"La mediática de la guerra y la paz consta de cuatro ensayos que estudian los discursos, las imágenes y la comunicación durante los años del proceso de paz en Colombia (2012-2016). La investigación principal es de Valeria Parra Gregory, politóloga y periodista, quien aborda las palabras mediat
...
izadas durante estos diálogos. El texto de Omar Rincón, ensayista y profesor de la Universidad de los Andes, reflexiona sobre la figura de Santos y sus modos erroristas de habitar comunicativamente la paz. El análisis de Jorge Bonilla, estudioso de los medios de comunicación y profesor de la Universidad EAFIT, nos recuerda que para lograr la reconciliación debemos mirarnos en el horror que habita las imágenes. Y, finalmente, Rousbeh Legatis, experto internacionalista, nos lleva a comprender cómo desde la mediática se construye colectiva y solidariamente la paz." (Cubierta del libro)
more
"As a component of the USAID Jordan Media Assessment (JMA), this White Paper aims to assess the Government of Jordan’s (GOJ) and the media’s response to the current COVID-19 crisis starting in mid-February 2020 through May 1, 2020. This includes the methods used for disseminating messages to the
...
public through traditional and digital tools, as well as the means of combating misinformation. In addition, the paper provides an overview of the role of traditional media outlets in shaping public opinion, influencing public behavior, combating rumors and spreading information and facts. Within this short period, independent research, social media discourse, and commentaries by activists and academics indicate that the GOJ’s proactive communications efforts on the COVID-19 crisis are contributing to rebuilding a level of trust between the State and society at large, while increasing transparency." (Page 2)
more
"Online spaces are being systematically weaponised to exclude women leaders and to undermine the role of women in public life. Attacks on women which use hateful language, rumour and gendered stereotypes combine personal attacks with political motivations, making online spaces dangerous places for w
...
omen to speak out. And left unchecked, this phenomenon of gendered disinformation, spread by state and non-state actors, poses a serious threat to women’s equal political participation. In this research, we investigated state-aligned gendered disinformation in two countries, Poland and the Philippines, through an analysis of Twitter data. We analysed tweets in Polish and, from the Philippines, in English." (Executive summary)
more
"Todo se inició, en verdad, cuando tuve el encargo, en mi calidad de consultor internacional, de realizar una serie de entrevistas en torno a la desinformación en Venezuela con expertos venezolanos en temas comunicacionales y políticos. Las transcripciones de aquellas notas de voz, que se hiciero
...
n en respuesta a unas mismas preguntas aplicadas a los consultados de seguidas, me parecieron sumamente pertinentes. Entonces pensé que no se debían quedar solamente como material base para la elaboración de un proyecto. Así surgió la idea de este libro heterodoxo. Tenía un grupo de respuestas y refl exiones que me parecían pertinentes para la divulgación pública. Esto ha cobrado forma como la primera parte de este libro. La desinformación, por otro lado, pasó a ser un asunto que he ido abordando con mayor énfasis en 2020, y que espero pueda seguir siendo foco de mi interés analítico. Si bien había abordado el fenómeno en años anteriores, es desde el año de esta obra, teniendo a la pandemia como telón de fondo, en que comencé a mirarlo con más atención. Terminó de empujarme la gentil solicitud que me hicieron Paula Quinteros y Omar Lugo, fundadora-propietaria y director del sitio web de noticias El Estímulo, respectivamente, quienes me solicitaron una serie de artículos sobre la desinformación en Venezuela. En total, escribí diez textos periodísticos. En cada artículo, utilicé informes o documentación específi ca que me ayudará a sustentar la óptica específi ca expresada en cada texto. Decidí tomar esos artículos, que ofrecen diversas aristas relacionadas con cómo se vive la desinformación en Venezuela, para conformar una segunda parte de este libro." (Página 7-8)
more
"Central Asia has been generally omitted from most academic debates, including those on the causes and consequences of widespread plagiarism and copy-and-paste behaviour among journalists. In this article I address this problem by interviewing working journalists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikis
...
