"Considering the lessons learned from US engagement in Iraq and especially Afghanistan, military engagement can only be sustained with the support of local populations. The concept of “winning hearts and minds” has emerged as an essential component of the counterinsurgency-counterterrorism doctr
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ine. Therefore, it is essential to monitor public reaction to any foreign intervention on a constant basis to measure the effectiveness of a given military campaign. ConStrat monitored social media content—in Arabic, French and English—related to the French intervention in Mali and the unfolding of the terrorist attack in southwestern Algeria. The three media environments were diverse both qualitatively and quantitatively." (Introduction)
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"[...] This series thus proposes to unpack the concepts of transparency and volatility across three major arenas of international affairs: security, diplomacy, and development. Each issue-area features two essays, each focusing on different aspects of transparency and/or volatility. Two additional e
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ssays (by Gerald Hyman and Joseph Siegle) examine the ramifications of the growing interplay between issue-areas in the information age. Some authors situate their research within the context of academic literature, while others are more focused on policy and/or operational contexts. Taken together, the papers in this series seek to usefully organize the issue under inquiry in order to render it manageable and understandable to a wider scholarly, policy, and practitioner audience.
While this paper series uses transparency and volatility as a framework for examining international relations in the information age, it does not necessarily place information and communication technologies at the forefront of the analysis. While some papers do focus on ICT, the purpose is not to minutely examine new forms of technology and their impact. Rather, the premise for this series is that ubiquitous global communication flows have, over time, created an encompassing information environment that nurtures transparency and volatility as pervasive conditions and/or guiding norms." (Introduction, page 4)
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"The objective of this study is to look at how two prominent Arab-language news organisations, BBC Arabic and Al Jazeera Arabic (AJA), have used social media and user-generated content — photos, videos and comments — to provide coverage of the uprising in Syria. Due to the unique pressures in co
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vering Syria, especially in the early months of the uprising, how did these news organizations manage the heavy use of UGC and social media while being true to their editorial guidelines? How have the news organizations in this study verified this material? With activists playing a role in producing and distributing this material, how have the news organizations informed their audiences of the provenance of this material? In terms of UGC management both BBC Arabic and Al Jazeera Arabic publish information about their corporate-wide editorial guidelines that set out guidance for dealing with sources and assuring transparency for their audiences. In the case of the BBC generally, there is very detailed guidance about user-generated content for news. An investigation into the verification practices at BBC Arabic and Al Jazeera Arabic indicates that detailed guidance is in place." (Executive summary, page 3)
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"This publication is an outcome of the Ørecomm Festival 2011 and presents Paula Uimonen (The Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions), Petter Åttingsberg (International Media Support) Stine Kirstein Junge (United Nations Development Programme), Birgitte Jallov (independent consultant), and R
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afael Obregon (United Nations Children’s Fund) and their experiences and reflections on social media in development cooperation. The publication addresses social media in relation to various subjects such as external communication, community radio, the Arab Spring, youth and equity, the credibility of social media, as well as new and innovative ways of using social media in development cooperation." (Introduction, page 10)
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"A compilation of 13 articles that discuss social media developments and trends in Asia. For this publication we invited eleven alumni from the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ) at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines to share their views on social media issues based o
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n their inside knowledge and hands-on experience. The authors from six different countries provide insight into various new media trends and present diversified approaches, ranging from Cambodia, with comparably low Internet penetration, to Indonesia, which is considered the second biggest Facebook “nation” in the world. Topics include: Integration of social media in traditional newsrooms; Issues and challenges of social media; Social media and newsprint advertising; Social media and television networks; Ways to maximise and monetise social media; Investigative journalism and social media; Censorship and social media." (Back cover)
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"Following the revolutions, the battle for the Arab blogosphere has turned from being a competition over accessing the Internet and circumventing government controls to a cyberwar for the predominant narrative through Facebook, Twitter, and traditional media [...] Social media is reinvigorating trad
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itional print and broadcast media, including satellite networks, which are adopting multi-platform strategies [...] Social media is serving as political cover: News outlets are recognizing the benefit of using social media to preempt official repercussions by disseminating sensitive stories first on social media sites and in other cases to gauge possible reaction before going to print or air [...] Numerous media observers and professionals have complained that professional journalists, citizen journalists, bloggers, activists, and pro-government contributors in the region lack ethics, do not understand libel, practice incitement, and fail to meet other international journalism and legal standards [...] While user-generated content is plentiful, authenticating this content can take up valuable resources. Training for citizen journalists and non-journalists who are online would help established media outlets and the public to gauge the accuracy and authenticity of news and information." (Executive summary, page 8-9)
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"This is the first scholarly analysis of how young women used social media and cyberactivism to help shape the “Arab Spring” and its aftermath. It argues that women's engagement with social media has coincided with a shift in the political landscape of the Middle East, and it is unlikely that th
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ey will ever retreat from the new arenas they have carved out for themselves because they have reconfigured the public sphere in their countries, as well as the expectations of the public about the role women can and should play in the political lives of their countries."
