"Technology has driven major change in some areas of humanitarian response, but its use can also be biased and blind to risks. A tendency towards techno-optimism risks avoiding fundamental questions around the limits of technology, the role of the private sector (including local and regional technol
...
ogy entrepreneurs) and identifying when technology is and is not useful. Technology is not inclusive by nature. The humanitarian digital divide exists and there is growing awareness of this, but the humanitarian system is currently focused mainly on digital risks, meaning insufficient attention is placed on questions of how to root digital tools in a more inclusive framework. We need to go beyond token moves to more inclusive digital approaches and really delve into what is required for genuine change." (Conclusions, page 23)
more
"Based on the literature review, mapping of digital education resources in circulation, and examples of implementation of digital education initiatives from around the world, this report aims to provide insights that would help lead to the wise, innovative and ethical use of digital technology in ed
...
ucation as a new dimension in achieving SDG 4 — inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. By so doing, it also attempts to contribute to a rethink of teaching and learning in the face of enormous opportunities and challenges brought about by digital technology in the times of change and turmoil." (Executive summary)
more
"As new information technologies facilitate the production and dissemination of broadcast media, entertainment-education interventions are increasingly used in attempts to influence audiences on issues such as political participation, support for democracy, violence against women, and tolerance of e
...
thnic, religious, and sexual minorities. What factors make these programs effective in enacting behavior change in their audiences? Insights from social learning theory, which motivate entertainment-education media, highlight that individuals (i) learn about behaviors by observing examples of behavior in their environment and (ii) adopt the behaviors that they believe will help them achieve their goals. We review the existing entertainment-education literature in light of this foundational theory and find that exposure to broadcast media can change behavior by linking desired behaviors to pre-existing goals. Conversely and as expected, the literature does not provide much evidence that media leads to behavior change by persuading individuals to adopt new goals. We conclude the review with a discussion of the prospects for successful broadcast media interventions in two domains: public health, a realm where most interventions focus on linking behavior with existing goals, and countering violent extremism (CVE), where most interventions focus on changing goals." (Abstract)
more
"This review presents the existing research on the role of the Internet in radicalization processes. Using a systematic literature search strategy, our paper yields 88 studies on the role of the Internet in a) right-wing extremism and b) radical jihadism. Available studies display a predominant inte
...
rest in the characteristics of radical websites and a remarkable absence of a user-centred perspective. They show that extremist groups make use of the Internet to spread right wing or jihadist ideologies, connect like-minded others in echo chambers and cloaked websites, and address particularly marginalized individuals of a society, with specific strategies for recruitment. Existing studies have thus far not sufficiently examined the users of available sites, nor have they studied the causal mechanisms that unfold at the intersection between the Internet and its users. The present review suggests avenues for future research, drawing on media and violence research and research on social identity and deindividuation effects in computer-mediated communication." (Abstract)
more
"Strategic communications for the purpose of countering violent extremism have become widespread in recent years, especially given the communications revolution which has amplified the messages of violent extremists and those that wish to counter them. Despite this, there is little-to-no research wh
...
ich collects message data and analyses its design in a systematic way. In this article, we collect data from 10 social media multi-message campaigns and undertake an exploratory analysis of their design using a methodology developed from Ingram’s “Linkage-based” framework for countering militant Islamist propaganda. Our findings include: a prevalence towards highlighting the atrocities of violent extremist groups rather than strategies which challenge their competence; a priority to messages which seize the narrative agenda; differing emotional or rational pulls depending on the language in which the message is delivered; a range of different tactics employed depending on the target audience; as well as a wide range of deployments of different themes of positive and negative messages. We offer a number of possible explanations for these findings, before undertaking a cluster analysis of the data to aid the construction of Weberian “ideal type” campaigns, which offer a contribution to the field for the purposes of future research and exposition." (Abstract)
more
"The report is split into three chapters: chapter one looks at over one hundred different campaigns, highlighting effective and successful campaigns, and the evaluations of them where possible. Those that are not evaluated can be used as inspiration. The categorisation of the different campaigns was
...
difficult, therefore within the chapter itself the campaigns have been categorised into 12 different topics, however in the bibliography they are categorised by the country that they originated in. In order to visualise how many campaigns fell into two different categories, the campaign crossover table was created. It is important to note that some of the campaigns in the table may also have fallen into a third category as well, but this has not been displayed. Chapter two identifies training resources and articles that lay out the current state of thinking on the following six different topics: counter/alternative narratives, disinformation resources, good/best practices, current thinking, educational resources and toolkits, and finally, resources discussing online radicalisation. Chapter three provides summaries and key takeaways from the three round table discussions we conducted in Brussels, London and The Hague [...] Finally, as a result of the knowledge gathered in this report, the conclusion and recommendations lay out the necessary components for building a successful, effective, and impactful campaign, in the hopes that it will be informative and useful for future campaigners and trainers." (Introduction)
more
"This document serves as a reading list and primer on digital disinformation. While the proliferation of literature on the subject is a positive reaction to an otherwise vague yet troubling threat, it can be difficult to grasp how much has been accomplished and what questions remain unanswered. This
...