tan and Uzbekistan. The article argues that plagiarism in journalism is not only thriving but also encouraged by a variety of mechanisms, such as the distribution of “ready-to-publish” media content by government press secretaries and encouragement for journalists to simply “add your name” to these materials. It finds that some journalists are proud of the fact that others plagiarise their work, saying “it indicates we are doing a superior job”, which in turn encourages further copyright breaches within the profession. This is significant, because students and early career journalists may witness such practices and conclude that plagiarism is a norm and that is how it should be, thus creating a false “model of excellence” for future journalists and the public. The results are also discussed in relation to agenda-setting theory, whereby governments predominantly control media outlets. In such a context, the public may end up only having access to news that is subsidised and approved by their governments." (Abstract)
more
"El investigador Óscar Lucien, exdirector del Instituto de Investigaciones de la Comunicación (Ininco) de la Universidad Central de Venezuela y autor del libro Cerco rojo a la libertad de expresión (La Hoja del Norte, Editorial Dahbar, Caracas, 2011), sostiene que el régimen venezolano ha diseñ
...
ado una arquitectura legal de control a la información, por un lado, y de limitación a la libertad de expresión, por otro." (Página 2)
more
"The rise of social media in Zimbabwe has brought with it a greater variety of platforms which offer people a means to express themselves. However, the democratisation of information and the increase in digital spaces have also come with greater state restriction and polarisation among Zimbabweans.
...
This policy brief intends to discuss the state’s attempts to act as the proctor of social media in order to explore the relations between users of online platforms in terms of political leanings and gender. To this end, it will also discuss the damaging effects of online targeting and how it can exacerbate already existing political divisions between people. The paper will also discuss how the state uses legal instruments to surveil and regulate online activity as a way of maintaining its iron grip on the people." (Abstract)
more
"Through a meticulous empirical examination of the criminalization of the Turkish hacktivist group Redhack, Dogan explores the critical conflation of hacktivism with cyber-terrorism—by national security organizations and academic researchers alike —that enables states to criminalize non-violent
...
hacktivist groups. The paper’s empirical sources include interviews with Turkish security agents, legal and regulatory texts, and its theoretical grounding is a combination of literatures on moral panic, hacking, social movements, critical criminology, and framing analysis. In examining how Redhack constitutes an anomaly, and in exploring how anomalies point to the necessity of grounded, context-sensitive research, Dogan contributes conceptual development beyond Turkey and beyond hacktivism." (Page 1)
more
"This rapid literature review will focus on the influence of government communication on the government-media relationship. It does not encompass other avenues through which government is able to affect the media environment such as legislation, public policy and political culture. The role of the p
...
ublic media is briefly considered. This rapid literature review was able to find only one study, which examined the role of the government communication on media as part of a broader inquiry on the influence of government communication and public trust in the government of the United States (US) (Liu, Horsley, & Yang, 2012). Liu et al. (2012) found that there was a positive relationship between media interaction and good coverage of the US government. This finding suggests that governments may have an incentive to foster good relations with the media. The other main findings of the review are summarised below: Governments require a positive relationship with the media in order to communicate with the public and build legitimacy for their decisions (OECD, 2016); Media often rely on official government information, especially during war and conflict, and therefore need friendly relations with government to gain access to information (Yuksel, 2013); The engagement between elites, the media and the public is complex and is unlikely to be controlled or dominated by any particular set of actors (Yuksel, 2013); In some countries that were transitioning to democracy, development assistance for media has helped to foster media which is critical of the government, resulting in a tense relationship between media and government (Rub, 1996)" (Summary, page 2)
more
"This book explores the interplay between government and media drawing on unique evidence from, and in-depth analysis of, four national cases: Finland, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden. Based on the chapters dedicated to each country, five additional chapters address the following cross-national themes:
...
government communication, social media, formality/informality in journalist-source relations, mediatisation of politics, and political communication culture. The book reveals what really goes on between the political executive and the media in everyday practices within these countries. First, it uncovers a process of mediated political-cultural change within media-political systems. Second, it illustrates the work- ings of prime ministerial power and communication aides at this apex of political power and the media and those who work there. Third, it examines both the struggle within governing institutions to control the flow of information and the tensions between civil servants and political aides, and takes the reader through the four media-political con- texts rooted in a deep knowledge of these relationships." (Publisher description)
more
"Chinese authorities influence news media content around the world through three primary strategies: promoting the CCP’s narratives, suppressing critical viewpoints, and managing content delivery systems. These efforts have already undercut key features of democratic governance and best practices
...