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"The present text explains how the Media Sustanability Index has refined its instrument and procedures to better capture the impact of social media." (Abstract)
This book features case studies and reports on the use of web 2.0 and social networking applications and services to increase the impact of research on policy in Latin America. During 2010 and 2011 Fundación Comunica, with funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada) an
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d assistance from the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), supported a series of small research projects examining the use of online social networking services to link research and policy in the region. For the Impact 2.0 projects, the most successful uses of web 2.0 and online social networking to connect research and policy were those that involved the public in campaigns and consultations. Less successful were those projects that focused on the direct relationships between researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders.
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"Drawing on evidence from the popular protests in Tunisia between December 2010 and January 2011, expert interviews with Tunisian bloggers, and a web survey conducted among Tunisian Facebook users, this paper argues that social media (1) allowed a “digital elite” to form personal networks and ci
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rcumvent the national media blackout by brokering information for outside mainstream media; (2) helped to overcome the “free rider” problem of collective action by reporting the magnitude of protest events; and (3) facilitated the formation of a national collective identity which was supportive of protest action and transcended geographical and socio-economic disparities by providing a shared, mobilizing element of emotional grievance." (Abstract)
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"Die Nutzung von Communitys hat längst Einzug in den Alltag Jugendlicher und junger Erwachsener gefunden. 85 Prozent der Zwölf- bis 29-Jährigen nutzen zumindest gelegentlich die Angebote von Social Networks, 51 Prozent tun dies täglich. Dies belegen die Ergebnisse der JIM-Studie (Jugend, Informa
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tion, Multimedia) sowie einer ergänzenden SWR-Studie zum Medienverhalten 20- bis 29-Jähriger. Die Plattform Facebook kann dabei einen Großteil der Communityaktivitäten und damit auch der Kommunikation an sich binden. Rund zwei Drittel der Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen nutzen Facebook, für 60 Prozent ist es die meistgenutzte Plattform. Als Hauptmotiv für die Mitgliedschaft in einer Community wird deren Funktionalität für die Organisation des Privatlebens genannt. Die Größe und Etabliertheit des Portals, vor allem das Kriterium „wo finde ich meine Freunde?“, entscheiden dann darüber, welche Community hauptsächlich genutzt wird. Die Präsenz von Unternehmen, Stars oder Institutionen auf Facebook führt zu einer Vermischung privater und öffentlicher Bereiche, die den Wirkbereich der Communitys über den privaten Raum hinaus hin zum Social-Media-Marketing ausdehnt. Weitere Untersuchungen zeigen, dass eine Mehrzahl der Medienmarken Facebook bereits als Kommunikations- oder Distributionsplattform nutzt. Der Grad der Dialogorientierung und Interaktivität – gemessen anhand von Kriterien wie persönlicher Ansprache, benutzter Sprachform oder den Inhalten der Postings – unterscheidet sich zwischen verschiedenen Mediengattungen deutlich. Während Tageszeitungen bisher nur wenige dialogorientierte Elemente in ihren Communityauftritten nutzen, gelingt es Hörfunksendern derzeit am besten, eine Interaktion mit dem Nutzer aufzubauen. Eine Analyse von 75 Facebook-Accounts bestätigt den Radioanbietern einen intensiven, gegenseitigen Austausch mit den Hörern, der sich in deutlichen Zuwachsraten bei der Zahl der Fans manifestiert. Auch hier unterscheiden sich die Strategien im Hinblick auf den Einsatz unterschiedlicher kommunikativer Elemente, die Inhalte der Posts oder eine programm- bzw. nutzergetriebene Ausrichtung des Auftritts zwischen den verschiedenen Programmen. Derzeit haben junge Hörfunkprogramme den höchsten Grad an Interaktivität und einen überdurchschnittlichen Traffic auf ihren Facebook-Accounts." (Abstract)
