"Citizen science is a vast field. It covers the spectrum of research approaches and offers different methods for engaging volunteers with research in a variety of ways. Common to every citizen science project is a need to communicate with the public effectively. This to recruit and retain citizen sc
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ientists, but equally to inform, train and thank them, in the proper manner, when the project ends. It was this need which prompted Scivil, the Flemish Knowledge Centre for Citizen Science, to set up the working group on communication and participation. The working group decided to document its communication expertise in this guide for anyone who plans to initiate a citizen science project [...] In this guide we provide the building blocks to write up a communication plan for your project, and we include exercises on how to identify a target audience and reach out to schools. We also offer a set of tactics and tools, to secure the initial and continued participation of your citizen scientists. Finally, with our practical tips, you can begin the job of defining your communication plan and choosing the right tactics for effective communication in citizen science. This guide is for anyone who finds themselves communicating and engaging with citizen scientists. The content of the guide is based on studies of citizen participation and the real-life experience of science communicators." (Preface, page 4)
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"Civic life today is mediated. Communities small and large are now using connective platforms to share information, engage in local issues, facilitate vibrant debate, and advocate for social causes. In this timely book, Paul Mihailidis explores the texture of daily engagement in civic life, and the
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resources-human, technological, and practical that citizens employ when engaging in civic actions for positive social impact. In addition to examining the daily civic actions that are embedded in media and digital literacies and human connectedness, Mihailidis outlines a model for empowering young citizens to use media to meaningfully engage in daily life." (Publisher description)
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"En este texto se reúnen reflexiones e investigaciones que tienen, de una u otra manera, su mirada puesta en la ciudadanÃa. Intentando que la comunicación nos permita ver el bosque y que sepamos qué papel debemos jugar en esta realidad acelerada para construir ciudadanÃas activas e influyentes.
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Los diversos abordajes que aquà se presentan son variopintos y por ello enriquecedores del campo académico desde el que está escritos. Una suerte de pensamientos, hechos, relatoras y crÃtica social a las ciudadanÃas, o a sus formas y ausencias. La intención es plantear propuestas que nos relaciones con las muchas ciudadanÃas posibles y las numerosas maneras de abordarlas. La finalidad es que abran los debates y las reflexiones para ir sumando personas y acciones a la lucha por otra ciudadanÃa más universal, en el sentido que se entienden los derechos humanos, que trascienda lÃmites y fronteras." (Descripción de la casa editorial)
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"Auf Glaubwürdigkeit und Vertrauen, auch auf die Allgemeingültigkeit grundlegender und verbindlicher Wertvorstellungen, gründet sich allerdings das Zusammenleben in der menschlichen Gesellschaft. Wo verbreitet Misstrauen herrscht, ist ein konstruktives Miteinander kaum noch möglich. Wenn Misstra
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uen sogar absichtlich geschürt wird, um zu polarisieren, gefährdet dies unsere Demokratie. Öffentliche Debatten werden in vielen Fällen aggressiver, falsche Aussagen verbreiten sich schneller denn je. Den klugen Umgang mit Informationen muss man lernen, möglichst schon in der Schule. Insofern ist Glaubwürdigkeit auch bedeutsam für die politische Bildung. Über ein so kontroverses Thema muss man mit überzeugenden Argumenten auf der Grundlage nachprüfbarer Informationen sprechen und auch streiten, um sich eine Meinung zu bilden. Dazu will dieser Band beitragen. Die Schwierigkeit – oder eher Kunst – bei einem so breit angelegten Thema liegt in der Beschränkung. Nach reiflicher Überlegung haben wir uns entschieden, „Glaubwürdigkeit“ in den drei gesellschaftlichen Feldern „Politik“, „Medien“ und „Gesellschaft“ aus verschiedenen Perspektiven zu beleuchten." (Editorial, Seite 8)
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"This working paper considers in detail how the hosts of and listeners to one call-in radio programme in Zambia were influenced by, resisted and co-opted the agendas of the sponsor that paid for its production. It develops a detailed case-study covering fifteen episodes of, ‘Let’s Be Responsible
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Citizens’, broadcast on Phoenix FM in Lusaka in late 2011 and right through 2012. It shows how the original aspirations of the show’s sponsor, Lusaka City Council, can be understood in terms of nurturing popular subjectivities that might enable the state to impose market solutions to the provision of social goods. The Council hoped that this might in turn have enabled them to survey and bring a particular kind of order to the unruly spaces of the capital city. The Council also aimed to evangelise a model of city governance that shifts power away from the dense networks of representative political structures that exist in the city towards consensus-oriented, technocratic modes of assessing social needs and distributing resources. However, the programme struggled to attract audience participation in episodes framed in these ways and, in accepting that they needed to bring the show closer to the concerns of the listeners, the Council enabled the host and callers to ‘Let’s Be Responsible Citizens’ to subvert the show’s original intentions. Negotiations over the show’s agenda provide a window on how debates about political accountability, legitimate authority and who has the responsibility to meet social needs play out in increasingly media-saturated societies." (Abstract)