document will therefore give readers a foundational understanding of the immense amount of work that has been done in the last few years on digital disinformation and where future research may be heading. The sources are divided into nine categories of interest and include articles and reports from academic journals, research institutes, non-profit organizations, and news media, reflecting the multidisciplinary and sociotechnical nature of the subject. Although many of the sources can fit into more than one category, having a classification framework is useful for conceptualizing the kinds of research being done and provides direction for those new to the literature. And finally, like a well-run state-sponsored troll farm, the scholarship of digital disinformation continues to produce new content every day. We would be remiss if we did not stress that this document is only a snapshot of a particular moment in this expanding field. As such, we’ve included a list of additional resources that are regularly updated with research and news on disinformation and media manipulation more broadly." (Introduction)
more
"While examples of the rapid spread of misinformation date back to the earliest days of scientific medicine, the internet, by allowing instantaneous communication and powerful amplification has brought about a quantum change. In democracies where ideas compete in the marketplace for attention, accur
...
ate scientific information, which may be difficult to comprehend and even dull, is easily crowded out by sensationalized news. In order to uncover the current evidence and better understand the mechanism of misinformation spread, we report a systematic review of the nature and potential drivers of health-related misinformation. We searched PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, Scopus and Google databases to identify relevant methodological and empirical articles published between 2012 and 2018. A total of 57 articles were included for full-text analysis. Overall, we observe an increasing trend in published articles on health-related misinformation and the role of social media in its propagation. The most extensively studied topics involving misinformation relate to vaccination, Ebola and Zika Virus, although others, such as nutrition, cancer, fluoridation of water and smoking also featured. Studies adopted theoretical frameworks from psychology and network science, while co-citation analysis revealed potential for greater collaboration across fields. Most studies employed content analysis, social network analysis or experiments, drawing on disparate disciplinary paradigms. Future research should examine susceptibility of different sociodemographic groups to misinformation and understand the role of belief systems on the intention to spread misinformation. Further interdisciplinary research is also warranted to identify effective and tailored interventions to counter the spread of health-related misinformation online." (Abstract)
more
"La comunicación para el desarrollo representa un campo de conocimiento de considerable interés en las dinámicas y procesos del desarrollo, por lo que amerita reconocerla en el contexto peruano. En este sentido, el objetivo de esta investigación, consiste en estructurar una cartografía discipli
...
nar en torno a la situación y evolución de su producción científica, los campos, subcampos temáticos que lo componen, así como los espacios y sujetos de intervención. La metodología es descriptiva, se revisaron sistemáticamente 59 informes de tesis recuperados del Repositorio Nacional de Trabajos de Investigación, de las universidades peruanas. Los resultados evidencian una alta concentración de investigación en el último quinquenio (2015-2019), concentrada en algunas universidades, más en públicas que privadas; preferentemente en ciertas regiones territoriales, más en provincias que en la capital. Las investigaciones universitarias analizadas se centran en enfoques de comunicación para el desarrollo que promueven el cambio social y personal; las estrategias de comunicación, relacionadas con las dinámicas de promoción de proyectos locales; los planes de comunicación, que intervienen en el desarrollo asociativo; y los medios comunitarios concernientes a la radiodifusión, y tratamientos informativos sobre los conflictos sociales. Se concluye que la comunicación para el desarrollo en las tesis está orientada desde una disciplina que taxativamente marca al territorio y a lo social." (Resumen)
more
"The media can play a paramount role in exposing corruption and initiating legal, political and penal action against it. Different media genres unfold their respective strengths and show their limits as anti-corruption tools depending on the different levels on which they take effect, on the audienc
...
es they address and on the broader media ecosystem on which they rely." (Page 1)
more
"According to Galtung’s articles ‘On the role of the media in worldwide security and peace’ (1986) and ‘High road, low road: Charting the course for peace journalism’ (1998), war journalism and peace journalism are two competing frames when reporting news on war and conflict. War journalis
...
