"Following months of mass antigovernment demonstrations in Belarus, this report widens the focus beyond the protesters and takes stock of the views and preferences of Belarusian citizens at a critical moment. A new ZOiS survey conducted in December 2020 among Belarusians aged between 16 and 64 revea
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ls rare insights into the political and social mood across the country, trust in its institutions, the dynamics of the recent political mobilisation, and the domestic and foreign policy preferences of Belarusian citizens [...] The survey confirms the extent to which the protests were carried by private citizens, rather than organised civil society, trade unions, or churches, which played only peripheral roles. Social and online media dominate society’s news consumption, with over 70 per cent of respondents using these media as their main source of information. Belarusian state television, Russian media, and international media are used as well but are significantly less prominent as primary information sources. Trust in Belarus’s political institutions in general remains weak. Confidence has not eroded completely, but trust in all institutions is on balance negative, with very similar scores for the executive, the legislative, the judiciary, and the security apparatus. In absolute numbers, the opposition Coordination Council and the Orthodox Church are the most trusted institutions." (Executive summary)
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"Despite the looming crisis in journalism, scholarly research on the topic is often disconnected from the research that the news industry and journalists need and want, but do not have the time or expertise to do. This book provides valuable insights for journalists and scholars about news business
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models, audience research, misinformation, diversity and inclusivity, and news philanthropy, offering journalists a guide to what they need to know and a call to action for what kind of research journalism scholars can do to best help the news industry reckon with disruption." (Publisher description)
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"This study analyses the content of the messages on the Facebook Page 'Support for Farmers' from the premise of Habermas's 'Public Sphere'. The results show that the discussions in support of the farmers' protest on Facebook galvanized the public interest on the problematic issues faced by farmers a
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nd rally support for their cause." (Abstract)
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"The discussion is based on an analysis of 46 protest songs, interviews with musicians, music producers and event promoters as well as field interviews and observations among audiences at selected popular music concerts and public workshops in Maputo city. Secondary data were drawn from radio broadc
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asts, digital media, and social networks. The songs analysed were widely played in the past two decades (1998–2018), a period in which three different presidents led the country. Our focus is on the protest song, conceived as those musical products that are concerned with public affairs, particularly public policy and how it affects citizens’ social, political and economic life, and the relationship between citizens and the state. We found indicators of empowerment and accountability in the protest songs surveyed. In these songs, musicians expressed awareness of their political and economic positions in relation to political and administrative authorities. The songs refer to citizens’ duties such as paying taxes, preserving public infrastructures, and acknowledging the rights of fellow citizens. They also reference citizens’ rights such as access to health, education, transport, security, and participation in governance processes through elections. In these songs, musicians demand that government authorities be accountable to citizens, with specific reference to political participation, right to information, public consultation, and the provision of public services. The report also found that in the past two decades Mozambican civil society organisations have turned to popular musicians to promote and animate public debates on awareness of citizen’s rights and accountability." (Summary)
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"The growth of the Internet in the last two decades has helped increase political and civic en-gagement and scrutiny. The growth of a digital economy in Kenya has led to the emergence of a vibrant online community with 89.7 % of the population having access to the Internet. This paper examines how K
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enyans on Twitter (KOT) use visuals as a form of political protest. Using an open source data tool, the paper provides results from a qualitative analysis of 200 tweets that drove three political hashtags with a special focus on the most prominent memes, cartoons and pictures. This research finds that #KOT uses visuals to highlight government corruption and incompetence through mockery, condemnation and humour." (Abstract)
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"This paper explores the spillover of protests across countries using data on nonviolent and spontaneous demonstrations for 200 countries from 2000 to 2020. Using an autoregressive spatial model, the analysis finds strong evidence of “contagious protests,” with a catalyzing role of social media.
