"This study reviews and analyses what has already been documented on the links between radio-based communication strategies and rural development outcomes, particularly with regards to smallholder farming and food security outcomes. The report explores best radio practices, including issues related
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to optimal formats, schedules, production qualities, and station management, based on 17 case studies from India, the Philippines, Tanzania, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana, and South Africa. The key findings include: testimonials and jingles facilitate the best recall and comprehension of messages (Philippines); radio forums strengthen rural decision-making structures (Tanzania); radio programmes created by communities attract high listenership (Malawi); and farm radio is more effective when linked with new information and communication technologies (Ghana). The research also identified some knowledge gaps: the lack of evaluation as an integrated element in radio campaign planning; the need to conduct regular audience surveys; the limited use of non-participatory effectiveness studies and the limited scope of evaluations focusing on the impact of just one or two programmes." (CAMECO Update 5-2008)
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"This report investigates the impact media and ICTs can have on the lives of the poor, based on the experiences of nine donors and NGOs forming part of the "Building Communication Opportunities (BCO)" alliance. It suggests that radio will have the most influence on social and political change where
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it is widely accessible, trusted by listeners, and open to inclusive participation. ICTs can help make markets work for the poor, but the surrounding circumstances are highly influential in determining in how far they make a difference. Communication networks appear to be particularly effective in building communities of activists where they enable the pooling of resources and expertise and leverage wider influence on decision-makers. However, the report concludes that evidence of the impact of ICTs is still weak. More debate is needed about how ICTs are best deployed. This requires learning how people really use the tools, as well as a more effective assessment of past and current experiences." (CAMECO Update 1-2009)
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"There have been an estimated 3.8 billion mobile phones in the world in 2008 and most of the growth has been taking place in the Global South. 15 million people in Africa now individually own mobile phones but do not have access to a TV at home. A higher percentage of Kenyans use mobile commerce tha
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n Americans or Finns. More Jamaicans access the web from mobiles than from desktop computers. The publication provides a roadmap for media professionals on how to navigate the world of mobile media, based on in-depth interviews with media executives and technologists, and extensive research into latest best practice. It points to areas of potential like free-to-use short message service (SMS), Bulk SMS gateways to deliver messaging to networks, M-Commerce, mobile news alerts and voice-driven information services. Apart from many concrete examples both in the South and the North, the publication also includes summaries of mobile market conditions in 20 countries across the developing world. For media considering entering the mobile market, it suggests that mobile Internet access will continue to increase and that text (rather than voice) messaging is growing. It recommends starting one's own mobile news outlet rather than feeding news to others." (CAMECO Update 1-2009)
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"The essays in this volume reflect a wide-range of issues and concerns related to children’s media culture in Africa. For example, several address the role of entertainment television in Addis Abba, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, and Zambia and in the lives of Muslim children. Other essays introduce
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us to children-centered media from Ghana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, and the innovative programs of PLAN-International. In addition to entertainment media and children-centered media, media education and digital media literacy are also discussed." (Publisher description)
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"A handful of members and persons close to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Indonesia’s most prominent extremist organisation, have developed a profitable publishing consortium in and around the pesantren (religious school) founded by Abu Bakar Ba’asyir and Abdullah Sungkar in Solo, Central Java. The cons
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ortium has become an important vehicle for the dissemination of jihadi thought, getting cheap and attractively printed books into mosques, bookstores and discussion groups. The publishing venture demonstrates JI’s resilience and the extent to which radical ideology has developed roots in Indonesia. The Indonesian government should monitor these enterprises more closely, but they may be playing a useful role by channelling JI energies into waging jihad through the printed page rather than acts of violence." (Executive summary)
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"Las prácticas y experiencias sobre acceso a la información y participación ciudadana que se reseñan en este documento reflejan ciertos avances hacia un fortalecimiento del sistema de control, lo que resulta imprescindible para una gobernabilidad incluyente. Sin embargo, el relevamiento indica t
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ambién que los estados no han dado pasos incontestables, sino que se trata de medidas aisladas que sólo logran conformar –aunque de manera incompleta– un cuadro cuando se las combina con las que han tomado los demás. La experiencia también demuestra que los poderes políticos no tienen incentivos para producir reformas integrales." (Observaciones finales, página 31)
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"This volume the consequences of digital media use for young people's individual and social identities. The contributors explore how young people use digital media to share ideas and creativity and to participate in networks that are small and large, local and global, intimate and anonymous. They lo