ts reactively report on conflict in a way that propagates violence, victory, and an elitist orientation. On the contrary, peace journalists proactively report on the causes of and solutions to a conflict, giving voice to all parties through responsible, empathetic journalism. By searching databases for multiple examples of qualitative and quantitative literature on peace and war journalism, new paths to best practices of how scholars articulate and measure the concepts of peace and war using content analysis methods can be found. This article reports on studies published in peer-reviewed journals that investigate the attributes of peace and war as they are conceptualized by scholars analyzing newspaper articles, television broadcasts, and radio reports within the context of peace journalism. Results suggest the majority of peace journalism studies examine media surrounding direct violence as it is occurring, and assess it most often by using the war/peace indicator of elite-oriented versus people-oriented." (Abstract)
more
"This literature review examined selected international research, published from 2010 to the present, to investigate how six fields other than road safety (i.e. healthy eating/physical activity, smoking, alcohol and drug use, workplace health and safety, suicide and juvenile offending) evaluated the
...
ir behaviour change communication campaigns. The review also considered best practice for providing evidence of the effectiveness of these campaigns and explored whether these practices could be translated to road safety. Overall, the health and safety literature indicate that there is no single model for best practice in evaluating communication campaigns but there are some general principles that are highly germane to road safety: using a recognised model/theory of behaviour change, multiple measurement methods, measuring target behaviours at each stage, using a control group not exposed to the campaign, and identifying factors that can influence the likelihood of the desired behaviour. While some direct and indirect objective measures of behaviour change were available, by far the most common measure was selfreport surveys. This set of evaluation tools, and their limitations, are consistent with the road safety experience. In conclusion, given adequate resources, all health and safety domains, including road safety, might improve the quality of their evaluations with sound experimental designs and the increased use of objective forms of behaviour measurement, aided by advances in affordable technology." (Abstract)
more
"Risky sexual behaviors are associated with the transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unwanted pregnancies, both major health concerns for youth worldwide. This review studies the effectiveness of narrated mass media programs in promoting safer sexual practices among youth in de
...
veloped and developing countries." (Abstract)
more
"Based on an extensive literature review, we suggest that ‘fake news’ alludes to two dimensions of political communication: the fake news genre (i.e. the deliberate creation of pseudojournalistic disinformation) and the fake news label (i.e. the instrumentalization of the term to delegitimize ne
...
ws media). While public worries about the use of the label by politicians are increasing, scholarly interest is heavily focused on the genre aspect of fake news. We connect the existing literature on fake news to related concepts from political communication and journalism research, present a theoretical framework to study fake news, and formulate a research agenda. Thus, we bring clarity to the discourse about fake news and suggest shifting scholarly attention to the neglected fake news label." (Abstract)
more
"Academic research on migration and the use of new media constitutes a growing field. The first studies dealing explicitly with the field appeared in the end of the 1990s. Now, it has become an established research area. The impact and importance of the new technologies for migrants is well establis
...
hed. Appropriation of ICTs and new media environments have become a ubiquitous feature of everyday life in migrant groups. The research area is still understudied, characterized by rapid changes and shifts, and is shaped by the changing structural conditions of migrants and the proliferation of forms of media. In this article, I provide an overview of the developing research area through a review of the existing literature on migration and the use of new media. I elaborate the various aspects of the research field, the research category, current themes and topics, theoretical and conceptual discussions, and methodological approaches." (Abstract)
more
"A systematic literature review was conducted to consolidate peer-reviewed research on the communication of environmental health risks with Indigenous populations. The comprehensive literature review procedures included searching databases and key journals that represented various fields in communic
...
ation, environmental health, and Indigenous studies. The review yielded a total of 4,469 potential articles and a total of 13 of these manuscripts met the inclusion criteria. The 13 articles were analyzed to identify lessons learned for effective risk communication. Factors that influence successful risk communication strategies with Indigenous populations on this topic include: (1) developing messages that are congruent with the populations’ cultural beliefs and understanding of the environment; (2) including Indigenous populations in message design and delivery; (3) using credible and trustworthy spokespeople in message delivery; (4) identifying and utilizing effective communication materials and channels; and (5) ensuring that messages are understandable to the target audience. Gaps in the literature include the lack of longitudinal studies that empirically measure changes in perception, awareness and behavior, as well as a general lack of theory-based research. Results from this review provide directions for future work to help guide the development of more effective health risk communication research and strategies with Indigenous populations." (Abstract)
more
"For decades, policymakers and suicide prevention advocates have questioned whether exposure to media with suicide themes, whether television, movies, or music, could increase suicide risk among youth. To date, no clear picture has emerged, with data inconsistent. Two broad forms of data consider th
...
e issue, namely society-level aggregate data, and data from smaller correlational and experimental studies. The current article examined the evidence for suicide contagion by fictional media with a methodological and meta-analytic review. Results suggest that current data do not support the theory that suicide contagion by fictional media occurs." (Abstract)
more