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In particular, social media penetration in the source and destination of protests leads to protest spillovers between countries. There is evidence of parallel learning between streets of nations alongside the already documented learning between governments." (Abstract)
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"This book explores the struggles over the mediated construction and projection of the image of the nation at times of social unrest. Focusing on the June 2013 protests in Brazil, it examines how different actors -authorities, activists, the national media, foreign correspondents- disseminated compe
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ting versions of 'what Brazil was' during that pivotal episode. The book offers a fresh conceptual approach, supported by media coverage analysis and original interviews, that demonstrates the potential of digital media to challenge power structures and establish new ways of representing the nation. It also highlights the vulnerability of both 'old' and 'new' media to forms of inequality and disruption due to political interferences, technological constraints, and continuing commercial pressures." (Publisher description)
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"Key trends: Harassment, arrests and physical violence against journalists, mostly by government security forces and sometimes by protestors, have risen in recent years; Press freedom and freedom of expression has been impacted in many countries by these attacks; A range of attacks have been identif
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ied by UNESCO in 65 countries since 2015 for this report; At least ten journalists have been killed since 2015 while covering protests, according to UNESCO’s Observatory of Killed Journalists; Tactics used against journalists have violated international laws and norms that have been long agreed upon under the umbrella of multilateral institutions." (Page 1)
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"Safety of female journalists in and beyond the newsroom continues to stimulate debate on how risky environments can trigger self-censorship among journalists, yet few studies have investigated women journalists’ experience of risk in specific work contexts. This chapter examines the perception of
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risk among female journalists who cover political demonstrations, and how they negotiate such risks. Anchored in theories of media and gender, self-censorship and resilience, the chapter dwells on political demonstrations that have become pervasive in the more than 30-year rule of Uganda’s current president. Data were collected through focus group discussions with female reporters and structured in-depth interviews with newsroom managers. Findings indicate that covering political demonstrations is perceived as risky for female journalists, who are also increasingly aware of their vulnerability. This perceived vulnerability produces a deterrent effect on women’s enthusiasm to cover riots. Nonetheless, women rely on techniques that spur collective resilience, which in turn helps to avert self-censorship. Although focusing on political demonstrations, the instantiated perceptions would likely resonate with other situations in which female journalists work. Thus, applying a gender lens to future self-censorship and resilience studies may open new frontiers of understanding, especially of what gender-specific self-censorship and resilience practices thrive in different contexts." (Abstract)
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"This paper aims at examining how Egyptian popular culture shapes perception of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict through the widespread medium of political cartoons. The paper examines cartoons published in Egyptian newspapers after the American president, Donald Trump, announced in 2017 that th
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e USA move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem." (Page 2)
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"Organizations often announce their protest activities prior to their implementation to mobilize awareness, recruit supporters, and receive media attention. We are interested in the effectiveness of protest announcements—that is, under what conditions governments make concessions to avoid having a
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n announced protest take place. Governments assess the costs and benefits of providing concessions by taking into account the level of credible threat of the announced protest and the costs related to concessions. We test these assumptions with a unique data set on protest announcements and concessions in Nepal (2007-2010). Using cross-sectional regressions, we demonstrate that protest announcements by unions, announcements with highly threatening tactics and announcements with minimal demands will bring about concessions from the government. We contribute to the growing literature on different protest tactics by providing systematic empirical evidence, for the first time, on the effectiveness of mere protest announcements." (Abstract)
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"Die Berichterstattung der kasachstanischen Massenmedien über Proteste im Lande folgt einer klaren Linie. Kleinere Proteste werden ignoriert. Wenn über größere Demonstrationen berichtet wird, kommen ihre Vertreter nicht zu Wort und ihre Forderungen werden nicht erwähnt. Stattdessen werden der i