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"The rise of new media in Thailand has occurred during one of the toughest periods in Thailand’s recent political history. A political crisis since 2005 has created an increasingly divided society. Whilst Thailand’s press freedom was previously considered “free,” existing political challenge
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s are immense and challenge directly Thailand’s taboo topic - the monarchy. The state controlled and anti-competitive nature of Thailand’s traditional media has meant a siding with the status quo. State censorship and even self-censorship in the media is common. New media seems to be the only way people can discuss freely their political beliefs. Or is that really so? This report is an investigation into the political usage of new media in Thailand from varying viewpoints of politicians, activists and Thai internet users." (Abstract)
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"The ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is increasingly being played out in parallel on the internet. Recently, a great deal of media attention has been devoted to a series of spectacular hacker attacks that caused dozens of Israeli and Palestinian websites to crash, including thos
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e of the secret service agencies Mossad and Shin Bet. However, for Israelis and Palestinians who are willing to participate in dialogue, the internet also offers much needed opportunities for contact and the peaceful exchange of ideas." (Page 6)
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"The United Nations pointed out in 2010 that more Indians have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet. There are over 800 million mobile connections, although the number of unique users (excluding inactive connections) is estimated at around 600 million. Together with the fact that 60 percent of
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all households have cable and satellite television, providing access to many of the 700-plus television channels licensed to broadcast, it becomes clear that in garrulous India, mass poverty and marginalization do not result in a perfect “digital divide.” This, together with the fact that the public broadcaster’s prime terrestrial channel, DD National, covers about 92 percent of the 1.2 billion-plus population, clearly suggests that the users of digital technologies in India include many of the 300 million still below the official poverty line. In the case of the digital switchover, it is broadly in this area of public interest that most attention needs to be focused, whether it be in the area of greater accountability and autonomy of the state broadcaster, the governance of private media infrastructure, transparency and equity in licensing criteria and in mechanisms of allocating resources, and compliance with global standards of professional journalism. These values will go some way toward giving India a plurality of voices and media outlets that would properly reflect what may be the most diverse social and political landscape on the planet." (Open Society Foundations website)
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"Social media and social networking sites (SNS) in particular have become popular in current humanitarian campaigns. This article assesses the optimism surrounding the opportunities that SNS communication offers for humanitarian action and for the cultivation of cosmopolitan sensibilities. In order
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to evaluate the mediation of suffering and humanitarian causes through social media, I argue that we need to understand the architectures of social media and SNS in addition to analysing the content of the campaigns drawing on the literature on humanitarian communication. Focusing on the analysis of two humanitarian campaigns through social media, the phenomenally popular and controversial Kony 2012 campaign and WaterForward, the article observes that the architectures of SNS orientate action at a communitarian level which heightens their post-humanitarian style. However, an emerging new genre of reporting and commenting which is termed “polymedia events” can potentially extend beyond the limitations of SNS communication by opening up the space for reflexivity and dialogical imagination." (Abstract)
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