-à-vis the state and to influence the government’s decision making process, thereby indirectly touching fundamental issues such as civil rights and cultural tolerance." (Conclusion, page 66)
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"David Faris looks at the role bloggers played in the campaign to enable Egypt's tiny Baha'i minority to obtain identity cards without identifying themselves as Muslims or Christians. He traces the links between a handful of Baha'i bloggers, a wider circle of sympathetic activist bloggers and some k
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ey people in the mainstream media. He concludes that the sustained online attention which the plight of Baha’is appears to have won in the end made it difficult for the Egyptian government to countenance the continued violation of Baha’i rights." (www.arabmediasociety.com, January 12, 2012)
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"This is a compilation of 13 essays and studies that show the role social networking is playing in political communication in Asia. Each of the 13 chapters describes how various online social communities and networks such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs, are being used as tools in general political c
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ommunication in Asian countries — both in an active and passive way. This book talks about presidents, prime ministers and politicians, and their first steps with Facebook and Twitter, and about the politically motivated bloggers who take personal risks to expose their opinions to a wider audience. On the other hand, 'Social Media and Politics' shows the impact that politics can have on social network users and how social media has become the information source of choice for journalists and voters." (Back cover)
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"The protests unleashed by Iran's disputed presidential election in June 2009 brought the Islamic Republic's vigorous cyber culture to the world's attention. Iran has an estimated 700,000 bloggers, and new media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were thought to have played a key role in spreadin
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g news of the protests. The internet is often celebrated as an agent of social change in countries like Iran, but most literature on the subject has struggled to grasp what this new phenomenon actually means. How is it different from print culture? Is it really a new public sphere? Will the Iranian blogosphere create a culture of dissidence, which eventually overpowers the Islamist regime? In this groundbreaking work, the authors give a flavour of contemporary internet culture in Iran and analyse how this new form of communication is affecting the social and political life of the country. Although they warn against stereotyping bloggers as dissidents, they argue that the internet is changing things in ways which neither the government nor the democracy movement could have anticipated." (Publisher description)
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"Zwar liegt der Durchschnitt der Internetanbindungen – auch aufgrund der damit verbundenen Kosten – in Afrika mit elf Prozent der Haushalte gegenwärtig immer noch weit unter dem globalen Mittel von 23 Prozent. Dennoch haben der Ausbau der Infrastruktur, unterschiedliche Regulierungsreformen und
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kreative Geschäftsmodelle in den letzten Jahren zu einem signifikanten Anstieg der Internetnutzung in den meisten Teilen Afrikas geführt. Vor allem durch die rasante Verbreitung von Mobilfunk und gemeinschaftlich genutzter Internetanschlüsse haben sich Nutzungsmodelle entwickelt, die immer mehr Menschen Zugang zum Internet bieten. Dementsprechend finden auch in Afrika sogenannte Web-2.0-Anwendungen zunehmend Verbreitung – für persönliche und kommerzielle, aber auch für politische Zwecke. Dazu gehören soziale Netzwerkdienste wie Facebook oder SMS-Dienste wie Twitter, in erster Linie aber Weblogs. Einen Überblick zum Stand der afrikanischen Blogger-Community bietet der Aggregator „Afrigator“, der im Juli 2009 über 10 500 afrikanische Blogs aufführte. Südafrika nimmt mit 62 Prozent (rund 6400) der Blogs den weitaus größten Anteil ein, es folgen Nigeria (1094 Blogs), Kenia (555 Blogs) und Ägypten (325 Blogs)." (Seite 109)
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