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llegale Charakter der Proteste und das friedliche Verhalten der Polizei betont. So gibt es auf Seiten der Polizei Verletzte, auf Seiten der Demonstranten nur Verhaftete, also potentielle Täter. Gleichzeitig inszeniert sich der Präsident des Landes als Versöhner, der die Polizei mäßigt und einen Dialog anbietet. Das Maximum an innerhalb Kasachstans möglicher kritischer Distanz demonstriert die Wirtschaftszeitschrift Ekspert-Kasachstan. Sie widerspricht aber nicht der offiziellen Linie, sondern verzichtet nur auf ihre Wiedergabe. Ihre distanzierte Berichterstattung ist deshalb ohne Vorwissen nicht einzuordnen. Die vereinzelten kritischen Stimmen bei Wremja und Megapolis gehen in der Menge entgegengesetzter Stellungnahmen ebenfalls unter, wenn nicht von vornherein eine kritische Haltung beim Leser vorhanden ist." (Seite 5)
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"State governments in India have executed approximately half of the world’s known network shutdowns – large-scale, deliberate disruptions of Internet connectivity, cell phone service, or social media. India is also a hotbed of collective action with widely varying degrees of organization and coo
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rdination, which are partially determined by the identities of the primary participants. However, no independent assessment of the effects of such information vacuums on the strategy and structure of collective action exists, for India or any other state. In this study, I expand on a previously formulated theory of disconnective action by examining how structural and strategic characteristics affect collective action responses during a network shutdown in an extreme case via statistical analysis. Shutdowns are found to be much more strongly associated with increases in violent collective action than with non-violent mobilization. However, a breakdown of the structure of individual protest events reveals weak effects for both organized and ‘leaderless’ collective action during a shutdown. On the other hand, the co-occurrence of state violence with a shutdown is found to encourage non-violent action. The findings imply that information blackouts compel participants in collective action in India to substitute non-violent tactics for violent ones that are less reliant on effective communication and coordination. At the same time, while they may sometimes disrupt structured and non-violent protest, this effect is highly inconsistent. The analysis creates a precedent for other subnational studies of digital repression and adds to the discussion on extreme means of controlling (dis)information flows online." (Abstract)
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"This book investigates ways in which global media coverage of conflicts affects the worldviews of the social and cultural values of nationals from the war regions. It identifies the cultural patterns in remote communities that have been 'diluted' by IT and the extent to which the changes impacted t
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he values of the indigenes. It also describes the role that IT especially social media and broadcast media play in the understanding of war among residents in highly wired and remote communities, respectively." (Publisher description)
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"Com um trabalho rigoroso, o volume 3: Espiral do silêncio, enquadramento e contemporaneidade nos proporciona uma viagem por temáticas desenvolvidas por pesquisadores das distintas regiões brasileiras. Articulando investigações que pautam significativas contribuições teóricas, os oito capít
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ulos presentes no vol. 3 dedicam-se a aprofundar conceitos teóricos bem como apresentar investigações com dados empíricos que problematizam situações evidenciadas na contemporaneidade e que passam a fazer parte da agenda permanente das Teorias da Comunicação e do Jornalismo. Os capítulos do livro são olhares distintos para as teorias do jornalismo adentrando em propostas inovadoras e necessárias à construção social." (Resumo)
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"This book explores the complex and contradictory relationships between communication and information technologies and social movements by drawing on different case studies from around the world. The contributions analyse how new communication and information technologies impact the way protests are
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carried out and controlled in the current information age. The authors focus on recent events that date from the Arab Spring onwards and pose questions regarding the future of protests, surveillance and digital landscapes." (Publisher description)
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"This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how different theoretical paradigms speak of activism in relation to public relations. It focuses on the tactics employed in Turkey during the second-wave feminism. The bo
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ok analyzes how activist groups utilized public relations strategies and tactics during Gezi Demonstrations from 2013. It also focuses on the social movements and contentious politics aspect of protest and their progression to a global stage through diffusion, domestication and externalization. The book considers questions about protest, dissent and activist public relations: their definition, their description and their application. It shows that media continues to be an important element in activist communication. The book demonstrates how the activists' use of tactics, such as consciousness raising groups, demonstrations, festivals, petitions, magazines, periodicals and books influenced both policy and cultural changes." (Publisher description)
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