for media freedom by undermining fair competition, interfering with Chinese diaspora communities, weakening the rule of law, and establishing channels for political meddling. Actions by policymakers and media development donors in democracies will play a critical role in coming years in countering the potential negative impact of Beijing’s foreign media influence campaigns." (Key findings)
more
"Al-Gama’a [The Society], a 28-part television biopic of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, was broadcast in the fall of 2010, just before the January 25, 2011 Revolution. The writer of the series, Wahid Hamid, was an important screenwriter for both television and the cinema and a figure k
...
nown for his affinity with the state’s security apparatus. Al-Gama’a functioned as a rhetorical capstone for decades of anti-Brotherhood state discourse. It also powerfully anticipated the anti-Brotherhood apologetics used to rationalize the Rab‘a massacre of 2013, which effectively ended the revolution and cemented the coup by ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi against Muhammad Morsy. The series enacted a historical narrative that was almost completely absent from Egypt’s formal educational curriculum, thereby furthering a political agenda of dehumanizing Islamists and effectively excommunicating them from the national community. Hence in 2013, a thousand Egyptians were slaughtered in a day, and yet many of their fellow citizens saw the event as destiny rather than as a crime against humanity." (Abtract)
more
"In contrast to earlier publications on Chinese propaganda and media, 'Chinese propaganda seducing the world' offers the first comprehensive analysis of propaganda from Mao to today. Here lies the book’s strength. The author, Jeanne Boden, holds a PhD in Oriental Languages and Cultures (Ghent Univ
...
ersity), and draws on years of experience studying the complexity of cross-cultural cooperation, in particular, between Europe and China. She has conducted an impressive analysis of more than 2,500 photographs of propaganda in public spaces all over China taken between 1994 and 2018, and, additionally, on other formats like propaganda movies, television programs, and myriad publications. Displayed throughout the book, these materials include gems such as the unique picture taken in Lhasa in 2002 with a Chinese propaganda slogan dating back to 1966–1976 (pp.61), the somewhat surreal Communist Party Theme Park (pp.82), or the striking example of a public humiliation campaign from during the Cultural Revolution that has been turned into a tourist commodity (pp.64). Substantial context is added to the analysis. For example, how “[c]onstruction itself has become a political measure of China’s success and growth and is therefore actively put to use for political purposes” (pp.31), or how “the absence of the idea of privacy in the socialist work unit paved the way for the technologically advanced control seen in China today” (pp.142)." (Review by Jono van Belle in: Communications, vol. 45:1, 2020)
more
"In this chapter we begin by surveying the digital political landscape, which has provided a fertile breeding ground for trolling as a state tool for suppression of dissenting ideas. We observe the tactical move by states from an ideology of information scarcity to one of information abundance, whic
...
h sees "speech itself as a censorial weapon" (Wu 2017). This era of information abundance has enabled states to sponsor and execute trolling attacks using ordinary internet users as well as volunteer, amateur and professional trolling institutions. Under the heading "The Anatomy of Patriotic Trolling," we outline salient patterns from more than 15 case studies across seven countries illustrating the common tools and tactics in state-sponsored trolling attacks. Drawing on campaigns across Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Ecuador, the Philippines, Turkey, Venezuela and the United States, we are able to establish the existence of a broader trend within which national variations occur. We then offer a framework for conceptualizing the responsibility of states for such attacks. We argue attribution is critical to elucidating remedies to state-sponsored trolling. As long as the role of governments in instigating or leveraging such campaigns is obscured, it will be impossible to advance effective technological or regulatory solutions. We conclude by offering some preliminary policy proposals, hoping this chapter will prompt a further debate about effective and necessary interventions." (Pages 503-504)
more
"Reflecting the remarkable changes in the world of propaganda due to the increasing use of social media, this updated Seventh Edition provides a systematic introduction to the increasingly complex world of propaganda. Viewing propaganda as a form of communication, the authors help you understand inf
...
ormation and persuasion so you can understand the characteristics of propaganda and how it works as a communication process. Providing provocative case studies and fascinating examples of the use of propaganda from ancient times up through the present day, Propaganda and Persuasion provides an original model that helps you analyze the instances of propaganda and persuasion you encounter in everyday life." (Publisher description)
more