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"This working paper provides a context for the assessment of hopes that there might be a transformation in political accountability in Africa as a result of previously powerless and voiceless populations having their agendas strengthened via interactive media. It describes the ways in which many rad
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io programmes, on which the voices of audience members are heard live on air, are brought into being through the ‘sponsorship’ of groups that already have significant power and voice. These include political parties, foreign aid donors, and local and international Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), all of which have incentives to use interactive media as a tool of evangelism – to secure public engagement with, and endorsements for, their preferred visions. Using the case of Zambia, it emphasises the negotiating strategies that journalists and station owners deploy to secure resources while maintaining space to allow hosts and audience members, rather than solely sponsors, to shape the agenda of on-air discussions." (Abstract)
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"This report provides a holistic, data-driven analysis of how countries are currently implementing open government practices, the main challenges they face and the untapped opportunities that exist for enhancing transparency, accountability and citizen participation both in the policy-making cycle a
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nd in service design and delivery. The questionnaire and analytical framework on which the report is based stem from more than a decade of work on open and inclusive policy making by the OECD Secretariat. This work includes thematic reports and country-specific open government reviews, and was enriched by the policy dialogue that has taken place in the OECD Public Governance Committee and in the three regional networks on open and innovative government that the OECD hosts in Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and Southeast Asia. The report finds that countries are moving from an intrinsic to an instrumental understanding of open government reforms, using them to achieve broader policy objectives such as good governance and inclusive growth, rather than as a goal in themselves. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a case in point, as open government policies and initiatives can not only contribute to Goal 16 (on Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) but they are potentially beneficial to reach all the other SDGs as well. In line with this new approach, the report highlights ways to improve whole-ofgovernment co-ordination of the national open government agenda; such co-ordination is needed in order to achieve more integrated and strategic policy outcomes. There is a need to consolidate the multitude of scattered initiatives into a single national open government strategy, based on a country-specific understanding of what open government reforms entail and seek to accomplish. To support the ensuing national discussion and provide a reference model, the OECD has developed its own definition which can be adapted to countries’ specific historical, legal, social and economic contexts: Open government is “a culture of governance based on innovative and sustainable public policies and practices inspired by the principles of transparency, accountability and participation that fosters democracy and inclusive growth." (Foreword)
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"The report explores how discussion programmes – where a diverse audience, representing the whole of society, is engaged in fair and balanced debate – can stimulate both private/interpersonal discussion and public discussion in either a community setting or one hosted by local government. It the
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n goes on to examine whether discussion can, in turn, affect conflict-related attitudes at scale, whether attitudes towards other groups in society or attitudes towards violence. The basic idea is that regular engagement in the sort of media programmes our organisation seeks to provide can help to mitigate conflict in fragile settings by increasing understanding of the other, facilitating compromise and ultimately engendering less recourse to violence. Data collected by BBC Media Action in Kenya and Nigeria is used to test the hypothesis that media induced discussion is associated with attitudes that are related to conflict and fragility. The results reveal a rich but complicated picture. We find relatively consistent evidence in both countries that our discussion-oriented media programmes are strongly linked to private discussion among family, friends and others. Evidence from Kenya also suggests that exposure to debate-style programming is potentially linked to public political discussion, but that this relationship is likely to be mediated through other variables such as private political discussion. Finally, in both cases, both private and public discussion is strongly associated with individual attitudes towards conflict. However, the relationship is a complex one and bears further examination." (Executive summary)
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"Within international development, strengthening the voice of citizens living in poverty is recognised as vital to reducing inequity. In support of such endeavors, participatory video (PV) is an increasingly utilised communicative method that can stimulate community engagement and amplify the voice
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of groups often excluded from decision-making spaces. However, implementing PV processes specifically within an international development context is an immensely complex proposal. Practitioners must take into consideration the different ways institutions may understand the use of participatory video for raising citizen voice; and how therefore the practice may be influenced, co-opted or even devalued by these institutional assumptions. To this end, this article interrogates how global PV practitioners express tension in their work. Analysis of their descriptions suggests six influential views on PV practice with the potential to diminish the value of voice from the margins." (Abstract)
