"This book examines the Hong Kong media over a 40 year period, focusing in particular on how its newspapers and TV stations have struggled for press freedom under the colonial British administration, as well as Chinese rule. Making full use of newly declassified material, extensive interviews and sp
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ecific case-studies, it provides an illuminating analysis of the dynamics of political power and its relationship with media censorship. It reveals how the British colonial government repressed the Hong Kong media during the 1960s, and that despite the subsequent acquisition of greater independence and pluralism, press freedom has come under assault once again from Beijing since 1997. Consideration of the changes that took place around the handover of sovereignty includes detailed case-studies of press treatment of the case of a Hong Kong journalist jailed in China, and the coverage of the sensitive topic of the Taiwan presidential election of 2000. Nonetheless, despite the tremendous pressure to conform to the parameters of the new political climate in the wake of regime change, the case is made that not only has the Hong Kong media retained the capacity to exert the democratising influence of non-profit advocacy journalism, but it has succeeded in preserving traits largely lost in British and American journalism with the growth of media consumerism and capitalism." (Publisher description)
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"This Course Handbook has been produced to accompany the URN Advanced Radio Journalism Course, which is being run throughout Uganda for freelance radio journalists in 2005 and 2006. The Handbook, which follows the day-by-day course programme, contains transcripts of PowerPoint presentations plus add
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itional supporting material. It is important to note that the material presented in text boxes represents the PowerPoint presentations and can only be properly understood in the context of the course itself." (Introduction)
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"This special volume is devoted to a selection of papers from the many that were presented at the ‘Reporting Zimbabwe: Before and After 2000 Conference’ held on 25th February 2005 at London’s Stanhope Centre, as part of the Africa Media Series organized by the University of Westminster’s Com
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munication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI). The appetite for Zimbabwean news is demonstrated by, for example, evidence presented at the conference which showed that of 48 documentaries shown on BBC from November 2000 to January 2004, Zimbabwe received the second most attention, with 7 documentaries. Zimbabwe came after the Israel/Palestine conflict which was covered by 16 documentaries. Zimbabwe came to dominate headlines in various UK and global media. Zimbabwe had become such major global news story at the start of the new millennium, 1999- 2005. The idea was to critically evaluate and investigate the ways in which local and global mass media were depicting the events in troubled Zimbabwe, a former British colony that obtained independence in 1980. Attended by over 100 delegates from different countries and continents, the conference succeeded in bringing together critical interdisciplinary analyses of the role of the mass media in the ongoing democratic and social- justice struggles in today’s Zimbabwe. The various papers presented at the conference, and those in this volume, dealt with diverse themes ranging from the rise of patriotic journalism in Zimbabwe and media freedom struggles to the definition, character and representation of the ‘land issue’, and more broadly the ‘Zimbabwe crisis’ in African and international media. The participants included British and Zimbabwean politicians, government officials, students, journalists, academics, activists, civic groups and members of the Britain- Zimbabwe Society (BZS)." (Editorial abstract)
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"Several Latin American countries have experienced the emergence of neopopulist politicians who eschew ties to traditional parties and orient their campaigns toward the atomized poor. This article examines the role of television in the electoral success of these politicians. Using survey data, I ass
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ess the impact of television exposure on vote choice in the 1989 election of Fernando Collor de Mello in Brazil, the 2000 election of Alberto Fujimori in Peru, and the 2001 election of Alejandro Toledo in Peru. These cases achieve variation on two predictors of media effects: the presence of a neopopulist outsider and biased television coverage of the campaign. Statistical analysis confirms our theoretical expectations of media effects in the first two elections (where coverage was biased) but not in the third. These findings suggest that bias is the more reliable predictor of television’s impact on Latin American presidential elections, rather than the presence of a neopopulist candidate." (Abstract)
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"This report, Audience Perceptions of Radio Programming in Afghanistan, is the result of qualitative research conducted to assess audience perceptions of 3 key radio stations in the cities of Kabul and Herat in June 2004. The stations are: Radio Afghanistan (the state broadcaster) Arman FM (Afghanis
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tan’s first commercial station) and Radio Herat (the state broadcaster). A total of 12 focus groups were conducted, split by age (18 – 29 and 30+) and gender. For each target station, 4 groups were held. Each group comprised 8 participants. The overall objective was to explore listening habits and audience preferences, particularly in terms of coverage of news and elections-related information, in order to inform the BBC WST project as it builds capacity within the Afghan media to play its part in the process of democratisation.
The research revealed a number of findings relating to general media consumption in Afghanistan: Listeners regularly switch between radio stations to listen to particular programming or presenters they like. Men and women listen at different times of the day, men more frequently in the early mornings and evenings, women during the day. Interactivity (such as phone-ins and letters) in programming appeals to listeners. Programmes that offer help and advice and have educational benefit are popular. Listeners dislike language that is overly formal and difficult but equally dislike language that is regarded as trivial or inappropriate. There are generational and gender differences in programme preferences, with younger audiences drawn especially by music programming. There is high awareness of programme names and presenter names." (Executive summary, page 2)
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