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ok at the emergence of new genres and forms, from SMS and instant messaging to home pages, blogs, and social networking sites. They discuss such topics as “girl power” online, the generational digital divide, young people and mobile communication, and the appeal of the “digital publics” of MySpace, considering whether these media offer young people genuinely new forms of engagement, interaction, and communication." (Back cover)
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"This volume examines the core issues that arise when digital media use results in unintended learning experiences and unanticipated social encounters. The contributors examine the complex mix of emergent practices and developments online and elsewhere that empower young users to function as drivers
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of technological change, recognizing that these new technologies are embedded in larger social systems, school, family, friends. The chapters consider such topics as (un)equal access across economic, racial, and ethnic lines; media panics and social anxieties; policy and Internet protocols; media literacy; citizenship vs. consumption; creativity and collaboration; digital media and gender equity; shifting notions of temporality; and defining the public/private divide." (Back cover)
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"Young people today have grown up living substantial portions of their lives online, seeking entertainment, social relationships, and a place to express themselves. It is clear that participation in online communities is important for many young people, but less clear how this translates into civic
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or political engagement. This volume examines the relationship of online action and real-world politics. The contributors discuss not only how online networks might inspire conventional political participation but also how creative uses of digital technologies are expanding the boundaries of politics and public issues. Do protests in gaming communities, music file sharing, or fan petitioning of music companies constitute political behavior? Do the communication skills and patterns of action developed in these online activities transfer to such offline realms as voting and public protests? Civic Life Online describes the many forms of civic life online that could predict a generation's political behavior." (Back cover)
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"This book includes 17 articles on the current state of communication for development from renowned communication practitioners and scholars. It covers five areas: an introduction to the relationship between development, participation and communication; the theoretical underpinnings of development c
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ommunication; the development communication strategies of international institutions like UNESCO, FAO and UNICEF; concrete experiences in HIV/AIDS communication and the concepts behind; and case studies on community media and media projects in conflict areas. The special value of this book is that the project examples are not just presented in a descriptive manner, but analyzed in detail according to the underlying communication concepts. In addition, various contributions trace the history of participatory communication approaches to development. This is a revised and updated version of a 2003 UNESCO publication called Approaches to Development: Studies on Communication for Development." (CAMECO Update 4-2008)
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"This book takes a unique and comprehensive look at how the international community, led by the US, responded to ten humanitarian crises of the last decade and how major media outlets played a role in influencing (or failing to influence) action. Crises examined include Liberia, East Timor, Somalia,
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Sudan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Angola, Haiti, and the Congo. Soderlund and Briggs apply the same analytic method to each case to discover why the international community was unwilling, time and time again, to address this new brand of conflict that appeared at the time." (Publisher description)
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"In the many studies of games and young people's use of them, little has been written about an overall “ecology” of gaming, game design and play—mapping the ways that all the various elements, from coding to social practices to aesthetics, coexist in the game world. This volume looks at games
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as systems in which young users participate, as gamers, producers, and learners. The Ecology of Games aims to expand upon and add nuance to the debate over the value of games—which so far has been vociferous but overly polemical and surprisingly shallow. Game play is credited with fostering new forms of social organization and new ways of thinking and interacting; the contributors work to situate this within a dynamic media ecology that has the participatory nature of gaming at its core. They look at the ways in which youth are empowered through their participation in the creation, uptake, and revision of games; emergent gaming literacies, including modding, world-building, and learning how to navigate a complex system; and how games act as points of departure for other forms of knowledge, literacy, and social organization." (Back cover)
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"This book is a contribution to efforts to improve governance systems around the world, particularly in developing countries. It offers a range of innovative approaches and techniques for dealing with the most important nontechnical challenges that prevent many of those efforts from being successful
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or sustainable. By so doing, the book sets out the groundwork for governance reform initiatives. Its overarching argument is that the development community is not lacking the tools needed for technical solutions to governance challenges. The toolbox is overflowing; best practice manuals in various areas of interest tumble out of seminars and workshops. However, difficulties arise when attempts are made to apply what are often excellent technical solutions under real-world conditions. Human beings, acting either alone or in groups small and large, are not as amenable as are pure numbers. And they cannot be put aside. In other words, in the real world, reforms will not succeed, and they will certainly not be sustained, without the correct alignment of citizens, stakeholders, and voice." (Introduction, page 1)
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