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"Revenant sur une longue expérience personnelle en Afrique et en Asie, Birgitte Jallov met en avant les éléments fondamentaux nécessaires à la consolidation [des radios communautaires] dans la durée. Elle dissèque les facteurs qui garantissent la durabilité sociale, organisationnelle et fina
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ncière de ce type de projet et insiste sur la nécessité absolue de leur appropriation au niveau local." (Introduction, page 8)
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"1. The DAME project has contributed to its overall objective of ‘strengthening the democratization process in Timor-Leste’ and to its specific objective of ‘enhanced engagement between NSAs, State authorities and their constituencies’ in the development process. 2. Most effective were the a
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ctivities strengthening youth leadership (Youth Forums and Civic Leadership trainings). Some 2500 youth all over Timor-Leste learned about the very skills needed for democracy. This is a promising contribution to strengthening the democratic process. 3. Core elements of the DAME approach - inclusiveness, NSA-SA collaboration, conflict prevention, and a consistent focus on youth and women - are highly relevant in view of the social, political and postconflict context in Timor-Leste, in particular by contributing to (and complementing) current government approaches. 4. However, the Action was over-ambitious in terms of objectives, partners with mixed capacities, activities, and target groups, covering all districts, and as a consequence some Action components suffered from insufficient in-depth development of quality, follow-up, coherence and cross-fertilization." (Executive summary)
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"The phenomenon of academics committed to social justice interrogating social science theory and research, frames the formation of the fields of citizens’ media and citizens’ journalism in the Latin American region. This chapter explains how Chantal Mouffe's ideas and her theory of radical democ
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racy inform citizens’ media and citizens’ journalism. It then describes how these concepts are used in specific research analyses. Belgian political scientist Chantal Mouffe shifts theories of democracy from a liberal perspective based on individual rights and responsibilities to a more nuanced analysis of power and political action. The goal of public journalism is to use media technologies to move dissent – the multiple voices of counter-publics – to the public sphere. Gaining a space among the elites who previously had made decisions without consulting citizens has been one of the greatest achievements that public journalism has had in our society." (Summary)
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"This article revisits the current interplay between the government, the market, civil society, and the media in contemporary Indonesian political communication. Previous research showed a striking increase in the numbers of both Internet and social media users as well as cases of social media influ
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ence on the democratization process. Some scholars have pointed out the limitations of social media, such as the simplified narratives, larger media systems, and dominant meta-narratives. This includes the ‘many clicks, little sticks’ phenomenon, meaning that only a few of the many clicks resulted in widespread activism in the vast social media environment. This article includes more recent and nuanced interpretations from the various actors. The activists have continued their experiments-providing two-way information, encouraging rapid interaction, creating much participation, and expanding role decentralization. In a ‘network of networks’ spirit they have been doing a lot of clicking, and learning a lot in the process." (Abstract)
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"This policy briefing offers an empirical contribution to evolving thinking on governance within the international development landscape. Using the example of media, we argue that interventions designed to foster demand-based accountability may not be as successful in some fragile settings as more d
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iscursive platforms that aim to tackle problem-solving collectively. The paper thus underscores the need for locally embedded approaches to governance support that are both adaptive and reflective." (Conclusions)
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"This research presents a picture of a public in Burma that, to varying degrees, lacks knowledge, confidence, motivation and opportunity to participate in governance processes and make their voices heard. However, the study provides objective evidence that a relationship exists between people’s me
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dia access and their level of citizen engagement. Access to public service oriented media increases the likelihood of being formally engaged rather than disengaged. Even when accounting for those characteristics that can act as barriers for the individual to engage in governance processes – being female, being poor and living in rural areas – the effect of media on engagement is significant." (Key findings)
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"We are pleased to be sharing with you the second yearbook on media and information literacy and intercultural dialogue. The first MILID Yearbook was published in June 2013 [...] The theme of the 2014 Yearbook is Global Citizenship in a Digital World. Global citizenship assumes ease of participation
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in global spaces in which persons are media and information literate and are equipped with competencies and attitudes to deal with the multi-faceted nature of a mediated world in which information is no longer bound by space or time. The unprecedented access to and use of media and Internet technologies for communication and collaboration especially among youth, suggest that effective strategies must be found to enable active critical inquiry and effective media production." (Foreword, page 7)
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